In 2013-14: The Brooklyn Nets currently have $85,233,990 committed to 11 players. If C.J. Watson picks up his $1.1 million player option (which is not expected) they’ll have $86,340,931 committed to 12 players. This is not including Kris Joseph’s contract. Joseph signed with the Nets near the end of last season and his contract is still not guaranteed.
Team options: The Brooklyn Nets are well into luxury tax territory, by about $15 million, and as a result only have a few options for signing free agents. They have the “taxpayer midlevel exception,” which allows them to sign one or more free agents for no more than $3.183 million in the first year (they could spend it all on one player, or break it up). Along with the midlevel exception, they have specific exceptions for each of their free agents, outlined in each player page.
They can also sign any player to a veteran’s minimum contract. Even though the veteran’s minimum gets higher the longer you’ve been in the league (a ten-year veteran this year will earn just under $1.4 million for a full season), the most any veteran’s minimum contract can count towards the cap next season is $884,293. That’s because the NBA reimburses teams that sign veterans to one-year minimum contracts, so teams won’t be discouraged when signing older veterans just because they cost more. The Nets don’t seem to get discouraged spending money anyway.
Sign-and-trades: The Nets are very limited in their sign-and-trade options. Because they are above the luxury tax apron, they can only send out players in sign-and-trades, but not receive any. But that’s just the beginning. The signed-and-traded player cannot be signed using the taxpayer mid-level exception, which is the way they’d give the most money to any of their free agents except Keith Bogans. The Nets could sign-and-trade Bogans using the early bird exception, but the team trading for him could only trade back draft picks, and be comfortable with signing Bogans for at least three years.
In short: don’t expect the Nets to be involved in any sign-and-trades this season.
Free agents: The Brooklyn Nets have three backups coming off their books this season: backup guard Jerry Stackhouse, backup guard Keith Bogans, and backup center Andray Blatche. Watson will also be an unrestricted free agent if he declines his player option.
Those four players currently count as “cap holds” against Brooklyn’s cap, which doesn’t hurt the Nets since they’re so far above the cap anyway. The cap holds give the Nets certain rights to sign their own free agents that they wouldn’t have if they renounced those players. The Nets also have a cap hold for their expected draft position (22nd), worth a little under $1.1 million.
Expectations: The Brooklyn Nets have their core set and probably won’t make any drastic moves in the offseason. The most they’ll likely do is look to shed Kris Humphries’s contract and sign their overseas draft stash Bojan Bogdanovic, with a couple of minor moves here and there. Nets general manager Billy King has said that he’s looking to add shooting and athleticism this offseason, and head coach Jason Kidd agrees, so expect to see them look for players with those traits.
Start below for a look at each player’s individual contract situation.
Next: Andray Blatche
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Individual Contract Situations:
| Andray Blatche | Keith Bogans | Jerry Stackhouse | C.J. Watson | Kris Humphries | Tornike Shengelia | Tyshawn Taylor | MarShon Brooks | Reggie Evans | Mirza Teletovic | Joe Johnson | Brook Lopez | Gerald Wallace | Deron Williams |