CAM’S THE REAL DEAL
Net impresses in preseason debut
Summer League performances are usually taken with a grain of salt. After all, for every John Wall, Damian Lillard and Blake Griffin — three former Summer League MVPs who went to have careers peppered with All-Star appearances — there’s a Josh Selby, a Glen Rice Jr., a Tyus Jones, players whose careers never live up to the hype.
So when Nets’ standout rookie Cam Thomas won Summer League Co-MVP honors with Sacramento’s Davion Mitchell this summer, it was a nod to his potential as a lightning-rod scorer, but history has shown it can go either way. Today’s Summer League MVP could be tomorrow’s NBA superstar, or tomorrow’s role player, or tomorrow’s Shanghai Shark.
Thomas is no Shanghai Shark, and it’s becoming increasingly clear his future is destined for more than a complementary role. In his first official NBA game, albeit a preseason exhibition outing, the Nets’ first-round pick out of LSU stole the show at Staples Center.
“Scoring is scoring. I don’t know why people don’t think stuff can’t translate (from college, to Summer League, to the pros),” he said confidently. “If you can score, you can score. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing against.”
The conditions were favorable for a breakout performance: lead scorers Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, James Harden and Patty Mills watched from the sidelines, and while Jevon Carter got the start at point guard, Thomas’ timer started ticking at tipoff.
And he picked up exactly where he left off in Las Vegas, when no player could guard him one-on-one, when every shot he put up looked like money before it dropped. Thomas scored 21 points in 22 minutes and shot 7-of-14 from the field and 6-of-7 from the line. After Thomas powered the Nets to a 123-97 victory over the Lakers on Sunday, coach Steve Nash took his star guard out with a 25-point fourth quarter lead. As if he were the superstar this team wanted to protect from injury.
“Cam can score. We know he’s a guy that can get to his shot and make shots,” Nash said. “He made some tonight. But in general, (I’m) just happy with the level of transfer from training camp.”
In truth, the damage had already been done, if not to the scoreboard, then most certainly to Laker egos. After all, Wayne Ellington and Rajon Rondo are regarded as high-quality veteran defenders who have routinely stopped on All-Stars hell-bent on scoring.
Yet Thomas noticed from the moment he stepped on the floor that the Lakers were giving up the mid-range. That was a flaw on the part of Frank Vogel, who clearly hadn’t scouted Thomas well enough to know that the pull-up jumper and driving floater are his bread and butter inside the three-point line.
That observation put Ellington on the menu at Staples Center, when a hungry Thomas dusted his man with a hesi-crossover-stepback two combo that left the veteran forward stuck in the mud.
Later in the same quarter, Thomas Euro-stepped for a floater finish around Rondo, who was in position to take a charge. He was unstoppable all night, even if the Lakers rested Russell Westbrook and LeBron James.
Thomas found ways to make plays where there appeared to be no path forward. Anthony Davis nearly picked the rookie’s pocket in the first quarter, but Thomas recovered the ball, turned to face the basket and got a top-of-the-key shot up before the clock expired.
Of course, that shot was over Ellington’s arm, too, and it’s the shot the rookie said got him in rhythm for the rest of the game.
Mid-range jump shot. End of clock. I had a clear look, and I just tried to get it up as quick as I could and it went in,” Thomas said. “That’s a normal shot.”
Thomas found himself matchup against Ellington again at the top of the second quarter, this time in the corner. This is where his second observation came into play. Yes, he noticed the Lakers were giving up the mid-range, but he also noticed they were icing him on side pick-androlls. ICE is a defensive technique that aims to take the sideline pickand-roll away by having the on-ball defender angle himself in the path of, and even making contact with, the screener.
So Thomas faked taking a LaMarcus Aldridge screen, then brought it back right and sidestepped baseline for a shot over Ellington’s contest. If it’s chess not checkers, the rookie looked like a grandmaster, against legitimate NBA competition.