Dwight Howard is happy Vince Carter has joined the Magic, blogging that “He’s been telling me for years that he wanted to play in Orlando”, but he’ll miss Courtney Lee, Tony Battie and Rafer Alston. “He’s going to be a great player”, he says of Lee, his best friend on the team. “We wouldn’t have gotten to the Finals without you Skip,” he shouts out to Alston. Ang Battie, “Tony was like my older brother here in Orlando.”

In a 45-minute conference call, Rod Thorn told season ticket holders he expects the Nets to be “$27 to $30 million under the cap” in 2010, permitting them “if we so choose, to sign two maxed-out players”. He didn’t rule out moves this summer and denied Bruce Ratner forced him to trade Vince Carter, adding it’s a “terrible spot to be in when you have a star in the later stages of his career and you’re not a good team.”

LSU’s shot-blocking center, Chris Johnson, UConn tough guy Jeff Adrien and Texas sharp shooter A.J. Abrams top the list of players invited to the Nets summer league team. All three were considered possible second round picks, but weren’t called. Jason Ellis of the Idaho Stampede is the fourth Nets invitee on the combined Sixer-Nets roster. They’ll join Chris Douglas-Roberts and Terrence Williams.

As expected, the Nets announced Monday morning that they have exercised the team option on Jarvis Hayes’ contract for 2009-10. Hayes provided solid minutes off the bench for the Nets last season and is considered a bargain at a little more than $2 million for next season. The move gives the Nets a full roster of 15 players. Trenton Hassell has until Tuesday to exercise a $4.4 million player option.

New York’s Empire State Development Corp. has scheduled hearings July 29-30 on Bruce Ratner’s revised plans for the Barclays Center and Atlantic Yards project. It’s anticipated that the ESDC will move soon after to approve the project. Ratner needs the approval–and a favorable ruling from the Court of Appeals–before he can market a half billion dollars in arena bonds. It’s all helping Ratner’s stock price.

The Nets, 76ers and Knicks have signed an affiliation agreement with the Armor, the new D-League team in Springfield, MA, the birthplace of the sport and home of the Basketball Hall of Fame. The Nets had previously worked with the Colorado 14ers, which was disbanded. The Nets sent two players to Colorado: Mile Ilic, who was severely injured, and Sean Williams, who the 14ers returned to the Nets.

Work on both a 2.3-mile rail link and a new Meadowlands train station is complete and service is expected to begin before the Giant and Jets play their first preseason games at old Giants Stadium in mid-August. There will be direct service to the Meadowlands from Hoboken. Riders on other NJ Transit lines will be able to transfer to the rail link at Secaucus Junction. Trains will run for two hours after games end.

They’re getting worried in Cleveland again now that the Nets have cleared more than $25 million in cap space next summer. Should they be? Maybe, maybe not. The Nets aren’t saying how they’ll spend all that money…or if they will. There have been no guarantees. Kiki Vandeweghe, in fact, said Friday that the Nets could decide to spend their money on the Nets’ cadre of younger players, spend from within.