The Nets have made three signings (two signings and one offer sheet to be exact, but we will count all three as if they sign with the Nets for purpose of this discussion) over the past week. This obviously means that the amount of money the Nets have in terms of cap space has decreased. I think now is a good time to look at where we stand, so we can see what moves are available moving forward:
Numbers from the great site ShamSports.com
* – The $500,000 attributed to Keyon Dooling is the guaranteed portion of his contract. $500,000 of his 2010 salary was guaranteed, so if he was cut (which is what happened) he gets paid that amount and it goes against the Nets cap.
** – The rookies aren’t signed yet, this is just 100% of the cap hold attributed to their draft slot.
*** – Unlike the Outlaw deal (which has been announced at a $7,000,000 flat per year basis) the per year figures for these two deals hasn’t come out yet. Just divided the total amount by the total years to get a close enough estimate.
Alright, so as everything stands right now, the Nets are currently sitting with right around $19,500,000 in salary they can offer for this upcoming season. What we heard from Chad Ford is that they don’t plan on spending all of it:
The Nets plan to use about $20 million of their $30 million in cap space this summer. The plan is to hang on to the other $10 million to use as an asset for in-season trades (they way the Thunder have masterfully done the past two years) and, if nothing materializes, roll the cap space over to the 2011 season.
If this report is true, the Nets plan on spending about another $10 million while holding onto the rest. This could change though, especially if the Nets want to make an offer on a guy like Luis Scola. The only way the Nets can get him is if they make an offer of something like $13 or $14 million a year (and even then, it isn’t a guarantee that the Rockets don’t match). That deal would also still leave them with around $5 million for in season moves, and give them some cap room to carry over into next year. I think this will be the move we hear about next.
