A lot of fans have made their commitments to the Brooklyn Nets current roster, offering encouragement or buying their jersey, cheering for the favorite from the stands or their TV room. It’s what fans do: living the moment.
That loyalty of course assumes that most of the young team will be back. There is word that there will not be a lot of roster continuity come summer. The Nets roster is made for an overhaul. That shouldn’t be surprising. They’re in a rebuild and every indication is that it will continue into next season. The draft alone could produce five new faces and knowing Sean Marks proclivity for Draft Day deals. Three days later, on June 29, the organization will have to make a number of decisions on qualifying offers, options, etc.
There’s not a lot of commitment if we break the roster down by the players’ contract status;
Nets have only two players on non expiring deals (Cam Johnson and Nic Claxton, one with two years to go on his, the other with three);
Two players on guaranteed rookie deals. (Dariq Whithead and Noah Clowney);
Three players on expiring deals and thus unrestricted free agents (D’Angelo Russell, Trendon Watford and DeAnthony Melton);
Four players with team options. (Keon Johnson, Jalen Wilson, Tyrese Martin and Maxwell Lewis.) Each has a small guarantee, ranging from $75,000 for Wilson to $271,614 for Johnson, a total of $535,000.
Three two-ways. (Reese Beekman, Tosan Evbuomwan and Tyson Etienne, the latter two reportedly with two-year deals.) G League deals, half the minimum, do not count on the cap.
They also have an opening for an NBA minimum player. Filling it would cost the Nets a little less than $500,00. Pro-rated, that cost drops about $12,000 a day. For the Nets that’s important. They have to preserve their luxury tax threshold or go into repeater tax hell.
So how many on the roster will call Brooklyn their own in July during the Summer League, or in October on the training camp roster — and flight list for Macao, or finally later that month among the Opening Night introductions? Don’t know. We can all play the digital parlour game of who stays and goes but that’s not likely to be fully decided for a while.
As Brian Lewis wrote in two stories earlier this week on Russell and Thomas and C.J. Holmes and Bridget Reilly published Saturday on Williams and Martin, nothing is a given, whether its former All-Star Russell or even restricted free agent Cam Thomas, the closest thing the team has to star quality.
D’Lo has subtly but effectively expressed his desire to stay and signaled his own commitment to the Nets’ process, particularly praising the coaching, saying this to reporters three weeks ago.
“I wasn’t familiar with a lot of guys. I wasn’t familiar with the coaching staff, for them to welcome me with open arms and make it comfortable for me right away, and watch the genius Jordi is. Watching him prepare for these games, not knowing who’s going to play, not knowing who’s gonna start, or who can finish, who can’t play, minute restrictions, et cetera. For him to still find a way to get straight wins and keep everybody’s energy and spirit high. I think the future’s bright here.”
And Lewis thinks that there is some possibility he will return on a one-year deal so that his cap space would carry over to the summer of 2026 which will be a top free agent class.
With the Nets sitting on a trove of cap space almost as big as the rest of the league combined — Detroit is the only other team likely to have more than the mid-level exception — Russell’s suitors will be limited.
And if no star who the Nets intend to pursue becomes available this summer via trade — Giannis Antetokounmpo, LaMelo Ball, Trae Young, etc. — then a short-term reunion could make sense for both parties.
Lewis admits that at this point, no one knows the full extent of the Nets planning and what happens at the Draft Lottery on May 12, and on June 25-26, the Draft itself will determine a bit of it for sure. Do you need “Player A” who’s on a club option or will you instead take a chance on the 22nd pick in the 2025 Draft who will command more salary and development resources?
As for Thomas, his situation is different than Russell’s. He is a restricted free agent and his numbers — nearly 25 a game — would normally command a very nice contract but Thomas has missed a significant number of games — 81 to be precise — in the last three years. That has to be a factor in setting his contract numbers, Lewis noted in a second piece.
“As of now, it seems like the Nets have more leverage,” cap expert Yossi Gozlan of CapSheets.com told Lewis. “I think Cam Thomas’ best chance at getting a big contract elsewhere is with a sign-and-trade due to his restricted status. I think he’s looking at a Collin Sexton-type annual salary adjusted for inflation.”.
For the record, Sexton is in year three of a four-year, $79 million contract. Also. Lewis quotes a “source” not further identified as believing Thomas’ market is about the same, between $20 and $22 million. Before the new CBA, that might not have mattered much. It does now. At this point, the Nets are projected to have more cap space than the rest of the league ... combined. That means other teams will be hard pressed to make an offer to the Nets free agents and the Nets will be able override anything tendered by another team.
Ziare Williams is in somewhat the same situation as a free agent, but the No. 10 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft is not going to get what Thomas will get. He’s having a career year with his potential — as a tall 3-and-D — still not realized. It’s more realized than he was in his three years in Memphis, however.
Like Russell, Williams is a big fan of Fernandez, as CJ. Holmes quotes him in the Daily News Saturday.
“I knew he was different from the first day,” Williams said of Fernandez. “He told everyone, I don’t give a f–k who you are, what you do, what you’ve done, we’re clearing this s–t out. We want good players, good role models, good chemistry guys, guys who are going to work hard and pick up full. I knew off rip he was one of them ones… It’s great to know you have a real one behind you.”
Fernandez also has developed a reputation for pushing Williams and as Holmes writes, this is his best year.
A change in scenery, a no-nonsense head coach, and a renewed belief in self, have sparked a career season for Williams at both ends of the court. He’s playing more minutes, scoring more points, and grabbing more rebounds than ever before. His offensive rating is the best he’s had since his rookie season. And he leads the Nets in deflections, proof that he’s embraced his defensive-minded role.
How much more can he free up from the Nets balance sheet? Will the Nets be aggressive in pursuing or others. Rotational wings are valuable but there are a lot of them.
The player with a team option that seems most like a keeper is Tyrese Martin. He received a standard deal from the Nets after spending the season in the netherworld of being a two-way ... but never venturing out to Long Island. The deal is guaranteed for the rest of this season but completely non-guaranteed for next year. If on June 29, they don’t exercise their option, he’s a restricted free agent.
Still, as Bridget Reilly of the Post writes Saturday, the Nets have already had some commitment to his career by converting him. In recently talking to the media about Martin, Fernandez predicted “good things” are coming his way, but he didn’t say with the Nets.
“He shows up and works every day with a good attitude and he’s a great teammate. That’s what we want from everybody, but it’s not that easy to do it. He’s doing it consistently and that’s why he deserves all these good things that are coming to him, that he’s doing, that are coming his way,” said the head coach.
So “who’s coming, who’s going” to be a question asked about a lot of the players on the edge going forward. So far, 23 players have been signed to some form of Nets contract. In the meantime, everyone will be trying to make a final impression before the lottery, the draft and free agency monopolize a lot of the front office’s attention. Best wishes.