The days of paying a ton of money for score-first guard archetypes could be quickly fizzling out, as 2025 RFA Cam Thomas of the Brooklyn Nets reached an agreement to return on a $6 million qualifying offer with a no-trade clause. This setup will allow him to hit unrestricted free agency next offseason.
But sadly for Thomas, I’d say this saga clearly indicates that teams are no longer willing to take a high-cost gamble on a player of his level, even if other deals (I'll get to the specific one in a minute) effectively destroyed the RFA market. I could definitely see Thomas earning his next contract in the range of $10-15 million (if not less), especially if teams across the league choose to be frugal and more precise with their spending — which I’ve highlighted as the smart business approach in today’s NBA.
Now on that point, unfortunately for the Toronto Raptors, many are well aware of the expensive contracts they've shelled out to keep players in town. While they have their reasons to justify those numbers, the offseason twist for Cam Thomas has only added fuel to the fire that is the widely perceived Immanuel Quickley overpay.
Raptors' Immanuel Quickley deal appears increasingly questionable
I totally get Toronto's willingness to be aggressive in retaining Quickley's services, but did they really need to extend him to a $32.5 million annual contract? What other teams were going to offer that kind of money to a still somewhat unproven, scoring-focused guard like Immanuel Quickley? While Toronto went above and beyond by trading away defensive stalwart OG Anunoby to add IQ and RJ Barrett, it was clear they saw Quickley as the darling of that deal. And off that faith, I believe it simply propelled the Raptors into the puzzling contract we see today.
Look at other RFAs still without long-term extensions as of this writing: Josh Giddey, Jonathan Kuminga, and Quentin Grimes. They all remain in free agency, waiting to see if their home teams or some other squad will be willing to take a chance on them. As I mentioned before, the sad truth is that the window for commanding an absurd amount of money has likely closed. I wouldn't be surprised if they too return on qualifying offers, hit unrestricted free agency next offseason, and perhaps sign deals in the range of $20 to $25 million — and that's being generous.
Faith will either prove to be the Raptors' biggest triumph in this Immanuel Quickley situation or it will reveal itself as a terrible oversight by the front office, one they will simply have to deal with and ride out the cap hit. In Quickley's case, and even for some of those RFAs I just mentioned, it's not that they're terrible players by any means, they certainly still have a role to serve in the NBA. But this is a new era where the CBA is not going to be these guys' friend in the long term. Teams have less money to spend each day, and there is bound to be collateral damage in the process.
I won't say the Raptors are at the point of no return just yet with IQ (we'll see how the 2025-26 season unfolds), but with this Thomas development and whatever concluding offseason angles are reached with those other RFAs, you can't help but think the discourse surrounding the Quickley contract will largely continue to be seen as a massive blunder.