With eight expiring contracts of one kind or another, the Nets should be a player, if only as a third team, in deadline deals. "Somebody could call looking for an expiring contract and then we'd be in business," Rod Thorn said Tuesday. If things don't work out, writes Al Iannazzone, expect vets, like Tony Battie and Trenton Hassell, to seek buyouts so they can sign elsewhere...and the Nets to audition D-League players.

• Nets notes: Deadline dealing - Al Iannazzone - The Record