Cam Payne. Jevon Carter. George Hill's final season. (Don't even mention Delon Wright.) In recent memory, the Milwaukee Bucks have struggled to find any kind of real ball-handling spark off the bench. That underwhelming group does not include Ryan Rollins, who has emerged as the team's second or third option this season after backing up Damian Lillard in 2024-25.
When was the last time the Bucks had a player of his promise who, at one point or another, was also a quality backup point guard?
Throw Kevin Porter Jr. into the mix if you want, but his time as the team's primary reserve creator covered only a three-week span after Lillard went out with a blood clot and Rollins entered the starting five. The point is, there haven't been that many intriguing options off Milwaukee's bench for several years now.
Handed the keys to the second unit, Cam Thomas has a chance to join Rollins as the only really exciting primary reserve "point guard" in recent roster history.
Playmaking guards have been in short supply off Bucks' bench
Thomas, to be clear, is not a point guard. Call him a primary ball-handler. Because here's the thing. If the Bucks keep both Rollins and Porter in the starting lineup (seems like a no-brainer, but Doc Rivers may have other ideas), they don't have another shot-creating guard, other than Thomas, off the bench.
Cole Anthony? Gone. Mark Sears? Gone. Thomas is it.
That's a role Porter couldn't claim last season when Rollins also served in a reserve capacity. Both are closer to combo guards, anyway, but on a theoretical depth chart, Rollins would be No. 2 at the point with Porter included in the shooting guard rotation.
Thomas, of course, is even further from a true floor general than either of those two. He's not even a real combo guard; he's a pure bucket-getter at the two. In this era of position-less basketball, though, the more important consideration is this: as Milwaukee's sole bench-guard creator, he has an opportunity to inspire a degree of excitement that only Rollins has paid off.
Thomas wasted no time making a positive first impression. With Rollins sidelined, he erupted for 34 points in 25 minutes, vaulting the Bucks to a surprising win in Orlando. Predictably, he followed up with a less mesmerizing performance (12 points on 5-for-13 shooting), but the seeds have already been planted. The Cam Thomas Show should be one worth watching.
It's not just his outburst against the Magic. That's not a one-off. Thomas' track record as a microwave scorer includes 10 40-point games, including one this season despite a reduced role in Brooklyn. The Bucks bench hasn't had that kind of upside in years.
Other than Porter last season, in fact, the franchise hasn't had any bench guard, at the point or otherwise, average double figures in the scoring column since Malcolm Brogdon in 2017-18.
We'll see what Thomas does down the stretch, and whether he returns in free agency to give the Bucks a full season of fuel, but certainly there's more intrigue and firepower in the second unit than this team has had lately.