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Nets "moving on" without Bogdanovic

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Bojan Bogdanovic

So after weeks of believing they could get a buyout done with Bojan Bogdanovic's Turkish club, the Nets on Wednesday decided to "move on" without him and will pursue "Plan B," a league source tells NetsDaily. The decision is final and definite, said the source.

The word came not long after Billy King told beat writers that he hoped to get a deal done, but had "concern" that the 6'8" Croatian's buyout would prevent him from making it to Brooklyn. Still, King said he was “pretty confident” the buyout would happen. King did tell the beat writers that there's one player worth the mini-MLE if the Bogdanovic deal fell through. Less than a half hour later, the Nets decided to pull the plug and "move on," as the source put it.

"You think you had a deal done and he's coming over," Jason Kidd told Rod Boone and other writers after the summer league loss to the Jazz. "So, but Billy and Dimitry [Razumov, who's Mikhail Prokhorov's right hand man and CEO of Onexim Group] and the guys in management will figure it out what's the plan and which direction we will go now. But you thought he was coming over, but I think Billy and those guys can handle Plan B."

The Nets and Fenerbahce of Istanbul appeared to be locked in a battle for Bogdanovic. His contract, he told NetsDaily in February, has a $2 million buyout. Marc Cornstein, his agent, has described the buyout as "manageable." Fener also just hired Europe's top coach, Zeljko Obradovic, who has been pushing the 6'8" swingman to stay in Turkey. If Bogdanovic does stay, he might demand a contract extension or simply wait till next July when he could get offers from other European clubs as well as the Nets. The Nets will retain his rights, but their interest in him has to be reduced.

In fact, Ken Berger reports late Wednesday that Bogdanovic is nearing an extension of his current contract with Fener.

Just this morning, one of the big Bosnian papers reported that Fener plans on offering Mirza Teletovic a big contract, even though Teletovic is under contract with the Nets until 2015 and has said repeatedly that he has no intention of returning. It appeared to be nothing more than a shot across the Nets bow.

King didn't identify the player who would be Plan B, but only one small forward seems to meet King's description: Andrei Kirilenko. AK-47 has yet to sign a contract and is seeking a multi-year deal, albeit a lot larger than the three-year, $10 million the Nets have to offer. Whether Kirilenko would accept the mini-MLE is quesitonable, the league source admited. The Nets tried to sign AK-47 last year.

King also said that the Nets would not be finalizing either of their vets minimum deals on Wednesday. He hopes the deals with Andray Blatche and Shaun Livingston to be concluded. Of Livingston, King said he would be an ideal running mate for Deron Williams, who the Nets would like to move to shooting guard on occasion.

But King also said the Nets are willing to spend what's needed to win.

“I think it’s great for our fans and for our organization that we have an owner who is willing to spend the money and spend it wisely,” said King. “We didn’t just spend the money to spend it, we feel like we’ve advanced our common goal to win a championship. He believes in what we’re doing, we talk about it and map it out going forward as far as our strategy for the next couple of years and what we want to get to for the next couple of years.”

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