So the Farmar deal has been confirmed by just about everybody, so I will talk about it a little more in depth than I did last night. At just 23, Jordan Farmar already has four years of NBA experience, and that experience has been with a championship team in the Lakers. In LA, Farmar was more of a shoot first style point guard, but I am interested/excited in seeing him running a team outside the triangle offense.
As I said yesterday, this is just another move in a series of move in where the Nets are adding capable athletes who can impact the game on the defensive end just as much as the offensive end (Morrow is the exception…he’s a shooter and that is all he can do right now). Farmar isn’t a lock down defender by any means, but he is quick and athletic, and with Avery Johnson coaching, that should be enough to make him a good defender.
So with the Farmar signing at $12 million for three years, the Nets have around $15.5 million in cap space:
(It should be noted that NetsDaily has them at 14.5 million left. The actual number is probably somewhere in between)
So after the Farmar signing the Nets have right around $15.5 million left in cap space. The Nets have now done a pretty good job of filling all of their holes except for the one that was the most glaring, a starting-caliber power forward. With Dallas offering Haslam a ton of money (more than the Nets probably were looking to offer), the only option that seems to be left is trying to pry away Luis Scola from the Houston Rockets. However the fact that it might take the rest of their cap space to actually get it done, means that it probably won’t happen (remember, the Nets are hoping to keep around $5 to $10 million for in season/next summer acquisitions). So what does that leave us? The option of the trade.
Now there are two directions the Nets might be going in based on their roster moves. The first would involve trading Devin and maybe some picks to a team needing a point guard for a power forward. I personally think this is the least likely of the two options, but Jordan Farmar’s reason for leaving the Lakers is because he wants to be the starter somewhere. Obviously he isn’t going to beat out Devin, but if Devin is traded, Farmar is the starter and the Nets can use Terrence Williams to back him up. It’s plausible.
The second direction can go in (and the one that I think will end up happening…just a gut feeling) is that the Nets will trade a combination of one or two of their wings, some picks, and maybe even some cash for a starting Power Forward. The Nets have six wings on their rosters, and out of all of them, only two of them are eligible to be traded (you must wait a certain amount of time before trading recent signings and players who came over in trades) and those two are Terrence Williams and Courtney Lee. Williams is probably the one that is more likely to be traded, just because he has more value and can be traded just on his own (with some picks) for a power forward. Courtney Lee has lost his value and the Nets would probably have to include some things to get a power forward with him in the deal.
So moving forward the Nets will probably be exploring the trade market rather than the free agent market when looking for their power forward. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens.
