MarShon Brooks: Brooklyn Nets Contract Breakdown

The Numbers:
2011-12: $1,063,865
2012-13: $1,160,040
2013-14: $1,210,080
2014-15: $2,179,354 (team option)
2015-16: $3,201,471 (projected qualifying offer — see below)

Contract: MarShon Brooks signed a rookie contract after the Brooklyn Nets traded up two picks to 25th to aquire his rights in the 2011 NBA Draft. The Nets have exercised their first of two team options for Brooks, guaranteeing his contract through at least the 2013-14 season.

The Nets traded up to acquire Brooks, feeling that his scoring talent (he scored a Big East record 52 points in a single game his senior season) would help bolster their bench. Though not without flashes of brilliance, he has struggled with inconsistent playing time and poor defensive instincts at the NBA level.

Options: The Nets have one more team option on MarShon Brooks’s contract, worth approximately $2.2 million for the 2014-15 season. They have until October 31, 2013 to exercise that option. If they choose not to exercise that option, Brooks becomes an unrestricted free agent in the 2014 offseason.

If the Nets do exercise that option (which is expected), they can then offer him a qualifying offer of about $3.2 million in the 2015 offseason. If Brooks accepts that qualifying offer, he’s guaranteed that $3.2 million and becomes an unrestricted free agent the following season. If he declines the qualifying offer, he becomes a restricted free agent, meaning the Nets have the right (but not the obligation) to match any offer made to Brooks by any other team.

If the Nets do not tender a qualifying offer, Brooks will become an unrestricted free agent.

Qualifying offer note: MarShon Brooks’s qualifying offer could potentially be higher than $3.2 million if he meets the “starter’s criteria” — met by 1) either playing 2,000 minutes or starting 41 games in the final season of his contract, or 2) averaging those numbers in the final two seasons of his contract. Barring an injury to Joe Johnson or Gerald Wallace, coupled with a breakout from Brooks, he won’t see those numbers on Brooklyn’s packed roster. But in the event that he does, Brooks’s qualifying offer would jump to a little under $4.3 million.

Expectations: MarShon Brooks has been traded to the Boston Celtics.