Cam Thomas fires back at Zach Lowe and his haters

[Calvin Klein]

I was out on cam thomas when a reporter told him on live television, that steve nash, arguably the GREATEST playmaker of all time, and one of the offensive goats(also his coach) suggested hey maybe he needs to pass some more, this guy rolled his eyes.

He doesn't get it.

TBF, Nash should have shot more.

Nash teams did worse when he shot more because the ball didnt move as much. Same as jokic.

[Plutonashfan]

And that is exactly how you DON'T respond to criticism. It's a master class in what not to do.

Exactly! Especially unlike his former colleagues at ESPN Lowe actually knows his $hit and doesn't make personal attacks. I actually think Cam has been held back due to some past coaches personal grudges but ultimately he just seems like the type of player that better in Fantasy rather then real life.

[JonFromVA]

Cam is second on the team in TOTAL assists, there's a bunch of Nets with more assists per game. Some players and fans just have a very narrow focus of what the game is about ... remember when Kyrie said setting up teammates was 23's job?

[JoseRizal]

But there's the rub, right away.

Is it very impressive?

This year, he FINALLY managed an important feat: he was close to league-average efficiency. He was only -0.1% relative to league average. He was a 100 TS+ guy for the first time, after posting 92, 98 and 96 TS+ in his first three seasons. He was still a -0.7 TSAdd player. And he only played 25 games, so it may well have evened out over the remainder of the season.

There's nothing about his scoring which merits any kind of special attention. He's a decent 3pt shooter, he's an excellent FT shooter, he's very good at getting to the line, and generally a pretty good/above average mid-range scorer, but he's pretty bad finishing inside and he's atrocious at getting to the rim, which is why his efficiency hasn't been good.

The short version of all that is that he actually isn't very impressive as a scorer at all, but he does have a loud mouth and an insecurity issue.

If you watched the Nets you would know that he generally gets nothing from the refs while being continually hacked

I am glad that the Nets aren’t overpaying him but there’s not a lot of difference between he and say Maxey who received 5/204

Ok the Maxey comparison is a big stretch

Tyrese is a lot smarter/more refined offensively while being way less problematic defensively

The same Maxey who gets exposed and who's efficiency noticeably dips without Embiid playing beside him? He only became an all-star due to Embiid's presence and gravity, ala Mo Williams in 2009.

They're in the same category if you ask me. Not the archetype player you build your team around on. The difference is one is overpaid, while the other is trying to be as well..

[tsherkin]

If you watched the Nets you would know that he generally gets nothing from the refs while being continually hacked

He's a 118 FTr+ guy on his career, 137 FTr+ over his brief stretch this past season. In his second year, he was a .382 FTr guy for 57 games (143 FTr+).

It's a straight-up lie that he doesn't get anything from the refs, he's actually VERY good at drawing fouls. There is, however, a limit to how much you're going to get when you barely make it into the RA, and don't drive as much as the guys who draw better.

He isn't Harden, but let me put this into perspective. In the past two seasons, there are 13 player-seasons of guys playing 40+ games, shooting 15+ times per game (Cam has been at 18+ FGA/g in both) and managing a .400+ FTr. Two of them have been Shai, two of them have been Giannis, two of them have been Trae, two of them have been AD, and then Harden, Paolo Banchero, Demar DeRozan, Damian Lillard, and Zion are the others. And basically all of those guys drive a lot more than Cam. And AD when healthy is a fairly crazy lob threat/roll man and so forth.

So yeah, this notion that Cam doesn't get calls isn't factually accurate. There are assuredly possessions you remember from watching him play in volume where he didn't get a call, I don't mean to dismiss that, but his actual average rate of drawing fouls is very strong, particularly given how poor he is at getting all the way to the rim.

I will agree, Maxey looked a lot worse without Embiid, and he lost the value of his 3 this year as he set his new career-high in volume. He's also shot much worse inside the arc these past two seasons than in his second and third years. They've been quite similar in efficiency the last little while, but the big difference is that Maxey isn't a pretty good penetrate-and-pitch playmaker and Cam has a LOT of work to do on his vision and passing.

[GeorgeMarcus]

If you watched the Nets you would know that he generally gets nothing from the refs while being continually hacked

I am glad that the Nets aren’t overpaying him but there’s not a lot of difference between he and say Maxey who received 5/204

Ok the Maxey comparison is a big stretch

Tyrese is a lot smarter/more refined offensively while being way less problematic defensively

The same Maxey who gets exposed and who's efficiency noticeably dips without Embiid playing beside him? He only became an all-star due to Embiid's presence and gravity, ala Mo Williams in 2009.

They're in the same category if you ask me. Not the archetype player you build your team around on. The difference is one is overpaid, while the other is trying to be as well..

Nah man it's not close. Maxey is fringe all star level, hence not being able to carry bench players without Embiid. Cam on the other hand has been overwhelmingly negative on the court. Even if Maxey was Mo Williams (he's better), Cam isn't close to that

Maxey averages more than double Thomas' assist per turnover ratio. He's a better defender (4 or 5 outta 10 compared to a legit 1 or 2). He averages more points on better efficiency. He has much better impact stats (there's even a big disparity in on/off despite Thomas playing with G league teammates)

It really isn't close

[JonFromVA]

Ok the Maxey comparison is a big stretch

Tyrese is a lot smarter/more refined offensively while being way less problematic defensively

The same Maxey who gets exposed and who's efficiency noticeably dips without Embiid playing beside him? He only became an all-star due to Embiid's presence and gravity, ala Mo Williams in 2009.

They're in the same category if you ask me. Not the archetype player you build your team around on. The difference is one is overpaid, while the other is trying to be as well..

Nah man it's not close. Maxey is fringe all star level, hence not being able to carry bench players without Embiid. Cam on the other hand has been overwhelmingly negative on the court. Even if Maxey was Mo Williams (he's better), Cam isn't close to that

Maxey averages more than double Thomas' assist per turnover ratio. He's a better defender (4 or 5 outta 10 compared to a legit 1 or 2). He averages more points on better efficiency. He has much better impact stats (there's even a big disparity in on/off despite Thomas playing with G league teammates)

It really isn't close

Maxey is a very good player and the Sixers were still far better with him on the floor than off this past season, but fans and media were starting to rank him over Darius Garland which I thought was premature given the Embiid effect.

Cam, otoh, has a long ways to become close to either player and I doubt he has the BBIQ to ever get there.

[QMemphis]

Love Zach Lowe but Cam got the right to defend himself. Zach killed that mane on the podcast lol.

[Sixers in 4]

If you watched the Nets you would know that he generally gets nothing from the refs while being continually hacked

I am glad that the Nets aren’t overpaying him but there’s not a lot of difference between he and say Maxey who received 5/204

Ok the Maxey comparison is a big stretch

Tyrese is a lot smarter/more refined offensively while being way less problematic defensively

The same Maxey who gets exposed and who's efficiency noticeably dips without Embiid playing beside him? He only became an all-star due to Embiid's presence and gravity, ala Mo Williams in 2009.

They're in the same category if you ask me. Not the archetype player you build your team around on. The difference is one is overpaid, while the other is trying to be as well..

Cam Thomas has never shown he can be efficient ever. Saying they're in the same category is laughable.

Cam Thomas needs to show he can play efficient basketball. Kelly Oubre averaged 20 points prior to coming to the sixers. Noone cared because he just chucked the basketball on a bad team. He still hasn't shown he can be efficient and still hasn't gotten a major contract that is Cam Thomas.

Well with the exception of the defense Oubre at least tries. Cam Thomas is a losing player. The whole league knows it instead of chasing stats he should be chasing wins, playing winning efficient basketball, and at least giving effort on the defensive end then the money will come

[Pantsman]

Love Zach Lowe but Cam got the right to defend himself. Zach killed that mane on the podcast lol.

Zach is one of the most positive and intelligent guys in sports media. If he goes hard on someone then they deserve it.

[axeman23]

I lol'ed reading him say "f*** you" and "please" in the same sentence.

[QMemphis]

Love Zach Lowe but Cam got the right to defend himself. Zach killed that mane on the podcast lol.

Zach is one of the most positive and intelligent guys in sports media. If he goes hard on someone then they deserve it.

I’m not sure if skipped over me saying I love Zach lol. But again Cam has the right to defend himself, Zach dogged him on the pod unlike I have witnessed him dog any player.

[MN7725]

Love Zach Lowe but Cam got the right to defend himself. Zach killed that mane on the podcast lol.

Zach is one of the most positive and intelligent guys in sports media. If he goes hard on someone then they deserve it.

Zach wasn't that negative, i have no idea what people are talking about

The headline negative thing he said was that the "consensus" from NBA people he talks to was Cam was empty calories, not really his opinion, more of reporting what hes heard

Zach giving his own opinion:
Cam's defense was "ew"
Cam was a pass- as -last -resort, and even that wasn't harsh because he said that those passes work alot given how much attention Cam draws
ultimately he wasn't sure if Cam was more than a really good bench scorer on a really good team, didn't think he was a solid starter on a contending team

He wasn't anymore negative on Cam than he was on Giddey, Kuminga who they had discussed previously. Just pointing out what they were good at, what they were bad at or needed to improve, and ultimately why they weren't going to get the big contracts they were expecting (mainly because of RFA, lack of cap space)

[MN7725]

Love Zach Lowe but Cam got the right to defend himself. Zach killed that mane on the podcast lol.

Zach is one of the most positive and intelligent guys in sports media. If he goes hard on someone then they deserve it.

I’m not sure if skipped over me saying I love Zach lol. But again Cam has the right to defend himself, Zach dogged him on the pod unlike I have witnessed him dog any player.

Watch on YouTube

time stamp of this?

Cam talk starts at 1:17:07, lasts about 9 minutes

[Black Jack]

0/10 effort

Cam should have created a burner, that's what stars do

[QMemphis]

Zach is one of the most positive and intelligent guys in sports media. If he goes hard on someone then they deserve it.

I’m not sure if skipped over me saying I love Zach lol. But again Cam has the right to defend himself, Zach dogged him on the pod unlike I have witnessed him dog any player.

Watch on YouTube

time stamp of this?

Cam talk starts at 1:17:07, lasts about 9 minutes

I listened to the pod in full lol not sure why you posted but he dogged him pretty much calling him a losing player. Saying that a guy on the free agency market is a losing player certainly can hurt a guys market. Why would it be crazy to think the player took offense to it.