And-Ones: D-League, Durant, Ingram
The addition of extra roster spots for “two-way contracts” that would allow NBA teams to stash players in the D-League while still keeping their NBA rights is indeed an idea the NBA is tossing around, commissioner Adam Silver said to Zach Lowe of ESPN.com on “The Lowe Post” podcast (audio link; transcription via James Herbert of CBSSports.com). The idea is those players would make $80-100K, though no specifics are set, Silver added. Players and agents wouldn’t like such a change, as Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor speculates (Twitter link), since it would limit their market to sign full NBA contracts. See more from around the league:
- Kevin Durant has given precious few clues about his upcoming free agency, but he seemed to indicate this weekend that winning a title with the Thunder would indeed make staying in Oklahoma City more attractive, The Oklahoman’s Berry Tramel observes. “I mean, there’s still some guys that stay with one team,” Durant said. “There’s some guys that move. Kobe [Bryant]‘s done it [stayed with one franchise]. Tim Duncan‘s done it. Just as far as staying in one organization, you win a title and it makes it easier for you to ride it out. That’s what those guys have done. Dirk [Nowitzki], guys like that. It’s good to see a few players that’s on the way out that’s had a long career and is still doing it pretty well.”
- A 6’10” frame and 7’3″ wingspan plus encouraging data about his shooting make Duke small forward Brandon Ingram an intriguing candidate to become the first player drafted after Ben Simmons, but Ingram’s frailty and poor defensive rebounding could hold him back, observe Chad Ford and Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com in an Insider-only story.
- The maturation of some patient, shrewd rebuilding efforts, strong coaching and interconference free agent defections are all factors in the resurgence of the Eastern Conference, as USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt examines. The result has pleased the commissioner, as he said on a recent Trail Blazers telecast, Zillgitt notes.
Southwest Notes: Howard, Lawson, Green, Barnes
Rockets interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff called recent trade rumors surrounding the team “noise” and untrue, but he’s nonetheless thankful for them because he feels they’ve brought the locker room together, observes Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. Corey Brewer, ineligible to be traded until January 15th but already reportedly one of the subjects of talks with the Suns, pointed directly at rumors surrounding Dwight Howard.
“You just laugh,” Brewer said, according to Feigen. “It was easy to blow it off. C’mon. Everybody knows Dwight is not unhappy. He comes in here every day smiling. He’s joking around. Him and James [Harden], I don’t see any animosity. We’re just like, “Whatever.’ We didn’t pay any attention. We’re trying to win games.”
See more on the Rockets amid the latest from the Southwest Division:
- Ty Lawson‘s minutes have been dwindling and the Rockets are reportedly cooperating with his representatives to try to find a new home for him, but he told Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston today that, “More than anything I just want to be in the mix with the team” (Twitter link).
- Danny Green has shot poorly from the outside this season, and Gregg Popovich has berated him on the sidelines, as he is wont to do, but Green isn’t thinking about his offense or feeling pressure from the four-year, $40MM contract he signed in the offseason, as Jabari Young of the San Antonio Express-News details. “You’re expected to perform every night at a high level on any team when they sign you to a contract like that,” Green said. “But on this team, not so much. We’re all playing together. We’re all playing well. Pressure? Not as much as you think it is, especially here [where] they make it easy and encourage you. Just keep playing. Keep shooting. Keep doing what you do.”
- Trade acquisition Matt Barnes has proven an asset during a season of uncertainty for the Grizzlies, as Chris Herrington of The Commercial Appeal observes in his Pick-and-Pop column. Now a starter, Barnes is rebounding and hitting 3-pointers at better rates than Jeff Green is, Herrington notes. Both Barnes and Green are poised for free agency at season’s end.
Central Notes: Hoiberg, Cousins, Jackson
The decision to move from Tom Thibodeau to Fred Hoiberg in the offseason wasn’t about ginning up the offense, Bulls GM Gar Forman said to Zach Lowe of ESPN.com, who heard from team sources who say several prominent Bulls players have asked Hoiberg to reinstall elements of the offense Thibodeau ran.
“Fred put in a lot of ball movement, but we have a lot of guys who hold the ball a lot,” Joakim Noah said to Lowe.
Chicago would have had Warriors leading assist-maker Draymond Green had Thibodeau and his staff gotten their way in the 2012 draft, coaches have said to Lowe, but instead they wound up drafting Marquis Teague at No. 29, allowing Green to slip to the Warriors at No. 35. Chicago has an otherwise strong track record at the end of the first round of late, with 2011 30th pick Jimmy Butler the clearest example, Lowe notes. See more from Chicago:
- The Bulls deny that they’re interested in DeMarcus Cousins, Lowe writes in the same piece.
- Andre Drummond played a key role in helping Reggie Jackson feel comfortable in Detroit following the trade that brought in the point guard last season, as James Herbert of CBSSports.com notes amid a feature on Jackson, who re-signed with the Pistons in the offseason. “We had dinners after games,” Jackson said. “It became that. Then it became we played video games, trash talk a little bit about who’s winning here, who’s winning there. Just hanging out all the time. I forgot I had an apartment of my own, I had my own condo — I just basically was at Dre’s all the time. We had practice together and then we would go play the game together, eat together, just hang out. We’d be up all night, end up just talking the game, trying to figure out what we have to do to get better and to try to figure out how to be a dominant force in this league.”
- The signing of Mo Williams threatened to cut Matthew Dellavedova out of playing time at point guard, but he wrested the interim starting job from Williams during Kyrie Irving‘s absence and continues to play a key role now that Irving is back, observes Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Dellavedova, who re-signed with the Cavaliers for the value of his qualifying offer this summer, is again set for restricted free agency in the offseason ahead.
Rockets Explore Ty Lawson Trades, But Market Slow
DECEMBER 22ND, 11:16am: Teams around the NBA have little interest in trading for Lawson, league sources tell Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. Some speculate that Houston will ultimately waive Lawson, Berger hears, though other sources who spoke with the CBS scribe cast doubt on that notion.
12:29pm: The Rockets want to keep Lawson, but the point guard’s camp is seeking a way for him to receive more playing time on another team, a source tells Watkins (Twitter link).
DECEMBER 18TH, 12:10pm: The Rockets and representatives for Ty Lawson are working in tandem to look for possible deals that would send the point guard out of Houston, league sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. The NBA is poised to give Lawson a two-game suspension that stems from a recent legal resolution related to a 2014 DUI charge, Wojnarowski also reports. Lawson was also arrested on DUI charges this past July, an it’s possible that the league will ultimately hand down a separate suspension related to that, tweets Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com.
The news of Houston’s engagement in trade talk involving Lawson represents an apparent change from earlier this month, when the Rockets were holding off on the idea even as teams around the league were of the belief that they’d be able to trade for him on the cheap, according to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders. Lawson said he was on board with interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff‘s decision to remove him from the starting lineup last month. Bickerstaff has said time and again that it was a priority for the team to help him return to his usual high level of play, and that he believed Lawson would ultimately achieve that, but his playing time has continued to dwindle, notes Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle (on Twitter). Lawson has registered fewer than 20 minutes in each of his past three games and, as Feigen points out, he’s totaled only 11 points in the team’s seven games thus far in December (Twitter link). He’s averaging just 5.9 points and 4.2 assists in 25.2 minutes per game this season after posting 15.2 points and 9.6 assists in 35.5 minutes per contest last season with the Nuggets.
The client of Happy Walters gave up the guarantee on his salary of more than $13.213MM for next season to facilitate the trade that sent him from Houston to Denver in July. He’s making more than $12.404MM this season in what’s now the final guaranteed year of his contract, though the suspension will cost him $225,536 out of that figure.
The Rockets, with a disappointing 13-14 record, are in a difficult position as they consider trades, since they’re less than $2MM shy of a $88.74MM hard cap they imposed upon themselves when they signed second-round pick Montrezl Harrell. Houston has three small trade exceptions, one of which expires Saturday, though it would be difficult for the team to use them, since the Rockets can’t add much salary. Today is the last day teams can trade for players and still be eligible to flip them in a trade that aggregates their salary with other players before the February 18th trade deadline, and the Rockets have paid close attention to the aggregation deadline in recent years.
Which teams do you think of as strong fits for Lawson? Leave a comment to share your thoughts:
The Josh Smith Waiver: One Year Later
The Pistons stunned the NBA a year ago today when they waived Josh Smith less than a year and a half after signing him to a four-year, $54MM contract. It wasn’t altogether surprising in a basketball sense, as Smith, Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond represented an antiquated jumbo frontcourt that ran counter to the league’s prevailing small-ball philosophy, but no one would have guessed the team would have taken such a measure because of the amount of money owed to Smith. The stretch provision helps ease that burden, or at least makes it more manageable on a year-to-year basis, but it also means the Pistons will be paying Smith through the year 2020.
We’re looking back at Smith’s release one year after it happened to see how it affected the Pistons, Smith, and the leaguewide use of the stretch provision:
The effect on the Pistons:
Stan Van Gundy, little more than seven months into his first job as an NBA front office executive, pulled off a remarkably bold maneuver, and the results have proven it a wise move. It didn’t take too long for many to anoint Van Gundy a genius as the Pistons, 5-23 when they released Smith, immediately ripped off seven straight wins. They won 12 of their first 15 games after the move, but Brandon Jennings suffered a torn Achilles tendon in their next outing, and they went only 15-24 the rest of the way. The Jennings injury goaded the Pistons into trading for Reggie Jackson, though the merits of that deal, and the subsequent five-year, $80MM free agent contract the Pistons bestowed upon him this past summer, are only indirectly related to Smith.
The Smith move, and specifically the use of the stretch provision to spread his salary, had a much more attributable effect on the team’s trades for Ersan Ilyasova and Marcus Morris and signing of Aron Baynes. Each of those acquisitions required a sizable chunk of cap space, aided by the extra $8.1MM in flexibility the absence of Smith afforded them. Morris, a former lottery pick, is averaging career highs in points, rebounds and assists in his first season as a full-time starter. Ilyasova is the starting power forward and nailing an un-Smith-like 37.3% of his 3-point attempts. Baynes is the backup center and has helped offset the loss of Monroe. Jettisoning Smith didn’t keep Monroe from bolting Detroit in free agency this past summer, but it became apparent last season that almost nothing could. The departures of Smith and Monroe allow the Pistons to embody Van Gundy’s four-out, one-in philosophy, and the team’s 16-12 start represents its best 28-game record since the 2008/09 season, which is also the last time Detroit made the playoffs.
The effect on Josh Smith:
No one was going to claim Smith’s outsized contract off waivers, but once he cleared, he already had a destination lined up, having chosen to sign with former AAU teammate Dwight Howard and the Rockets for the full value of the $2.077MM biannual exception, an amount only marginally above the minimum salary. Of course, Smith didn’t have much choice, since most teams don’t carry cap space into the season, and the money only went on top of what the Pistons still owed him, minus a small amount Detroit recouped via set-off rights. Smith accepted a backup role in Houston, where the Rockets decided to use him mostly at power forward and occasionally as a small-ball center, rather than shoehorn him into small forward, where the Pistons often played him and where he no longer fits in the modern game. He shot more 3-pointers per contest in Houston’s perimeter-oriented offense, but he made a respectable 33.0% of them in the regular season and a proficient 38.0% in the playoffs. It all appeared to click as Smith and the Rockets made it to the Western Conference Finals, and they reportedly had mutual interest in a new deal.
However, the Rockets decided to stay above the cap this past summer, sharply limiting their financial flexibility with Smith, on whom they had only Non-Bird rights. That left them without much ammo to hold off the Clippers, whom Smith found attractive enough to sign with for only the minimum salary. He drew ridicule for overstating the gravity of the monetary sacrifice, but it was nonetheless a deal below market value and one that cost the Pistons a greater return on their continuing obligation to him via set off. In any case, the move hasn’t paid off for either Smith or the Clippers, as he’s averaging career lows in points and minutes per game and has regressed to 31.5% 3-point shooting. The team reportedly gauged the interest that other clubs have in trading for him, though coach/executive Doc Rivers denied doing so. It’s getting worse, though. The 6’9″ Smith, whom the Clippers are using primarily as the backup to DeAndre Jordan at center, took a DNP-CD on Monday, and Rivers indicated that he’ll keep Cole Aldrich as the backup center instead of Smith going forward, as Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times notes (All Twitter links).
The effect on the stretch provision:
The conventional wisdom would hold that given the revival of the Pistons and the struggles of Smith, more teams would see fit to use the stretch provision, even if they don’t use it in such drastic circumstances. That remains to be seen going forward, but in the year since the Smith waiver, teams have appeared more hesitant to use the stretch provision, at least as measured by the activity around August 31st, a key deadline. That’s the last day that salary for the upcoming season may be spread out. The fact that the Pistons waived Smith after August 31st last year is why his full salary — minus the set off amount — counted against the cap last season. Teams used the stretch provision on four players at the end of August 2014, but it didn’t come into play at all as the deadline approached in August 2015. Still, it’s conceivable that Detroit’s use of the stretch provision inspired the Bucks to do the same with the money they still owed Larry Sanders, who gave up $21,935,296 of his $44MM extension in a February buyout. The length of Sanders’ deal was such that the Bucks were able to cut their obligation to him into $1,865,546 segments they’re set to pay each year for seven years after giving him $9,005,882 last season.
Atlantic Notes: Embiid, Bennett, Johnson
It’s been nearly 18 months without an appearance in a game since the Sixers made Joel Embiid the No. 3 overall pick in 2014, but Brett Brown sees signs of progress in the center’s mental approach to his rehab from a lingering foot injury, as Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer relays.
“I just know what I see, just a committed, hopeful athlete,” Brown said. “He sees that he’s doing the right thing. He feels like he’s doing the right thing. He is doing the right thing. So I just see somebody that’s got the edge where he wants to get going again. I think mentally it’s night and day from talking to him this time in December last year.
Embiid has drawn criticism for alleged poor work habits and a contentious attitude, but it seems the Sixers aren’t too worried at this point. See more from the Atlantic:
- Anthony Bennett became the first former No. 1 overall pick to go on D-League assignment this weekend, and the idea for the brief stint was his, Raptors coach Dwane Casey said, according to Jessica Patton of the Toronto Sun. Bennett wanted to see some court time, and Casey is pleased that Bennett and others have approached the team about spending time with the new affiliate in Mississauga. Bennett is one of five Raptors to go on assignment this season, as our log shows.
- The talent-poor Nets are asking a lot from Joe Johnson, and the burden is wearing on the soon-to-be free agent, as Andy Vasquez of The Record examines. Johnson, a 15th-year veteran, called it the toughest season for him since his first or second year in the league, though he insisted that he’s not complaining. The 34-year-old is averaging his fewest points per game since his second NBA season.
- Kristaps Porzingis still lacks bulk, and while he insists he’s not a project and has proven that already this season, his benching for the stretch run Monday is a reminder that the Knicks still have some player development to do with this year’s No. 4 overall pick, observes Kevin Kernan of the New York Post.
Few Teams Carry Cap Space Into Trade Season
The vast majority of NBA teams operate above the salary cap during the regular season each year, and this season is no different. Only four teams currently have space beneath the $70MM cap, and only three of them have any truly significant amount. Those teams have advantages on the rest of the league, not the least of which is the ability to trade for players without having to match salaries.
The Trail Blazers, who lead the league with more than $20MM in cap space, can trade for David Lee, whom the Celtics are reportedly making available, without relinquishing any salary in return. No other team in the NBA has enough cap space or a trade exception large enough to do that, given Lee’s salary of nearly $15.494MM. The Sixers, Jazz and Nuggets would have to match salaries for Lee, since trading for him straight up would take them over the cap.
Here’s a quick glance at each team with cap space, along with a look at the additional space they can open if they release players on non-guaranteed deals. Note that players with non-guaranteed deals account for a prorated cap hit if they’re waived midseason, so each team’s precise amount of cap flexibility changes daily.
- Trail Blazers — Portland has $20.625MM in cap space, with the flexibility to open up about $1.071MM more if they waive the non-guaranteed contract of Tim Frazier and the partially guaranteed contracts of Cliff Alexander and Luis Montero.
- Sixers — Philadelphia has about $10.838MM in cap space, with the flexibility to open up about $2.077MM more if they waive the non-guaranteed contracts of Robert Covington, Hollis Thompson, JaKarr Sampson, Christian Wood and T.J. McConnell. (They can only waive as many as four of them, since the NBA doesn’t allow rosters to shrink beyond 11 at any point during the regular season. That fact is reflected in the amount of additional cap flexibility calculated here.)
- Jazz — Utah has about $7.264MM in cap space, with the flexibility to open up about $1.66MM more if they waive the non-guaranteed contracts of Chris Johnson, Jeff Withey and Elijah Millsap.
- Nuggets — Denver has about $1.384MM in cap space, with the flexibility to open up about $450K more if they waive Kostas Papanikolaou‘s partially guaranteed deal.
One more team is above the cap but has the flexibility to sneak below it. The Magic have a payroll of less than $70MM, but because they claim a trade exception worth nearly $1.6MM, slightly more than their $1.54MM margin beneath $70MM, they’re an over-the-cap team. They could renounce the exception at any time and dip below the cap by that approximately $1.54MM figure, however.
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
And-Ones: Union, Tucker, Labissiere
The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association are on solid footing with each other, commissioner Adam Silver and union president Chris Paul indicate to Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post. Both sides reportedly want to make significant progress toward a new collective bargaining agreement over the next year.
“I’m not going to rank the relationship, as compared to other times,” Silver said to Bontemps. “I would only say that the relationship, from my standpoint, is very healthy right now between the league and the players’ association.”
Less than a year remains before the December 15th, 2016 deadline for either side to exercise its mutual option to terminate the existing collective bargaining agreement after next season. See more on the players union amid the latest from around the NBA:
- The union has filed a multimillion dollar countersuit against former executive director Billy Hunter, reports Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. Hunter is seeking $10.5MM in damages as part of his suit, and while the union didn’t specify how much it’s looking for, Berger suggests the number is in excess of $6MM. A new collective bargaining agreement between the union and the NBA is likely to come before resolution on the Hunter matter, Berger contends.
- P.J. Tucker is drawing interest from many teams around the league, as TNT’s David Aldridge indicates within his Morning Tip column for NBA.com, one that suggests a series of trade ideas. The Suns small forward is making $5.5MM this season but has only $1.5MM guaranteed for next year.
- Kentucky forward/center Skal Labissiere‘s draft stock continues to fall, as Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress slots him at No. 5 in his latest mock draft and rankings, having dropped him from No. 1 to No. 3 earlier this month. LSU combo forward Ben Simmons tops Givony’s latest list, with Duke small forward Brandon Ingram and power forward Dragan Bender of Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv to follow.
Atlantic Notes: Williams, Silver, Lopez, Caboclo
Deron Williams thought about quitting the game during his struggles with the Nets, as he tells Michael Lee of Yahoo Sports. The 31-year-old isn’t concerned about the idea that he couldn’t hack it in New York and wishes his time with the team had gone better so that people didn’t feel as though he was “just stealing money,” as Lee details, with Williams once again saying that he’s pleased to be with the Mavericks now.
“It took a lot out of me, man, those three years [after re-signing with the Nets for the max in 2012]. Some of the hardest in my life,” Williams said. “Made me question if I even wanted to play basketball when I was done with that contract.”
See more from the Atlantic Division:
- Commissioner Adam Silver admits that he’s not a fan of the Sixers‘ rebuilding strategy of the past two and a half seasons but said that it doesn’t mean it’s not acceptable under league rules, and he once more denied that Philly’s hiring of Jerry Colangelo happened because of pressure from owners of other teams. Silver made his comments on FiveThirtyEight’s “Hot Takedown” podcast.
- The Knicks are thinking about removing Robin Lopez, who signed a four-year deal worth more than $54MM in the offseason, from the starting lineup in favor of Lance Thomas, who inked for less than $1.637MM on a one-year deal, according to Marc Berman of the New York Post. Thomas has a reputation as coach Derek Fisher‘s “favorite Knick,” Berman writes, and he showed up this season with an improved outside shot and 15 added pounds of muscle, as the Post scribe details, suggesting it’ll play to his benefit when he hits free agency again this summer.
- The Raptors have assigned Bruno Caboclo and Norman Powell to the D-League, the team announced. Caboclo has seen extensive D-League action this season, while Powell is making his second trip to Raptors 905, just two days after his first. Toronto recalled Powell, Caboclo and Anthony Bennett from the D-League on Sunday afternoon (Twitter link).
Where Are They Now?: Ex-Sixers From Hinkie Era
Sixers GM Sam Hinkie likes to point to Robert Covington, whom the team signed in mid-November last year, as symbolic of the value in trolling the fringes of the NBA’s talent pool for overlooked talent. The team has had other successes, notably with camp invitee T.J. McConnell, but it’s taken a lot of work to sort through the chaff. A whopping 45 players are no longer with the Sixers after having appeared on their regular season roster at some point since the team hired Hinkie in May 2013, and only 16 of them, barely more than a third, are still in the NBA. Eleven of the 45 are playing overseas, 10 are in the D-League, six are free agents and two have announced their retirements.
Hinkie inherited Lavoy Allen, Spencer Hawes, Evan Turner and Thaddeus Young, so if you discount them, he’s cycled a dozen current NBA players through his regular season roster. A few, like former Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams and Ish Smith, have played prominent roles for other NBA teams this season, but none is approaching stardom.
This list of ex-Sixers who’ve appeared on the team’s regular season roster during Hinkie’s tenure includes players who never actually suited up for the team, like Andrei Kirilenko, but it doesn’t include camp invitees or players who passed through the team’s hands during the offseason. Still, it demonstrates the volume of moves the team has made and the lack of eye-popping names involved. Their current whereabouts are noted, with bold text marking those still in the NBA:
- Furkan Aldemir — playing in Turkey with Darussafaka Dogus
- Lavoy Allen — with Pacers
- James Anderson — with Kings
- Kwame Brown — free agent
- Lorenzo Brown — playing in D-League with Pistons affiliate
- Michael Carter-Williams — with Bucks
- Earl Clark — playing in D-League with Suns affiliate
- Jared Cunningham — with Cavaliers
- Brandon Davies — playing in Italy with OpenJobMetis Varese
- Dewayne Dedmon — with Magic
- Larry Drew II — playing in France with AS Monaco Basket
- Tim Frazier — with Trail Blazers
- Drew Gordon — playing in France with Chalons-Reims CB
- Danny Granger — free agent
- Jorge Gutierrez — playing in D-League with Cavs affiliate
- Spencer Hawes — with Hornets
- Chris Johnson — with Jazz
- Darius Johnson-Odom — playing in Turkey with Trabzonspor
- Andrei Kirilenko — retired
- Malcolm Lee — free agent (scheduled to try out for Nes-Ziona of Israel, international journalist David Pick reports via Twitter)
- Eric Maynor — playing in Russia with Nizhny Novgorod
- Luc Mbah a Moute — with Clippers
- K.J. McDaniels — with Rockets
- JaVale McGee — with Mavericks
- Darius Morris — free agent (suffered offseason foot injury)
- Arnett Moultrie — playing in Lebanon with Sporting Al Riyadi Beirut
- Byron Mullens — playing in D-League with Heat affiliate
- James Nunnally — playing in Italy with Sidigas Avellino
- Daniel Orton — playing in D-League with Warriors affiliate
- Phil Pressey — playing in D-League with Jazz affiliate
- Jason Richardson — retired
- Ronald Roberts Jr. — playing in D-League with Raptors affiliate
- Glenn Robinson III — with Pacers
- Thomas Robinson — with Nets
- Alexey Shved — playing in Russia with Khimki
- Henry Sims — playing in D-League with Pistons affiliate
- Ish Smith — with Pelicans
- Adonis Thomas — free agent (suffered season-ending wrist injury)
- Malcolm Thomas — playing in D-League with Lakers affiliate
- Ronny Turiaf — free agent
- Evan Turner — with Celtics
- Jarvis Varnado — playing in Italy with Banco di Sardegna Sassari
- Casper Ware — playing in China with Tianjin Ronggang
- Elliot Williams — playing in D-League with Warriors affiliate
- Thaddeus Young — with Nets