Take yourself back to the summer of 2009. It was a big year: the beginning of Obam's historical first term, the passing of Michael Jackson, Minecraft had just dropped, swine flu first propagated in what can only be called horrifying foreshadowing in retrospect. In the NBA, Kobe had just won his first post-Shaq ring, Dwight Howard was still the greatest center in the world, and he and the ahead-of-their-time Magic had robbed us of the LeBron/Kobe showdown we all wanted.
Meanwhile, in Sacramento, the Kings finished the season 17-65, at the bottom of the NBA. They were fresh into a rebuild off the retirement of Shareef Abdur-Rahim and the trading of Mike Bibby to Atlanta the year prior. The lone bright spot? Their smooth shooting jersey slinging guard of the future, Kevin Martin. And shoot Martin did: his 24.6 points per game was good for 7th in the league, just behind the 20-year-old KD in OKC, and a full three spots ahead of Denver Melo (fun fact, in a year dominated by the Kobe v LeBron wet dream, it was Dwyane Wade who won the '09 scoring title -- put some respect on his name).
However, outside of the city of Sacramento (and most likely inside, too), fans could not be fooled into thinking that Kevin Martin brought anything but low-efficiency, one-dimensional, inefficient scoring to the Kings. For reference, his Player Efficiency Rating at 19.2 put him fifteen spots lower than Phoenix-era Shaq. Gross. And not publication rankings mean a lot, but it's worth noting that the league's seventh leading scorer was nowhere close to sniffing the rankings of SLAM's Top 50 NBA players until he was in a Rockets uniform two years later. Even then, most eagle-eyed fans knew to not be drawn in by big numbers for garbage teams.
Such as it should be, and largely is, for Cam Thomas
Thomas and the Nets haven't made many headlines since Mikal Bridges' post-Phoenix trade explosion. In fact, the last thing the Nets did to make the news was drafting five rookies in the first round.
That is, until Cam Thomas fully crashed out over Zach Lowe's comments on his play.
The consenus? F*** you and the consensus @ZachLowe_NBA . This is most likely the same consensus teams who can’t guard me and send double teams from jump ball . Why are we double teaming a guy who's “not that good” make it make sense please. https://t.co/IrHNVHYqTc
— Cam Thomas (@24_camthomas) July 18, 2025
Now, granted, Thomas is currently embroiled in a contract negotiation with the organization, so tensions are probably a little high. And to his credit, the Nets are at least vocally 100 percent behind their leading scorer, according to the report by Spotrac NBA Insider Keith Smith.
But from what can be gathered surrounding the silence around Thomas' restricted free agency, the bugaboo is that he is unwilling to take a contract that values him under the likes of Tyler Herro, Immanuel Quickley, and RJ Barrett. Numbers-wise, that would slot Thomas in around the $30 million salary mark per year.
But here's the thing: Thomas might be worth that much on paper and in jersey sales, but the Nets are in a new area and searching for on-court leadership. And there is a reason Zach Lowe doubled down on his take on his eponymous show.
The reason is that the controversial take that Cam Thomas is sort of empty calorie scoring is not all that controversial. He is Kevin Martin with a better handle. And if you're an advanced stats nerd, he's lowkey worse. Had Thomas qualified in quantity for the stat leaderboards last season, his 32.6 usage rate would have had him top four in the league, above Ant Edwards, LeBron, and Nikola Jokic. In that time, the Nets outpaced the '09 Kings by 9 wins (26-56) and Thomas' win shares per 48 minutes were still lower than Kevin Martin's. He simply doesn't contribute as much to winning as his stats would indicate. And Cam? Your assists brag in response to this type of criticism is not the flex you think it is.
Let's put it another way. You remember the outrage surrounding KD's move to the Warriors? How insane he seemed? Well, KD still won a Finals MVP for the greatest roster assembled in NBA history (don't @ me). How would we all react to KD if he was miles less efficient for a basement-dwelling team, knowing how chronically online he must be to do so?
Cam Thomas is itching to be respected like a star, like a leader. Then it's on him to grow his game and lead.
Otherwise, he'll just be 2009 Kevin Martin.