Nets Are Scorching

Sources: This is currently Nene's facial expression.

According to Marc Stein of ESPN, The Nuggets have agreed to a five-year, $67 million contract with free agent center Nene. This comes on the heels of reports that the Nets had offered Nene a four-year contract worth somewhere between $60 and $70 million earlier this week. Signing Nene also means less money for the Nuggets to retain Arron Afflalo.

This is the second time this offseason the Nets have reportedly offered more money to a free agent, only to have him choose a different location. The Nets allegedly offered Caron Butler $30 million over four years, only to lose Butler to a three-year, $24 million deal with the Los Angeles Clippers. Five years at $67 million, assuming standard raises, means a starting salary of around $11.7 million for the 29-year-old center and presumed king of the 2011 free agency market.

Nene was one of the major Nets targets throughout free agency, but at five years and $67 million, I’m sure he’ll be happy to stay in Denver. I wasn’t a fan of Nene’s fit next to Brook Lopez, even less so at that prohibitive price.

Of course, this means the Nets must set their sights elsewhere to find help in the interior. Hint, hint.

The Nets have made their first free agent signing of the 2011 offseason, signing forward Shelden Williams to a one-year contract. The Nets will be Williams’s seventh team in six seasons, having played for the Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kings, Minnesota Timberwolves, Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, and most recently the New York Knicks.

Last season, Williams averaged 4.5 points and 4.6 rebounds per game in just over 15 minutes, shooting 46.8% from the field. In 17 games in New York, Williams had a 15.9 PER, with a 64% true shooting percentage while producing 136 points per 100 possessions. The deal is reportedly for the veteran’s minimum.

If Dwight Howard isn’t traded to the Nets by the end of the week, the Nets will move on to their contingency plans and seek alternative means of filling out their roster, a person who has been briefed on the team’s thinking said.

“It won’t go past this week,” the person said, adding that while Howard is the No. 1 target, the Nets “have a Plan A, B, C and D.”

Plan B would appear to be free-agent center Nene, who has the same agent as Howard, Dan Fegan. Free agent Kris Humphries, who averaged a double-double for the Nets last season, would be one of the team’s other options.

The person said, however, that if the Nets walk away from a trade for Howard this week, it doesn’t mean they couldn’t make another attempt to trade for him during the season. The trade deadline is March 15.

via Colin Stephenson — Dwight Howard deal: Nets will move on if trade isn’t made by end of week

If the Nets wait it out and sign Nene to the reported 4-year, $64 million contract (I have to keep saying it to believe it), they’d have to involve a third team in any Howard trade to absorb Hedo Turkoglu’s contract. And no, Nene isn’t tradable for six months at that price, per the new CBA.

Yes, the Nets will move on without a deal, if only because they need to fill their roster. But if and when the opportunity arises, they will always come back to the table.

When it comes to transactions, the Nets are never short on stories, just substance. Over the past few days we’ve been inundated with rumors of Dwight Howard, Nene, David West, Jamal Crawford, Chauncey Billups, Gilbert Arenas (!!!), Richard Jefferson, Caron Butler, Josh Howard, and many more… but other than signing rookies MarShon Brooks and Jordan Williams, the Nets have yet to make an official transaction since free agency began on Friday.

That doesn’t mean something isn’t coming, though. The Nets currently have 11 players officially on their roster for 2011-12, including the non-guaranteed Stephen Graham and probable amnesty victim Travis Outlaw. They need starters at both forward positions, and wouldn’t turn down an upgrade at shooting guard.

Chad Ford takes a look at the top remaining free agents (Insider), and reports that the Nets have shown interest in three players: power forward/center Nene, small forward/Russian Army knife Andrei Kirilenko, and former Nets PF/Kim Kardashian husband Kris Humphries.

Ford confirms earlier reports that the Nets have made a mammoth offer to Nene in the four-year, $60-65 million range, one that hangs in limbo pending results of the Dwight Howard fiasco, but that their interest in Kirilenko and Humphries is tepid at best. Kirilenko’s three-year, $26.5 million asking price is too high for some (though after Caron Butler’s $24 million contract over the same time, it seems par for the course), and while the Nets have shown “the most interest” in Humphries, that’s not saying much.

Hopefully we’ll have something real to report soon. Knowing the NBA, it’ll be at 2 in the morning.

MOSCOW — Mikhail Prokhorov, one of Russia’s richest tycoons and the owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, said Monday he will run against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the March presidential election.

Prokhorov has been cautious not to cross Putin’s path in the past, but the billionaire may pose a serious challenge to Putin, whose authority has been dented by alleged widespread fraud during Russia’s Dec. 4 parliamentary election.

Putin’s party only won about 50 percent of that vote, compared to 64 percent four years ago, and the fraud allegations have allowed opposition parties to successfully mount massive anti-Putin protests in Russia.

via ESPN New York/AP — Nets’ Mikhail Prokhorov to run for Russian presidency

I’m no political pundit, but if the Russian presidential debates occur 1) on a basketball court, 2) in a negotiation room with Johan Petro, or 3) in the middle of flipping a jet-ski, Putin doesn’t stand a chance.

As is the case seemingly every year, the Nets enter training camp playing through rumors of enormous player movement and future developments. Luckily, the two shooting guards — returning Nets starter Anthony Morrow and rookie MarShon Brooks — are avoiding all the talk and just doing what they do best: compete on the hardwood.

As Ben Couch of NJNets.com writes:

“Anthony and MarShon really have a good battle going on,” Johnson said. “And they’re so different. Anthony is Anthony, and now you’ve got the young kid who is very creative with the ball, can score, can play above the rim, really can get out and run.”

…

Though Morrow will likely open the season as the starter, Brooks could push him throughout the year. The 6-foot-5 rookie is a supremely talented scorer, with the athleticism and length to develop into a solid defender at the NBA level.

Morrow knows these things – he first met the younger player while serving as counselor for a Georgia Tech camp Brooks attended during high school. The pair stayed in touch afterward, right through Brooks’ being drafted by the Nets, and Morrow praises Brooks’ natural ability and varied offensive game. But Brooks will need to step up his efforts on the other end of the floor if he hopes to earn major minutes.

“We’re asking him to get more involved defensively: get some more steals, take more chances – be a rookie,” Johnson said. “He’s more of a rookie on offense, and too much of a veteran on defense!”

I’ve talked to a lot of guys, and they’ve expressed a lot of interest in coming here, and I’ve expressed that to the correct people, and none of it’s happened.

I want to win. And I want to be involved. That’s not me being cocky or anything like that, but I do want to be involved with the organization.

-Dwight Howard

Video: Dwight Howard frustrated — ESPN

Marc Stein adds on Twitter that the Nets view Nene as a back-up plan in case their trade for Dwight falls through, and that Nene will assuredly go to the Nuggets, Nets, or Rockets.

In other major trade news, the Clippers are nearing a deal for New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul, just two days after a deal that would have sent Paul to the Lakers fell through.

via Orange County Register Lakers columnist Kevin Ding:

I’m told there’s no way Lakers are trading Bynum and Gasol for Dwight Howard.

December 11, 2011 3:24 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@KevinDing

KEVIN DING

The Lakers don’t have the cap space or a trade exception large enough to swallow Hedo Turkoglu’s remaining three years and $34 million, so taking the Gasol & Bynum pair off the table means that the Lakers will likely have to involve a third team to strike a deal with Orlando.

The Nets currently have a standing offer of Brook Lopez and two first-round draft picks, and are reportedly working to include a third team in the deal.