Cam Thomas’ latest hamstring injury will result in another lengthy absence.
The Nets’ second-leading scorer was diagnosed with a left hamstring strain and will be reevaluated in approximately three to four weeks.
Last season, Thomas, 24, injured the same hamstring on three occasions and was limited to just 25 games, but the former LSU star believes this setback isn’t as serious as the previous instances.
“It’s way different,” Thomas said. “It’s not as bad as the last one. Dodged a bullet with that … It’s obviously frustrating being hurt with anything, but I’m not really concerned about it at all … I don’t expect to be out very long, but we’ll see how it goes. Hamstring injuries are definitely nothing to mess with.”
Thomas suffered the injury in the first quarter of the Nets’ first win of the season at Indiana on Wednesday, going scoreless in six minutes of action. The fifth-year guard is averaging 21.4 points, shooting 35.6 percent on 3s, but a career-worst 40.2 percent from the field.
“We don’t have another Cam Thomas,” coach Jordi Fernández said. “The team will figure out a way. As a head coach, I’ll figure out if we have to play more off the ball, more with the dribble, more with pick-and-rolls, more through the bigs. All those things change. It happened last year.
“The constant is we have to play hard and with purpose. If that happens, we’ll be OK.”
It’s gotta be the shoes.
Drake Powell lasted seven minutes in his NBA debut before leaving with a sprained right ankle. Ten days later, the rookie came back to make his first appearance at Barclays Center, but played only four minutes before re-injuring the ankle in Sunday’s loss to the 76ers.
Before returning for Friday night’s NBA Cup loss to the Pistons, Powell had a new plan.
“I already threw those shoes away that I injured my ankle in,” Powell said. “I won’t be using those again.”
Powell made it through his third game unscathed, finishing with six points and four rebounds in 27 minutes.
Though he is likely to split his first pro season between Brooklyn and the Long Island G League team, the athletic 6-foot-5 guard has the potential to make a much-needed impact for the league’s lowest-rated defense.
“Every time he’s gotten an opportunity, he’s taken advantage of the minutes,” Fernández said. “There’s gonna be growth. He’s a kid you can envision in so many different roles. The way he moves on the floor is elite. We had him as probably the best athlete in this draft. Every time I see him, I don’t see people move like that often. It’s very impressive.”
Rookie Egor Demin received his first career start, putting up eight points, seven assists and three rebounds in 23 minutes … Fellow first-round picks Ben Saraf, Nolan Traore and Danny Wolf were at Nassau Coliseum, appearing in the Long Island Nets’ season-opening win.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
