Since the season started, the Milwaukee Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo have been at the center of trade rumors. The Bucks have resisted trading away their franchise star, and while Antetokounmpo has expressed a desire to stay, he has also stated that he wants to compete for championships.
Whether or not he realizes that he can’t stay and compete with Milwaukee is another conversation, but the franchise has tried to do whatever it took to get their superstar to stay committed to them over the last few months.
From waiving and stretching Damian Lillard’s contract to bring in Myles Turner to attempting to trade Bobby Portis and Kyle Kuzma for upgrades at the deadline, general manager Jon Horst has explored all ways to contend with Antetokounmpo. His latest move was signing former Nets guard Cam Thomas. Thomas does offer microwave scoring ability, but one thing is clear about his long-term future in Milwaukee.
Cam Thomas does not fix any of the Bucks’ problems and is not a long-term solution at guard
It has been the same story with Thomas ever since he came into the league. He is a great scorer that can go off for 40 or more on any given night. He has a creative handle, is a very efficient jumpshooter, and is a smooth operator in the mid-range. The name of the game is getting buckets, but it’s also about what else you can do to make an impact. Thomas does not offer much else outside of scoring.
He is not a willing playmaker, as he oftentimes dribbles the air out of the ball and it leads to possessions that go deep into the shot clock. It messes up the flow of the offense.
Additionally, Thomas is an extremely poor defender. Whether it’s on the ball or off the ball, Thomas’ deficiencies on that end are crippling. The Nets had a 124.9 defensive rating and a -10.3 net rating with him on the floor. When he was off, the overall net rating only climbed to -7.2, but the defensive rating was nearly seven points better.
Thomas feels like more of a band-aid solution than a long-term fit for Milwaukee. They need to surround Antetokounmpo with more two-way talent, specifically in the backcourt. The best iteration of the Bucks was when they had two-way guards and shooting around their superstar. Maybe Thomas will change his ways now that he is in a new situation, but it is not realistic to count on that.