Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic <\/p>\n
Cam Thomas is convinced he should\u2019ve been in the Most Improved Player Award conversation this past season. But his biggest improvements \u2014 passing and defense \u2014 weren\u2019t just unheralded; they were unseen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI should definitely be top three [for Most Improved], going from barely playing in the rotation and having little spurts in the season to going all the way up an 11-point jump to 22 points per game,\u201d the Nets guard said. \u201cAny other year, that goes noticed; but this year, it\u2019s gone unnoticed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I feel like when you have a jump like that in all aspects, if you watch the games you see how I\u2019m guarded and all the other stuff. I should definitely be in the top three of that conversation. \u2026 [But] we probably didn\u2019t win enough games.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Therein lies the rub. <\/p>\n
The Nets\u2019 sad 32-50 season saw Thomas relegated to just seventh for the award.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 76ers\u2019 Tyrese Maxey won the award. Coby White of the Bulls was second and the Rockets\u2019 Alperen Sengun was third.<\/p>\n
The young guard emerged with 22.5 points per game, his quantum leap from just 10.6 points the year prior the biggest in the NBA and largest in franchise history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thomas\u2019 8.5 turnover percentage was surprisingly clean considering the offensive burden he carried. <\/p>\n
The only guards in league history with lower percentages and a similar 30 percent usage rate: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2023-24), Tracy McGrady (2002-03), George Gervin (1981-82) and Michael Jordan (four times).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thomas\u2019 offense has never been in doubt. <\/p>\n
The steps he\u2019s needed to take \u2014 and will have to keep taking next season \u2014 were in his defense and playmaking. If a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, then a player is only as good as his flaws \u2014 and those have clearly been his.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, Cam had a heck of a year. I\u2019m not saying anything that anybody didn\u2019t see for themselves,\u201d Nets general manager Sean Marks said. \u201cI really was intrigued about the responsibility Cam took in his own development, in terms of we all knew he could go get a bucket, we all knew the confidence that he plays with, which some of that to be quite honest can\u2019t be taught. So it\u2019s innately who he is and how he\u2019s built.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s him being a facilitator out there, him playing with others, him making other people look good. And we saw that over the course of the year, taking a little bit more emphasis on the defensive side of the ball, too, scrapping for loose balls, getting in there for defensive rebounds. So I\u2019ve got to give Cam a lot of credit, because his game has developed over the course of last year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
While Thomas is under contract next season for $4 million, the Nets can give him an extension this summer that would kick in for 2025-26. <\/p>\n
But just like the 76ers did with Maxey, there are salary-cap advantages to waiting and re-upping Thomas as a restricted free agent in a year when analyst Yossi Gozlan estimated he could get between $20 million and $25 million annually.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For perspective, Thomas allowed a troublesome 1.727 points per possession against the roll man in pick-and-rolls in 2022-23, labeled as \u2018poor\u2019 by Synergy. <\/p>\n
His improvement to 1.158 last season bumped him up to \u2018average.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Similarly, Thomas\u2019 playmaking has improved. <\/p>\n
After averaging less than 1.4 assists through his first two campaigns, Thomas averaged 2.6 assists this season \u2014 including 3.6 after the All-Star break when interim coach Kevin Ollie replaced Jacque Vaughn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Nets\u2019 production with Thomas in the pick-and-roll improved from \u2018poor\u2019 whenever the defense committed (0.676 PPP in 2022-23) to \u2018average\u2019 last season (.904).\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJust knowing that I could be doubled a lot more, coming off screens and stuff, or even in one-on-one situations, reading where the double will come from, seeing where teams double me, and the way teams double me,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be reading, watching film and seeing where I can make quicker reads.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, I was going on the fly. Me and Jay [Hernandez, assistant coach,] was going over it. At the same time, I never went through that, so everything was new and learning on the fly. I\u2019ll look at that and keep going over it and find quicker solutions to beat the double.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Cam Thomas is convinced he should\u2019ve been in the Most Improved Player Award conversation this past season. But his biggest improvements \u2014 passing and defense \u2014 weren\u2019t just unheralded; they were unseen.\u00a0 \u201cI should definitely be top three [for Most Improved], going from barely<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":134564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-134563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134565,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134563\/revisions\/134565"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}