LAS VEGAS — The ever-confident Cam Thomas has said he has always been comfortable playing, and starting, and scoring. It was getting comfortable with Jacque Vaughn — and on the same page with his coach — that took work.
That work is starting to pay dividends.
Thomas got a rare start in the Nets’ preseason opener Monday night, and had a team-high 26 points to nearly lead a comeback in a 129-126 loss to the Lakers.
“Yeah I’d probably just say more comfortable with the coach,” Thomas said. “As far as playing, I’ve been comfortable. I really just know what coach expects. He came in filling in for our last coach, so I was feeling everything out.
“So having a full training camp, knowing what he expects, knowing how he wants the team ran, that’s really helped me a lot. So it’s really helped me with what I want to work on this summer. But as far as playing I’ve been comfortable. Since rookie year I’ve been comfortable. It’s just opportunity to play.”
Thomas, 21, started just six times in his first two seasons.
But Cam Johnson’s hamstring injury, along with a strong training camp, bought him a chance Monday.
“He can flat out score the basketball,” Vaughn said. “I look at the other things, and he knows that. What were the box outs? Was he running hard? Is he communicating with his teammates? Did he know where he was supposed to be on the floor? So those things he’s really taken strides in and give him a lot of credit. And with credit comes playing time.”
Thomas poured in 17 points in a 27-13 Nets run over the first 6:37 of the third quarter.
Three consecutive Thomas 3-pointers pulled the Nets even at 82-all, 85-all and finally 88-all with 5:23 left in the third.
But it’s the team aspects where Thomas has grown.
“The other things matter in a team setting. In golf, in tennis, then you can bring your own ball and your own shoes and your racket, but we play a team sport,” Vaughn said. “And he’s done a really good job of understanding how to fit his game into the Brooklyn Nets, and how he still can flourish playing team basketball.
“I give him an extreme amount of credit for taking positive steps in the right direction.”
Day’Ron Sharpe sprained his left ankle after two minutes and didn’t return. Both he and Vaughn downplayed the injury afterwards as not serious.
“I’m good,” Sharpe said.
Dariq Whitehead, recovering from foot surgery, is working out on court and progressing toward doing full-contact five-on-five.
“I’ve been able to do some one-on-one on court, just making different reads, pretty much everything in terms of noncontact five-on-five,” Whitehead said. “So the next step progressing over the next couple of weeks is just going to be making sure I get into that five-on-five contact, and just moreso starting to feel like myself.”
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