The Nets were on the clock long before they picked up Cameron Thomas at No. 27 in the 2021 NBA Draft.
Their timer started tick-tock-tick-tocking the second Kevin Durant touched the floor with a healthy Achilles, and that timer fast-forwarded with the blockbuster mid-season trade for James Harden.
The Nets are competing for a championship, and championship teams don’t usually try to fold rookie players into their current plans. Instead, we’ve seen a history of contenders packaging those first-round picks in deals for a veteran player who can make an immediate impact.
The Nets, however, had five picks in the draft: two first-round picks (Nos. 27 and 29) and three second-rounders (Nos. 44, 49 and 59). They acquired pick No. 29 from the Suns in a deal that sent reserve sharpshooter Landry Shamet to Phoenix in exchange for reserve guard Jevon Carter.
Thomas was the best available player at no. 27 on many draft boards and was a volume shooter at LSU, where he averaged 23 points per game on seven three-point attempts per game as a freshman — the fifth-highest scoring freshman in the last 25 years behind Trae Young, Michael Beasley, Markelle Fultz and Durant.
Thomas was a talented scorer, and the selection adds depth to a Nets team that just traded away Shamet and is expected to lose Spencer Dinwiddie in free agency. He slides nicely into the sixth man role, if the Nets end up keeping the pick.
Thomas’ talent may suggest they do, as many had the LSU shooter going earlier in the draft.
