The Nets have officially announced a pair of signings, adding free agent forward E.J. Liddell on a two-way contract and finalizing their previously reported deal with free agent big man Day’Ron Sharpe (Twitter links).
Liddell, 24, was the 41st overall pick in the 2022 draft but tore his ACL in the Summer League just a few weeks later, wiping out his rookie season. The 24-year-old has since appeared in just 20 total NBA games for the Pelicans and Bulls and has seen extremely limited playing time. In 76 total NBA minutes across the past two seasons, he has scored 25 points and grabbed 14 rebounds.
However, Liddell has been more productive in the NBA G League, including in 27 outings last season for the Windy City Bulls. He averaged 15.7 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 2.5 assists in 32.3 minutes per game for Chicago’s NBAGL affiliate, posting a shooting line of .472/.361/.661.
Despite technically having been in the NBA for three seasons, Liddell still has two years of two-way eligibility left, since he missed one of those three seasons in its entirety due to an injury. He and Tyson Etienne are Brooklyn’s current two-way players, leaving one slot still open.
Meanwhile, Sharpe’s two-year, $12MM agreement with the Nets was reported was back on June 30, before the free agent period officially opened. The club has been putting off completing that deal – and Ziaire Williams‘ similar two-year, $12MM pact – in order to keep its options open with its cap room.
Still, all indications were that at least one of those two contracts would have to be signed using cap space, since the Nets renounced both players and wouldn’t be able to fit both Sharpe and Williams into their $8.8MM room exception. With that in mind, officially re-signing Sharpe doesn’t significantly impact Brooklyn’s flexibility — the team should still have more than $10MM in room available.
Jeremy Lin retired so some EJ Liddell can get signed
Sharpe’s and Williams’ contracts are for two years each, not 2-way. As for EJ Liddell, I remember him being a star at Ohio State when they played Rutgers in Big Ten games. Hopefully, he’s fully recovered from his injuries.
I saw Liddell live last season for the Windy City Bulls. He looked head and shoulders above the rest of the players in that game. Just bully ball. Hopefully he catches on as a rotation wing somewhere!
He looked pretty unremarkable on the Nuggets summer league squad, but to be fair that whole team was really weak