Before Thursday’s trade deadline, a rumor last week linked the Bucks with former Nets guard Cam Thomas, primarily from HoopsHype’s Mike Scotto. While the contract isn’t public yet, usually post-deadline signings are for the veteran’s minimum, which would be about $905k for Thomas over the remainder of the year. Milwaukee can use the minimum salary exception to add him, and their cap hit would be $846k in that case. They had an open roster spot after waiving Nigel Hayes-Davis on Thursday evening, hours after acquiring him and Ousmane Dieng in exchange for Cole Anthony and Amir Coffey.
The 24-year-old Thomas spent four and a half seasons as a Net, after they selected him 27th overall in 2021. He first broke into their rotation during the latter years of the KD/Kyrie squads as a microwave scorer off their bench, moving into the starting lineup in his third campaign. In 2023–24, he assumed the mantle of their leading scorer the year after Kevin Durant was traded to Phoenix with 22.5 PPG and 2.9 APG on .442/.364/.881 shooting over 66 games (51 starts), but on subpar efficiency. Last season, he missed 57 contests with a left hamstring injury that held him out for three months, then ended his year six games after his late February returned. He’d been averaging a career-high 24.0 PPG. In each campaign, he put up 18+ attempts per game, so he’s earned a reputation as a chucker.
Perhaps due to that, Thomas didn’t receive any multiyear offers after hitting restricted free agency last offseason, including from the Nets. The 6’3” LSU alum therefore took the qualifying offer, giving him the ability to veto trades during 2025–26. He’s appeared in 24 contests for the Nets, starting only eight, with scoring (15.6 PPG), rebounding (1.8 RPG), and shooting (.399/.325/.843) numbers down across the board and his typical 3.1 APG. He also strained that same hammy in November, knocking him out for 20 games until just before New Years. After two years averaging 31+ MPG, he was down to 24.3 this year. Recognizing Brooklyn didn’t envision him as part of his future given the lack of an offer last summer, he surely would have waived that right had the Nets found a deal for him last week, but they couldn’t get anything done. He missed the team’s flight on February 4th, listed as out with “personal reasons,” which many speculated to be a pending move.
The initial Scotto rumor also liked Thomas to the Cavs, echoing a trade idea Jackson proposed between them, the Bucks, and Nets. Scotto mentioned that Cleveland discussed a Thomas trade that would have sent Lonzo Ball (since traded to Utah and waived) and “second-round draft compensation” to Brooklyn. Those talks didn’t progress, and the Nets waived Thomas very shortly after the 2 p.m. Central deadline on Thursday. That’s apparently what he was hoping for, telling Andscape’s Marc Spears:
“Super excited ready to actually help and contribute to another team. My next team is getting elite scoring, good play-making and a good combo guard… I picked Milwaukee because they wanted me and they told me they’ve been interested for years now. So, it’s good to have this opportunity come to fruition. And I’m just hoping to meet everybody, get to know everybody and contribute as soon as possible.”
It’s worth noting that Milwaukee also has about $3m remaining on its room exception this season (the rest of it was used to sign Kevin Porter Jr. to a new contract last July), and could use that to outbid other Thomas suitors. But given the mutual interest between Thomas and the Bucks, it’s probably a minimum contract. Since he is changing teams in free agency, Milwaukee will have Non-Bird rights on him this offseason, so their next contract could only give him a 20% raise on his new salary—a fair bit less than the $6m Brooklyn is still paying him this season. For anything more, they’d need to use a different exception, like the mid-level or bi-annual.
Getting a scorer as talented as Thomas, despite his inefficiency, for next to nothing is certainly a steal. What’s more interesting is what this means for Milwaukee moving forward this season. On their first three-game winning streak of the season, their competition before the break is more serious than the cellar-dwelling Pelicans and Pacers. Still, at just 21-29, they’re 2.5 games back of Charlotte—whom they have a tiebreaker over after winning the season series 3-1—for the East’s final play-in spot. So the hill is still steep, if they choose to climb it.
Thomas can only score, doesn’t defend, and while he’s right that he can play-make, it’s really only for himself. He probably will help more than he hurts the rest of the year, but maybe not to a great extent. Mainly, he’ll give the moribund Bucks offense (24th in ORtg per Cleaning The Glass) a definite boost whenever he’s on the floor, and the Bucks are simply not good enough to not add talent. I wonder about his future, though: he’ll be an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career this summer, and will certainly be trying to raise his stock after a disappointing last year or so in Brooklyn, which impacted his market last summer. Giannis has complained about selfish play from his teammates and how guys are playing for their next contracts; few would call Thomas unselfish, and he’s hoping for a multiyear deal come July. So perhaps he isn’t a good long-term fit if Giannis sticks around. But a new team-friendly deal over two years (at most) could be tradable, especially if it has a team option.
One more note: many assumed that up-and-coming big man Pete Nance would be converted from his two-way contract to a standard deal (Milwaukee currently has one two-way spot open) for that final roster spot. While that could happen yet, if the Bucks were to open a spot by waiving Gary Harris, Gary Trent Jr., or Jericho Sims, they’d have to stretch their 2026–27 salary over three more years. That’s because each of them has a player option for next season, which is counted as guaranteed money. Nance has 21 games of two-way eligibility remaining, having been active for 29 so far this year.
