More free agency rumors! More signings! More trades! More threads! But also for the first time since April, current and future Nets will be suiting up for actual games. In fact, this week, there will six games where MarShon Brooks and Deron Williams will play, five for Brooks in the Orlando Summer League and an exhibition game for Williams in Las Vegas. Later in the summer, The Nets European contingent will play a lot of games around the continent.
Sometime in the next week or so, there'll a couple of milestones at Barclays Center. The scoreboard will be hoisted into place above the arena floor and the lettering that spells out "Barclays Center" will be affixed to the weathered steel facade. In about 10 days, the Nets may know who'll play in the Brooklyn opener. NBA schedules were released on July 19 last year.
July 6 - July 11 - Team USA will train daily at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Deron Williams will only go through light workouts and strength and conditioning until July 11. Team USA officials have said D-Will expects to sign his deal as soon as he can on July 11. Since Las Vegas is three hours behind and first signings can take place at midnight Eastern time, he could sign at 9 p.m. Pacific time, over dinner!
July 9 - Final Olympic Draw in London. Of Nets interest: will Russia wind up with the US in Group A, setting up an early faceoff between Team USA, featuring Deron Williams, and Team Russia, featuring his boss.
July 9 - July 16 - Orlando Summer League. MarShon Brooks and two of the three players drafted on June 28, Tyshawn Taylor and Toko Shengelia, will be on hand. Also two former lottery picks, Adam Morrison and Al Thornton, are committed, as are Armor center Jeff Foote, D-League Rookie of the Year Edwin Ubiles and a couple of local products, Shawn Dunston of Fordham and Ashton Gibbs of Pitt (and Seton Hall Prep). Julian Wright won't be playing because of a strained tendon.
July 11 - Teams can begin signing free agents at 12:01 am, meaning Deron Williams, Mirza Teletovic and anyone else the Nets sign before Wednesday can ink their contracts. Also, at 12:01 a.m., Joe Johnson and Reggie Evans become Nets since their trades will become official.
July 11 - 18 - Teams can waive players under the amnesty clause of the new CBA. Only players signed before July 1, 2011 are eligible but a team can only amnesty one player over the course of the CBA. Seven teams, including the Nets, have waived players under the clause. After a player is waived, teams that are under the cap can bid on the player. That will not include the Nets. The highest bid gets the contract. Among players who likely to be waived: Elton Brand by the 76ers. If there are no bidders, amnestied players become unrestricted free agents.
July 12 - Team USA plays Dominican Republic (Al Horford and Francisco Garcia) in Las Vegas, then breaks camp. July 13 is a travel day.
July 14 - 16 - Team USA training, moves to Washington, D.C., concluding with an exhibition vs. Brazil (Tiago Splitter, Anderson Varejao).
July 17- 19 - Team USA moves to Europe where it will stay through August 12. First stop is in Manchester, England, Team USA has an exhibition game July 19 against Team Great Britain (Luol Deng, Ben Gordon) at the Manchester Arena.
Late July - NBA schedule is released. Nets fans will learn who the team will play in its inaugural game at Barclays Center. Will it be the Knicks? Last year, the schedule was released July 19.
July 22 - 24 - Team USA celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Dream Team with exhibition games in Barcelona, site of the 1992 Olympics, against Argentina (Manu Ginobili, Luis Scola, Andres Nocioni) on July 22 and Spain (Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol and Jose Calderon) on July 24.
July 26 - September 11 - Croatia's National Team is not in the Olympics, but it will play 15 games this summer, startgin July 26 vs. the Swiss National Team. Bojan Bogdanovic will play here rather than at the PNY Center. He's unlikely to get out of his contract for another year. One set of games that could be of interest to Nets fans: the Ex-Yugo Tournament starting August 5 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Croatia will play Bosnia: Bogdanovic vs. Mirza Teletovic. Will Teletovic play in the cup or already be in New York?
July 27 – August 12 - 2012 Summer Olympics in London. First mens' basketball game is against France at. 9:30 a.m. ET (2:30 p.m. local) on July 29. Deron Williams will likely be the only Net playing at the Olympics, Bojan Bogdanovic's Croatian team doesn't have an invite. Nor does Mirza Teletovic's Bosnia squad.
August 15 - September 9 - FIBA European Championship Qualifying Round. Bosnia (Teletovic) faces off against Georgia (Toko Shengelia) on August 21 and September 5, assuming they'll be in Ljubljana, not East Rutherford?
September 5 - Expected completion date for Barclays Center. Expect a couple of shakeout events in early September. Moved back from August 27.
September 13 -16 - Basketball Without Borders, Russia. Expect some Nets' representation at this first BWB event in Russia.
September (TBD) - Nets new uniform design to be unveiled, just before training camp. Also, like the Nets team identity, expect the design to be leaked.
September 28 - Opening Night, Barclays Center. Jay-Z will open the arena with a concert.
October 1 - Nets training camp opens this week at PNY Center in East Rutherford.
October 2 - First sporting event at Barclays, a preseason NHL game between the Islanders and Devils.
October 17 - Arena construction documents list this date as first preseason game at the arena. It will likely be earlier. There's some open time around October 5.
October 31 - Opening Night for the Brooklyn Nets, according to those same documents. Arena officials note that this is simply a target date, not set in stone.