Cole Anthony and Cam Thomas have essentially had the exact same arc with the Milwaukee Bucks this season. Both arrived as hyped up additions who could help the team as second-unit sparkplugs, had red-hot starts that had fans dreaming big, and then ultimately fell out of the rotation entirely in favor of other players. Two swings, two misses in the bigger picture.
Anthony, Thomas kicked off their tenures with a bang
During his first four games with the franchise, Anthony averaged 13 points and 5.8 assists, including scoring performances of 23 and 16 points. In an interview with Sport24, Giannis Antetokounmpo said that Anthony could be an X-factor for Milwaukee, and it was hard to argue after this. After the first few games, though, the magic wore off, and Anthony found himself stuck on the sidelines most nights.
The Bucks are now enduring the same thing with Thomas. In fact, Thomas' fall-off may hurt even more because of how well he played right out of the gates.
During his first five games with the team, Thomas averaged 18.4 points. That included an explosive 34-point night in just his second game with the franchise. This hot start had fans thinking Thomas could be Milwaukee's Lou Williams or Jamal Crawford as a go-to sixth man. That wasn't far-fetched at the time after some of the performances early on.
In the weeks since, though, Thomas has fallen out of favor. It started slowly until Doc Rivers pulled the plug entirely. Thomas isn't even getting off the bench during mop-up duty these days. If the deadline hadn't already passed, Cam Thomas likely would have suffered the same fate as Anthony and found himself on a new team. Instead, he will just rot on Milwaukee's bench.
What went wrong for these guards?
The small guard who is primarily known as a bucket-getter is a dying breed in today's NBA. As both Anthony and Thomas showed, they can help you win a game or two, but in the bigger picture, it all comes down to size and being able to hold up on both ends. It's one of the reasons Gary Harris has stayed in Milwaukee's rotation despite not putting up gaudy offensive numbers.
With 14 regular season games left to play, it feels unlikely that Cam Thomas will return to the mix for the Milwaukee Bucks anytime soon. It's unfortunate that he could not keep the ball rolling after what was an incredible start, but the team moving on from a similar player in Cole Anthony, though Thomas certainly had the higher ceiling, should have been the ultimate warning sign for the Bucks.
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