Doc Rivers Just Compared Cam Thomas To Jamal Crawford And Lou Williams

In the pantheon of NBA head coaches, Doc Rivers is a rather unique case. He’s an NBA champion, and he’s taken multiple teams deep into the playoffs, but he's been heavily criticized for blowing 3–⁠1 series leads.

This past Wednesday, he made a comparison that was either visionary or delusional. Take your pick.

“I’ve had Jamal Crawford, I’ve had Lou Williams, and now, I have Cam Thomas,” the Milwaukee Bucks head coach said after his team defeated the Orlando Magic 116-108.

How did Rivers come to mention Thomas, a recent free agent acquisition by the Bucks, in the same breath as two spitfire guards who each won Sixth Man of the Year thrice?

Whether it was recency bias or not, Rivers had to express his appreciation for Thomas’ scoring outburst that night: 34 points on 12-for-20 shooting from the field. The 6-foot-3 reserve guard, who had spent the first four and a half seasons of his career with the Brooklyn Nets, bounced back from a four-point debut against the same Magic squad on Monday.

“Cam wants to do right, he wants to play well, and you can see that,” Rivers added. “We’re gonna give him every opportunity. He’s a natural scorer.”

The former LSU standout certainly has prolific scoring skills, but is Rivers making a premature comparison (and, indeed, placing an unnecessary burden on Thomas’ shoulders)?

A closer look at the numbers shows that, at this point in his career, Thomas’ scoring production is in the same ballpark as that of Crawford and Williams when they were five years into the NBA. Thomas is currently averaging 15.9 ppg, which is not far from Crawford’s 17.7 ppg and even better than Williams’ 14.0 ppg.

There’s one more thing that J-Crossover and Sweet Lou have in common: Both of them won Sixth Man of the Year under the tutelage of Rivers. Will Thomas be next in line? That’s entirely up to him.

“He probably forced one or two [possessions] today where he overdribbled,” the Bucks head coach pointed out. “You live with that, you teach that, and you get that out of him. Overall, he was fantastic.”