Here’s everything you need to know about the Brooklyn Nets salary situation, as well as the draft picks and other assets they have available:
How Much is Already Committed?
Of their 2013-14 15-man roster, the Nets currently have $85,075,418 guaranteed in contracts to eight players (listed below) for the 2014-15 season, four players have contract options (either player or team), and three are free agents.
What Kind Of Cap Space Do The Nets Have?
Depending on how things shake out — and we’re not soothsayers — the Nets could end up anywhere between a similar position to this season tax-wise or out of the luxury tax entirely. The tax level is projected at around $77 million, and as mentioned above, the Nets have a little over $85 million committed to eight players. If Kevin Garnett retires with a small buyout, and the Nets renounce their free agents, AND make at least one other cost-cutting move, it’s possible they won’t pay any tax at all.
But that’s just not their style. Assuming the Nets stay over the tax, they’ll be limited to just re-signing their own players for various exceptions, signing a player with the tax-payer mid-level exception (a three-year deal worth up to $10.2 million), and filling out their roster with players on minimum contracts.
That’ll mean in the 2015-16 season, the Nets would theoretically qualify for the “repeater rate” tax, an increasingly punitive luxury tax that basically adds an extra dollar for every dollar a team is over the tax threshold. To compare, if the Nets were under the restrictions of the repeater tax this year, they would’ve paid over $35 million more in luxury tax alone.
Who’s Under Contract?
Kevin Garnett — The Nets have Garnett under contract for $12 million in 2014-15, but there are rumors that Garnett, now 38 years old, will retire.
Joe Johnson — Johnson will make $23.2 million in 2014-15, and is under contract for two years and $48.1 million through the 2015-16 season. Johnson will turn 33 on June 29th.
Brook Lopez — Lopez will make $15.7 million in 2014-15, and is under contract for two years and $32.5 million through the 2015-16 season, the second year a player option. Lopez turned 26 on April 1st. Lopez has a 15 percent trade kicker, meaning that his salary would bump up 15 percent in each year if he’s traded.
Mason Plumlee — Plumlee is on the second year of his rookie scale contract, which lasts through 2016-17. He’ll make roughly $1.36 million in 2014-15, and the last two years of his contract are team options.
Marquis Teague — Teague is on the third year of his rookie scale contract, which has already been exercised. He’s owed $1.1 million in 2014-15 and the Nets can exercise a team option worth $2 million for 2015-16.
Mirza Teletović — Teletovic is in the third year of a three-year contract worth the taxpayer mid-level exception worth roughly $3.4 million.
Marcus Thornton — Thornton is in a contract year and will earn roughly $8.6 million.
Deron Williams — Williams is in the third year of a max-level contract he signed with the Nets in the summer of 2012. He’ll make $19.8 million in 2014-15 and is owed $63.1 million through 2016-17. Williams has an early termination option after the 2015-16 season. Like Lopez, Williams has a 15 percent trade kicker, which would make his salary roughly $72.5 million over three years if traded.
Who’s Got A Contract Option?
Alan Anderson — Anderson has a player option for slightly over $1 million that he has to exercise before June 29th. If he does, he’ll lock in with the Nets for the 2014-15 season. If he does not exercise his option, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent, and the Nets will only own his non-Bird rights, allowing them to sign him to 120 percent above a league-minimum contract.
Andray Blatche — Blatche has a player option for roughly $1.4 million that he has said he will decline to test the free agent market. Blatche will make at least $8.5 million thanks to his amnestied contract from the Washington Wizards and a rare “offset formula”. In short, he’ll make close to $10 million even if he signs a minimum contract, and the less money he signs for, the more Washington will have to pay him.
Blatche will get suitors on the open market after two solid seasons as a backup in Brooklyn, but since he’s already financially set, he may be willing to take less again.
Since he’s been with the Nets for two years, they own his Early Bird rights, meaning they can sign him to as high as a four-year deal starting at around $5.5 million, that’s worth $24.7 million at contract’s end.
Jorge Gutierrez — The Nets signed Gutierrez to a minimum contract in the middle of the 2014 season, then signed him to a non-guaranteed two-year deal. He’ll make $25,000 if he makes the training camp roster, and the league minimum if they keep him through the season.
Andrei Kirilenko — Kirilenko has a player option for $3.3 million that he is undecided about exercising. If he exercises it before the June 29th deadline, he’ll lock in with the Nets for the 2014-15 season. If he declines, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent, and the Nets would probably lose him: they could only offer him the value of the contract he’d be turning down.
Who’s A Free Agent?
Jason Collins — The Nets signed Collins, the first openly gay male athlete in one of the four major professional sports, to a minimum contract after two ten-day contracts mid-season. He’s an unrestricted free agent in the twilight of his career, and it sounds like he may retire. He’s got more important things to do now.
Shaun Livingston — Livingston signed a one-year deal for the veteran’s minimum in the 2013 offseason, making him an unrestricted free agent. The Nets technically hold his early bird rights and could sign him for up to the taxpayer mid-level exception (worth about $3.3 million) if they want to use that exception on him, but Livingston will have his suitors after the best season of his career that will likely offer him more.
Paul Pierce — Pierce ended a multi-year deal making $15.3 million in the 2013-14 season, and he’s now an unrestricted free agent. The Nets own his full bird rights, and can offer him any amount of money up to the maximum salary. But he may spurn the Nets’ offer if he wants to return to Boston to play for the Celtics or go to Los Angeles to play under former coach Doc Rivers with the Clippers.
Wait, WHO?
Travis Outlaw — Not a joke: the Nets are on the hook for $4 million in Outlaw’s salary through 2015-16 after waiving him via the amnesty clause. His salary does not count towards the team’s tax figures or salary floor, and the Nets are legally restricted from acquiring him.
Do The Nets Have Draft Picks?
2014: No picks.
2015: The lesser first-round pick between theirs and the Atlanta Hawks. No second-round pick.
2016: No picks.
2017: The lesser first-round pick between theirs and the Boston Celtics. If the Celtics swap picks, the Nets get Boston’s second-round pick (protected 31-45). No second-round pick.
2018: Second-round pick.
2019: First-round pick and second-round pick.
2020: First-round pick and second-round pick.
Per the rules of the CBA, teams can’t trade first-round picks after a season in which they don’t have a pick. So the earliest pick the Nets could trade before the 2014 NBA draft is the 2020 pick, since they’ve already sent away their 2014, 2016, and 2018 picks.
Who Else Can They Trade?
Edin Bavčić — European forward they acquired in the deal that shed Tyshawn Taylor. At 29, he is not expected to play in the NBA.
Bojan Bogdanović — Nets 2011 second-round draft pick has drawn comparisons to Paul Pierce, but may never make it to the states to play in the NBA. He’s reportedly ready to sign a two- to three-year contract to stay overseas, with an NBA buyout.
İlkan Karaman — Nets 2012 late second-round draft pick has played in Turkey for Fenerbahçe Ülker with Bogdanovic. He did not play in the last season following arthroscopic surgery on his knee. He is not expected to come to the NBA any time soon.
What Else Can They Trade?
Money: The Nets have about $2 million they can use in trades before July 1st, which they could conceivably use to buy into the NBA draft or to massage another trade.
