Brook Lopez: Brooklyn Nets Contract Breakdown

The Numbers:
2012-13: $13,668,750
2013-14: $14,693,906
2014-15: $15,719,062
2015-16: $16,744,219 (player option)

Contract: Brook Lopez signed a maximum four-year deal with the Brooklyn Nets worth approximately $60.8 million in the 2012 offseason. The fourth year is a player option.

Because Brook Lopez had fewer than six years of service in the league, Brooklyn could only offer him a maximum of about $13.7 million under the new collective bargaining agreement, with raises of 7.5% each year for four total years. Lopez signed it, because it’s the most money he could have made, and slightly more than any team could have offered.

Lopez, who was a restricted free agent, could have entertained offer sheets from other teams for roughly $58 million over the same four seasons, and the Nets, flush with cash and strapped for talent, didn’t want to lose their only homegrown star.

Options: The final year of Brook Lopez’s contract is a player option, worth approximately $16.7 million in 2015-16. If Lopez declines his player option, he becomes an unrestricted free agent, or his contract can be extended as long as the extension adds at least two new seasons onto the contract (excluding any new option year) and the salary in the first year of the extension is at least $16.7 million.

Expectations: Brook Lopez has been with the Brooklyn Nets since the team selected him in the 2008 NBA Draft, and is expected to be with the team for the duration of his contract. Once Lopez’s contract runs out in 2015-16, he is eligible for a “7-9 year veteran” maximum contract (slightly under 30% of the cap), or a contract starting at a little under $17.6 million, whichever is greater.

Lopez will be 28 when his contract expires, and if he continues to avoid injury and improve on his breakout 2012-13 season throughout his contract, there’s a chance he’ll earn another maximum contract in that offseason.

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