A long, challenging rebuild began to pay dividends for the Nets in 2018/19, as the team finished sixth in the Eastern Conference, returning to the postseason for the first time since 2015.
With promising young players like Caris LeVert, Jarrett Allen, and Rodions Kurucs still on rookie deals and reliable contributors like Spencer Dinwiddie and Joe Harris also locked up for next season, Brooklyn is set up well for the future. But the Nets will have to answer two crucial questions this summer: Will they invest big money in D’Angelo Russell, and will they be able to land a star in free agency?
Here’s where things currently stand for the Nets financially, as we continue our Offseason Salary Cap Digest series for 2019:
Guaranteed Salary
- Allen Crabbe ($18,500,000) — Exercised player option
- Spencer Dinwiddie ($10,605,084)
- Joe Harris ($7,666,667)
- Deron Williams ($5,474,787) — Waived via stretch provision
- Caris LeVert ($2,625,718)
- Jarrett Allen ($2,376,840)
- Dzanan Musa ($1,911,600)
- Rodions Kurucs ($1,699,236)
- Total: $50,859,932
Player Options
- None
Team Options
- None
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- Shabazz Napier ($1,845,301) 1
- Treveon Graham ($1,645,357) 2
- Total: $3,490,658
Restricted Free Agents
- D’Angelo Russell ($9,160,706 qualifying offer / $21,059,094 cap hold): Bird rights
- Rondae Hollis-Jefferson ($3,594,369 qualifying offer / $7,411,071 cap hold): Bird rights
- Theo Pinson ($1,643,842 qualifying offer / $1,643,842 cap hold): Non-Bird rights
- Alan Williams (two-way qualifying offer / $1,443,842 cap hold): Non-Bird rights 3
- Total: $31,557,849
Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds
- DeMarre Carroll ($23,100,000): Bird rights
- Jared Dudley ($14,295,000): Bird rights
- Ed Davis ($5,338,800): Non-Bird rights
- No. 17 overall pick ($2,961,000)
- No. 27 overall pick ($1,974,360)
- Total: $47,669,160
Projected Salary Cap: $109,000,000
Projected Tax Line: $132,000,000
Offseason Cap Outlook
- Standard cap room projection: $30.4MM
- For all the talk of the Nets being a player for a maximum-salary free agent, they’d have to shed some money to create enough room for one. This projection takes into account their seven guaranteed salaries, Russell’s cap hold, and the cap holds for their two first-round picks.
- More aggressive cap room projection: $50MM
- If the Nets want to open up more space, waiving-and-stretching Crabbe would be one option, but it might make more sense to trade him, using one of their first-round picks as a sweetener to convince a team to take on his contract. This projection assumes the Nets trade Crabbe along with the No. 17 overall pick without taking back any salary.
- Other scenarios:
- The most aggressive scenario I can envision for the Nets would involve trading Crabbe and both of their two first-round picks while also renouncing Russell’s cap hold. That’s probably not a likely outcome, but it would get Brooklyn all the way up to $71.3MM in space, enough for two maximum contracts.
- If the Nets were to retain their first-round picks and Russell’s cap hold and simply waived-and-stretched Crabbe, their cap room would increase from $30.4MM (our initial projection) to $41.8MM. This would be the simplest way to create a max slot if the team doesn’t want to sacrifice a first-round pick and doesn’t mind spreading out Crabbe’s salary across three years.
- Attaching their No. 27 pick to Crabbe in a trade while retaining Russell’s cap hold and their No. 17 pick would leave the Nets with $49MM in cap room.
Cap Exceptions Available
- Room exception: $4,760,000 4
Footnotes
- Napier’s salary becomes fully guaranteed after July 10.
- Graham’s salary becomes fully guaranteed after July 10.
- The salaries for two-way players don’t count against a team’s cap, but their cap holds do during the offseason.
- This is a projected value. In the unlikely event the Nets remain over the cap, they’d instead have access to the full mid-level exception ($9,246,000) and the bi-annual exception ($3,619,000).
Note: Minimum-salary and rookie-scale cap holds are estimates based on salary cap projections and could increase or decrease depending on where the cap lands.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders and RealGM was used in the creation of this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
I think the most likely option is the $41.8M one. I think they’ll waive and stretch Crabbe, but I don’t see them parting with D’lo or the picks, at least as far as the cap holds go. Crabbe will be hard to trade unless you’re taking back an unwieldy contract, which defeats the purpose. Do the Nets have any second rounders that could be paired with Crabbe for a slightly less devastating contract? Also was the Greg Monroe deal only affecting this season or are they on the hook for anything after they waived him?
The ideal situation would be to re-sign D’lo and one max FA (i.e., Durant; don’t want Kyrie). I could see someone signing D’lo to a max level offer sheet to put the Nets in a rough spot. I would still match it over signing Kyrie, but I doubt they’ll have enough for another max.
Monroe was on a one-year deal, so he only impacted this year.
The Nets do have the 31st overall pick this year too, which could help with a Crabbe trade.
Renouncing is a risk, but I suspect keeping the RFA tag on Russell will not matter. He is likely going to be offered more than his value anyway, so an interested team with a big offer will not be shy in putting it out. And he would like to stay I think.
So clearing his cap hold might be the best way to clear enough capace for one max player. If one is landed, that would be even more attraction for Russell to re-sign (unless it’s a PG!).
Of course I think he would be a fool to leave kingmaker Dinwiddie, patient Atkinson, and the Jarrett Allen lob option anytime he wants to spontaneously test the paint.
Nets will trade #27 and Crabbe to the Cavs for JR Smith and waiving/stretch Smith.
How much less is JR’s contract than Crabbe’s and what would the point be in giving up a first round pick for maybe a couple million a year in cap space?
JR is only guaranteed for 3-4MM so the saving is probably around 15MM, which means that Nets need to give more than just a #27 & a useless Crabbe for him.
I could see them creating $6mm by trading Crabbe (18.5mm) to DAL for Courtney Lee (12.7mm) and the 31st pick. I don’t think DAL has any picks and pick 31 is basically a 1st rounder. The Nets would then have about $37mm in cap space. Atkinson may want to keep Lee for vet leadership, 3pt shooting and solid defense. He could also hypothetically be bought out for about $10-11mm (any team would give him a vet min) so a waive & stretch would be about 3mm/yr for 3 years. Then they’d have about $46mm in space. Either way, Crabbe is not untradable. He shot 38.6% from 3 last year and averaged 10ppg on a bumb knee.
Too much gap in salary