Nets Are Scorching

In the fifth and final game of summer league, the Nets enjoyed their easiest victory yet, securing a winning record by defeating a depleted Boston Celtics roster 86-68. Despite Luke Harangody’s excellent play (18 points & 8 rebounds) and the absence of Damion James and Terrence Williams (who sat for the game after a short stint in the first), the Nets had a great all-around game from start to finish. Many of the role players played well – Jakim Donaldson was active all game and finished with 15 points on 5-6 shooting from both the field and the line, Brandon Heath showed off an impressive touch, and Connor Atchley attacked the boards – this fifth summer league game was won because of the excellent play of the guy we’ve all been waiting for to break out: Derrick Favors. Let’s see what it was he did so well.

Read more…

The Nets have made three signings (two signings and one offer sheet to be exact, but we will count all three as if they sign with the Nets for purpose of this discussion) over the past week.  This obviously means that the amount of money the Nets have in terms of cap space has decreased.  I think now is a good time to look at where we stand, so we can see what moves are available moving forward:

Numbers from the great site ShamSports.com

* – The $500,000 attributed to Keyon Dooling is the guaranteed portion of his contract.  $500,000 of his 2010 salary was guaranteed, so if he was cut (which is what happened) he gets paid that amount and it goes against the Nets cap.

** – The rookies aren’t signed yet, this is just 100% of the cap hold attributed to their draft slot.

*** – Unlike the Outlaw deal (which has been announced at a $7,000,000 flat per year basis) the per year figures for these two deals hasn’t come out yet.  Just divided the total amount by the total years to get a close enough estimate.

Alright, so as everything stands right now, the Nets are currently sitting with right around $19,500,000 in salary they can offer for this upcoming season.  What we heard from Chad Ford is that they don’t plan on spending all of it:

The Nets plan to use about $20 million of their $30 million in cap space this summer. The plan is to hang on to the other $10 million to use as an asset for in-season trades (they way the Thunder have masterfully done the past two years) and, if nothing materializes, roll the cap space over to the 2011 season.

If this report is true, the Nets plan on spending about another $10 million while holding onto the rest.  This could change though, especially if the Nets want to make an offer on a guy like Luis Scola.  The only way the Nets can get him is if they make an offer of something like $13 or $14 million a year (and even then, it isn’t a guarantee that the Rockets don’t match).  That deal would also still leave them with around $5 million for in season moves, and give them some cap room to carry over into next year.  I think this will be the move we hear about next.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski (who by the way is a must follow during the offseason) the Nets have come to an agreement with big man Johan Petro:

Center Johan Petro has reached agreement on a three year, $10 million deal with New Jersey, league sources tell Y!.

Ugh.  This is the first head-scratcher in my opinion.  Petro is obviously coming in to be Brook’s backup (and he is a good backup at that), but at $3.3 million per year (also 3 years?!?!)?  Even in an offseason where everyone is getting overpaid, that is way too much.  The Nets also know have four post players in Brook, Petro, Favors, and Hump.  Hopefully this isn’t what we are entering the season with because as of right now we don’t have a starting quality PF.

With that being said, this isn’t reason to go crazy and panic.  Overpaying for a guy like Petro sucks, no question, but it isn’t like the Nets spent their final $3.3 million on him.  Yes, I realize I am rationalizing right now…