A lesser point to add:

Najera was under contract through 2012, so the Nets have also reduced their “committed” team salary for the 2011 free agent season.

I think the Nets are now in that gray area between the salary cap and the luxury tax because of the buyout of Shawne Williams. However, because they still have (I think) a trade exception left, they could still help another team that is over the tax threshold reduce its salary commitment. Let me know if I’m wrong about this.

I believe you are correct, but they are nowhere near the luxury tax threshold.

The Nets also saved nearly $1 million on the Alston buyout and received $640,000 from the Heat to cover Quinn’s salary.

By my calculations, the Nets continue to hold a trade exception worth $1.31 million, which for trade purposes is $1.41 million.

An article on trade exceptions from Larry Coons, published yesterday.

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=14923

I am still confused by this. Seems like the Mavs wanted Najera (not sure why?) and had no use for Humphries. Wouldn’t a straight swap have been sufficient? Why do they have to ADD payroll, buyout Shawne, cut Sean and use their trade exception on the second trade? Seems strange…

Thanks NetIncome, nice round up.

I would predict that Josh Boone is likely next up to be on the move as there is a little bit of speculation already so it wouldn’t come as a major shock.

I still believe the Nets are in the market for AK47 before the trade deadline.

One possible idea why the Nets might be piling up draft picks could be a potential trade with the Rockets for T-Mac. I don’t think there are many more GMs in the league which have the vision of what to do with draft picks including second rounders than Houston’s Daryl Morey.

And getting T-Mac would put us even further under the cap in the summer.

Seems like the Mavs got more out of this since they wanted Najera back and got salary help while the Nets had to give up assets to make that happen.

I don’t understand why they’re shopping Dooling, though. With the way he fits with the team compared to the value his name has on the market, they’ll likely trade him for 70 cents on the dollar.

@ Galen

The Mavs are over the salary cap and have to pay $2 dollars for every dollar over the cap ($1 for salary and $1 for luxury tax). The Mavs probably wanted more than just Najera for Hump, given that Hump is probably more valuable to us than Najera (based on youth, potential, ability to play in rotation right away). By trading away a Shawne Williams for a trade exception, Dallas was able to get under the cap and save about 4.7 million (approx 2 times Williams salary).

On our end we probably figured that we probably couldn’t get anything for SWAT, so buying him out was probably going to happen anyway.

In the worst case scenario we’ll be basically paying 4.56 million (Hump’s contact + Williams’s buyouts) for Hump’s services for the rest of the season.

BTW: I don’t think we’ll be getting as favorable terms as we did on the Alston buyout. Alston probably had an offer from the Heat prior to the buyout. Plus he’s a solid veteran with loads of value to MANY teams. Both William’s are raw young players who might never get anything better than their rookie deal. Plus, it will be a tough sell to get 24 y/o players to give up hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Thanks for the input, Brian. I guess it is worth the money if Hump has some real value to the Nets. I really don’t know anything about him though… is he really a quality rotation player? Glad to see Najera getting a chance somewhere else as he is a stand-up guy.

Sad to see the Nets shopping Boone, although I understand it. As a Huskies fan I always rooted for him and admired his intelligence. I would be interested to know how Nets fans feel Boone compares to Hump and what this means for the prospects of the bench rotation moving forward.

I suspect that Dallas tossed in some cash to cover Shawne Williams’ salary.

^possibly—-would make the deal more palatable.

Thanks. You do a great job!

I’m pretty sure that $4.7 mill figure is wrong. http://www.nba.com/2009/news/07/07/salarycap.ap/index.html
Shawne Williams is owed some portion of his remaining salary and the Mavs owe some amount in luxury taxes but not the 1 for 1 on his entire contract. I suspect the league makes the teams pay on a schedule so that teams wouldn’t acquire a couple of extra million on their books and still have their previous team pay the tax. For example, Rafer Alston was bought out by the Nets and signed with the Heat. If the Heat were to pay the tax only at one time during the year, then they could just waive their players close to the end of the year and not have to pay the tax (granted someone else picks them up).

That’s why I’m saying the figure is closer to whatever amount Shawne Williams is owed for the rest of the year * 2. That would put the figure between 2 and 2.6 million for the Mavs in salaries and taxes.

Nice summary NI

This move points to 2011 as the target free agency year – ie… the Carmelo Sweepstakes. Good point by retep, dooling should stay. Name recognition aside, Dooling is a better player than Harris, who is the worst defensive guard on the planet.