With only a few documents left to sign, Mikhail Prokhorov is fully expected to take control of the Nets Wednesday. With that, the team gets down to preparing for a new coach, busy nights on May 18 (Draft Lottery) and June 24 (Draft) and an even busier week starting July 1 (Free Agency). Here's a list of key dates for the ownership transfer, NBA Draft and free agency....
May 8 - NCAA Draft Early Entry Entrant Withdrawal Deadline.
May 10 - Nets ownership group meets to approve arena lease with Empire State Development Corp. and transfer of ownership from Bruce Ratner's New Jersey Basketball to Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim Sports & Entertainment Holdings USA.
May 11 - NBA Board of Governors formally approves Nets' ownership transfer to Prokhorov. Vote expected to be unanimous.
May 12 - Final closing of the sale of the Nets (80%) and Barclays Center (45%) to Onexim. Prokhorov becomes Nets principal owner.
May 14 - Premiere for "Just Wright" the Nets-centric movie with Queen Latifah and Common.
May 18 – Before a conference championship game, representatives of the 14 non-playoff teams gather in Secaucus for the NBA Draft lottery. Prokhorov is expected to be on the dais representing the Nets.
May 19-23 - NBA Pre-Draft Combine in Chicago. Fifty-two top prospects gather in Chicago the morning after the Lottery to be measured and interviewed, then show off their skills to NBA GM's. Top picks usually only stay long enough to be measured.
June 5-7 - Adidas Eurocamp. Although this is not seen as a big year for Europeans players, the best will gather in Treviso, just outside Venice, for the international version of the Pre-Draft combine.
June 9-11 - Eighteen NBA teams gather at the Nets' practice facility in East Rutherford for the first group workout. A total of 36 draft prospects will be on hand.
June 14 - International Draft Early Entry Entrant Withdrawal Deadline (5:00 p.m. ET)
June 24 – NBA Draft, Madison Square Garden, New York (7:00 p.m. ET). Nets' $1.37 million trade exception, the remainder of the Vince Carter trade exception, expires.
June 29-30 -- Nets must exercise team options for Keyon Dooling ($3.82 million with a $500,000 buyout) and Chris Douglas-Roberts ($854,389). Kris Humphries must exercise his player option ($3.2 million). Contracts for Rod Thorn and Kiki Vandeweghe as well as the rest of the Nets' coaching staff expire. Of front office and coaching staffs, only Bobby Marks, Thorn's VP of basketball operations, has a contract beyond June 30.
June 30 - Deadline for two businesses to leave the larger Atlantic Yards footprint. One of the buildings in question will be used as office space for construction operations.
July 1 - NBA teams can begin negotiating with free agents. Expect reports of signings almost immediately. Nets can renounce cap holds for players with expiring contracts.
July 8 - NBA teams can officially begin signing free agents.
July 19-24 - Team USA training camp in Las Vegas. Brook Lopez one of 31 players invited.