Nets Sign Mirza Teletovic

JULY 16TH, 12:18pm: The Nets have officially signed Teletovic, the team announced today (Twitter link). 

JULY 4TH, 4:13pm: Larry Coon of ESPN.com and HoopsWorld confirms via Twitter that the Nets were able to agree with Teletovic for the $3.09MM mid-level. Assuming the maximum 4.5% raise, this would put the total of Teletovic's three-year deal at $9,687,150. Besides saving a few million dollars on Teletovic, this gives the Nets significantly more financial flexibility this season, as they're now free to exceed the $74.31MM "tax apron."

3:57pm: A source close to the negotiations tells John Hollinger of ESPN.com (Insider link) that the Nets may sign Teletovic for the taxpayer mid-level exception, starting at $3.09MM, rather than the full mid-level. As I explained earlier today, giving Teletovic more than the mini mid-level would essentially hard-cap the Nets, making it more difficult to re-sign their own free agents and next to impossible to acquire Dwight Howard.

JULY 3, 11:07am: The Nets have agreed to a deal in principle with Bosnian forward Mirza Teletovic, reports Howard Beck of the New York Times (via Twitter). According to Beck (via Twitter), Brooklyn is using its mid-level exception to sign Teletovic for three years. Chad Ford of ESPN.com confirms the financial details, tweeting that the contract will be for three years and $15.675MM.

Because the Nets are using the full mid-level exception, rather than the taxpayer mid-level, they will be hard-capped at about $74MM for the coming season, since teams that use the full MLE can't surpass the luxury-tax apron. Not only will this make a Dwight Howard trade more of a long shot, but it means that the mid-level won't be available to sign another veteran, such as Jason Kidd.

For his part, Teletovic averaged 16.3 PPG and 6.9 RPG in 34 games in the Spanish ACB League this season, and 21.7 PPG and 6.0 RPG in 10 Euroleague contests. The 26-year-old is a strong three-point shooter despite playing the power forward position. He was rumored to be deciding between the Nets and Cavs for his first NBA contract.

The mid-level exception allows teams to sign players for contracts starting at $5MM, with 4.5% raises. So Teletovic's deal will be worth $5,000,000 for 2012/13, $5,225,000 for 2013/14, and $5,450,000 for 2014/15, totaling $15,675,000.

—–

View Comments (7)