NEW YORK — Brooklyn Nets guard Cam Thomas has been a player with a lot of promise, but little opportunity. Thomas had to be in the shadow of the Kevin Durant/Kyrie Irving for the first one-and-a-half years of his career before having to take a backseat for the second half of last season because of how much changed after the trade deadline.
The 2023-24 season looked to be more of the same as Thomas was going to be coming off the bench again. However, Wednesday’s home opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers showed that this season could be different for Thomas. Thomas scored 36 points off the bench in Brooklyn’s 114-113 loss and that was the most that a player has scored off the bench in a season opener in NBA history.
“It was good, obviously,” Thomas said when asked how he felt about his historic performance against the Cavaliers. He had quite the night as he achieved some milestones such as: scoring 15 points in the first quarter (most for him in a first quarter in his career), scoring 24 points in the first half (tied for the most by a Net bench player since Mirza Teletovic did it in 2014), and of course, the aforementioned NBA record.
Thomas was getting wherever he wanted to on the floor and with the way that the Nets struggled to consistently score on offense, he came up big at the most important time. One thing that’s evident is that whenever Thomas is needed to put points on the board, he can do that and then some. More to the point, Thomas scored 36 points while Brooklyn’s starters scored 48 points combined.
Whether Thomas starts at any point this season is a mystery for now. The way he sees it, he’s just doing his job and he’s always going to stay ready. “Obviously, you want to win. But, it’s always good to reflect on what you did well… It was only one game, you know? I’m big on consistency, so, I’m gonna just flush this and get on with the next game (the Dallas Mavericks on Friday) so I’m not really worried about this game,” Thomas said.
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