LOS ANGELES — It’s been 906 days since the 2021 NBA Draft, 906 days since Cam Thomas’ slide to the bottom of the first round.

The Nets guard still is carrying a chip on his shoulder half the size of Brooklyn from that night. He probably still will be another 906 days from now.

“Honestly, I feel like the goalposts always move for me from everything I watch,” Thomas said Friday night after scoring a game-high 33 points to beat the Lakers and end the Nets’ four-game skid. “Like, when people now score all these points, it’s all praise. But when I used to score all the points, it’s always a knock: ‘Oh, he can’t play defense. Oh, he doesn’t pass.’ But when I see other people doing the same thing, it’s praise.

“…I just know what I do and what I bring to the team and how it’s appreciated on the team. So really just staying true to myself and not letting trolls or anything get in my head about stuff like that.

“But yeah, obviously the draft, obviously I still carry that chip on my shoulder. Even now. So whatever it is, every team that picked ahead of Brooklyn, I just try to go out there and try to kill them every time. So just try to show everybody they made a mistake.”

Most of the NBA picked ahead of the Nets, who selected 27th overall that night, and were surprised to find Thomas still sitting there. Despite his renowned scoring exploits in high school, on the EYBL circuit and at LSU, he was the last of the 20 players invited to the green room still left when Brooklyn’s selection rolled around.

So the Nets — who had worked out Thomas early in the pre-draft process and interviewed him a week before Draft Night — gladly snapped him up.

Thomas’ free fall was over. But his fuel was just starting to accumulate.

The quiet-but-confident guard did his seething on the inside, using his Draft Night tumble as motivation to this day.

“I think we all do, especially Cam Thomas,” said Nets center Nic Claxton, a No. 31 overall pick. “A lot of a lot of guys taken above him and he’s playing really well, playing better than those guys. So it’s definitely good to see his growth.”

Outwardly, Thomas could best be described as stoic. But inside, the 22-year-old uses every bucket he gets — such as sending Austin Reaves to the court with a filthy spin move and midrange jumper — as proof the teams that passed on him made a mistake.

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The fight for a rotation spot was an uphill climb over his first two seasons — first under Steve Nash and then replacement Jacque Vaughn — due to the defensive and playmaking shortcomings that Thomas alluded to. But whether he’s starting or coming off the bench, his scoring prowess has made him too important not to play.

Despite missing weeks due to an ankle sprain and coming off the bench lately, Thomas is averaging 20.6 points — second on the team to Mikal Bridges (21.3) and 43rd in the NBA.

Only two players ahead of him on the scoring list — Orlando’s Paolo Banchero (22.7) and Houston’s Alperen Sengun (21.9) — are younger. And Thomas is outscoring all but two players in his draft class: No. 1 overall selection Cade Cunningham (22.8) and lottery pick Franz Wagner (20.9).

Thomas’ ability to make difficult baskets has regularly impressed his Nets teammates.

“That boy’s good,” Dennis Smith Jr. said. “Training camp, I’m looking like, some of this s–t he’s doing is unbelievable. But it’s an everyday thing. He comes out, he gets rolling. And the good thing about CT — what people don’t know — is he’s going to be himself whether he’s on [or not].

“He’s rarely not making shots, but he’s still going to come out and compete. And he’s really doing a good job of making the next play. They started sending two at him, he’s making the read. And even to the point where he passes it to you, the next guy is going to make the right read telling them in a productive manner, do this, do this. So he’s taken some big strides.”

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But how big?

In a search for more size, Vaughn pulled Thomas from the starting lineup and has gone with two power forwards in Dorian Finney-Smith and Cam Johnson, sliding Bridges into essentially an oversized off-guard role.

It’s largely backfired. The Nets, 17-24 heading into Sunday afternoon’s game against the Clippers, still are not defending well and Thomas’ efficiency is trailing off.

Thomas is averaging 15.7 points on 38.6 percent shooting in 25 minutes over the past 10 games as a reserve, compared to 22.8 points on 45.3 percent shooting in 30.3 minutes in his first 22 games.

“Yeah, obviously the consistent part of my game is not going to be as it was early in the year because I was starting, so you can’t really expect too many 20-, 30-point games from me coming off the bench with these kind of minutes,” Thomas said. “So I’ve just got to get how I fit in and just try to start off very efficient, very high, so it can rub off on my teammates. I feel like when I start off well, we have good energy, we all get pumped up. So I’ve just got to find a way to lock in.

“Maybe it’ll change soon. I get back in the lineup, then you can see more consistency from me in the scoring part. But I’ve just got to do my job, man. Whatever he wants me to do. He wants me to come out of the bench, I’ve got to do that. If he wants me back starting, I’m more than open to do it. But it’s kind of tough, but I’ve just got to do my job.”

As he did Friday night, Thomas is starting to figure out how to excel off the bench.

Thomas shot 13-of-18, including 4-of-7 from deep, to help the Nets win for just the fourth time in their past 18 games. His fast start — 20 points in the first half on 9-of-12 shooting with four assists and no turnovers — let him draw double-teams and then actually punish them.

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“Well, he saved us in that first half, for sure, his ability just to get us open looks,” Vaughn said. “They got to a point where they started trapping him, and then we got some looks out of that. … His ability just to make the right play, he’s just growing.”

And though he’s bristled in the past at questions over his lack of passing, he’s learning to use his budding gravity to get his teammates involved.

If he can facilitate at least a little, it makes a huge difference.

Thomas has averaged just 1.5 assists per game for his career. But he’s handed out 13 total assists in the past four games, a big reason he’s a combined plus-22 in that span.

For a player rapidly developing into a three-level scorer, it makes him a weapon against drop coverage.

“That boy can score, man, I tell you, so I’m very blessed to have someone like him, especially [because] he’s only 22 years old, which makes it even crazier,” Lonnie Walker IV said. “The sky’s the limit for him, and the best is yet to come.”

Thomas’ growth will bear watching.

With the Nets having already picked up his option for next season, they’ll have decisions to make on whether to hand him a long-term contract extension.