The Nets have extended a $9,160,706 qualifying offer to guard D’Angelo Russell in order to make him a restricted free agent, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.
Russell has a cap hold of $21,059,095, meaning they’ll have approximately $46MM in cap space entering free agency. However, if they secure commitments from two other high-level free agents, they can still renounce Russell’s rights or not match an offer sheet for him, which would open up approximately $68MM in cap space.
Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant as expected to be Brooklyn’s top targets and there have been conflicting reports whether they’d retain Russell if Irving commits and Durant doesn’t.
The Nets can offer Russell a five-year, $158MM deal while the biggest offer sheet he could receive is $117MM over four years.
The Magic, Timberwolves, Pacers and Lakers are some possible suitors for Russell in free agency. Russell was a finalist for the league’s Most Improved Player award after averaging 21.1 PPG and 7.0 APG in 81 games this season.
Smart by them I guess. He would have definitely accepted an offer from LA. Wonder if a sign and trade to somewhere is in talks
He still can; he’s just RFA now.
Sign and trade probably only likely in this case if the Nets signed Irving but not Durant and could actually get a truly valuable player or two for the five-year max they’d have to offer the outbound Russell to make it worth his while.
No reason not to. Little chance he accepts it before they can withdraw it.
This is a smart decision on the part of Brooklyn. He obviously will not except it and then once they sign or if they sign Kyrie Irving they can just withdraw the offer.
I didn’t realize that they could renounce at any time. If that’s the case, of course it makes sense. With so many conflicting stories, you don’t know what’s going to happen anyway.
If they don’t sign KD out Kyrie it’s not heard to believe that every team that Brooklyn stuck it to by offering Max for bum players will want to return the favor
He will probably get the max anyway, his max isn’t as much as the 8 year vets.
I wish the Bulls would do a sign and trade for Russell. Nets get to open up a sizable trade exception and Bulls get to add a legit piece to their puzzle, but they won’t do it because they’re the Bulls. Oh well. Good luck, Brooklyn.
Marks would do it if GarPax threw in a protected future 1st or a CPL 2nds. I think he’s got something worked out with Minnesota.