Deadlines and Commitments No. 60

We'll be updating this feature regularly throughout the off-season to help fans figure out what's next.  Off-seasons are no longer seasons away from the game. The front office is obviously busy and a number of the players are as well, with off-season workouts and in the case of international players, FIBA tournaments.

We start with the Draft Combine, where Nets officials are already on hand in Chicago.

May 13-17 -- Chicago Pre-Draft Combine. It starts with interviews, then measurements, 5 x 5 workouts and finally medical tests by NBA doctors.  Most prospects will be put through all of that, but top prospects will just participate in the medical tests and measurements. 

May 19 -- 2015 NBA Draft Lottery. Not an issue, thank God.

June 1 - 25 -- Nets will conduct Pre-Draft Workouts at their training facility. At least 50 to 60 prospects will travel to East Rutherford.  It will be the last workouts held in the facility with the Nets moving to the HSS Training Facility next year.

June 6-8 -- Adidas Treviso Euro Camp, held just outside Venice, Italy. The Pre-Draft Combine for overseas --primarily European-- players. Same drill -- interviews, measurements, 5 x 5 workouts, medical tests.

June 15 -- NBA Draft Early Entry Withdrawl. Underclassmen have until today to return to school. But if they have hired an agent, their eligibility is done.

June 22 - Thaddeus Young must decide on a player option by this date. If he does opt out, he will be an unrestricted free agent. But with national TV money going to flood the system in 2016, leading to much bigger deals, he could  stay.

June 25 -- 2015 NBA Draft, Barclays Center. The Nets have two picks, the Hawks' first round pick at No. 29, and their own in the second round at No. 41. Don't be surprised if the Nets buy a pick in the second round to find a Euro who can be stashed and developed for a year or two.  It will be the fifth consecutive draft held in the Nets home arena, two at Prudential Center, two at Barclays Center.  Following the draft, Nets scouts will start calling the undrafted, offering them spots on summer league team.

June 29 -- The two other Nets with player options must decide whether to stay with Brooklyn another season or try their hand in free agency.  The two are Brook Lopez and Alan Anderson. Anderson has already said he's going to opt out of his $1.7 million deal. Lopez can either stick around another year, reap the big salaries the new national TV rights contracts permit in 2016, or seek longer term deals now. The current thinking is that Lopez will opt out.

June 30 -- Nets must offer Mirza Teletovic a qualifying offer ($4.21 million) for next season or he becomes an unrestricted free agent.  Jerome Jordan will not be offered qualifying money but could still return.

July 1 -- The Nets can talk to free agents, but can't sign them.  Unless things change, the team will again be limited to the mini-MLE of around $3.4 million to sign free agents. And if Lopez opts out, then they will have to make a decision on how much they want to spend to keep him.  Expect the first rumors of signings on July 2. Biggest deals get revealed first.  A lot of this is in the works even now.

Those Nets with expiring deals become free agents as well.  Teletovic becomes a restricted free agent meaning the Nets can match any offer.   Four Nets have non or  partially guaranteed deals: Earl Clark, Darius Morris, Markel Brown and Cory Jefferson. In the case of Brown, his contract goes from non-guaranteed to partially guaranteed on July 1. He will receive $100,000 if he's still on the roster which is highly likely.  Cory Jefferson will get $75,000 on July 15. Each month they stay on the roster, they get a bigger guarantee until September 29, when they become fully guaranteed.

July 9 -- Official free agent signings begin. Lots of players sitting at tables signing papers filled with many zeros.

July 4-10 -- Orlando Summer League, the first of two summer leagues where the Nets will field a team, opens at the Magic practice facility.  Ten teams are expected to participate, including one of unsigned D-League players. Expect Mason Plumlee, Brown, Jefferson, Xavier Thames, the 59th pick last year, as well as this year's draft picks and those players the Nets scouted and liked but went undrafted.

July 10-20 -- Las Vegas Summer League. For the first time since 2008, the Nets will field teams in two summer leagues. The Vegas league has more teams and its games are open to the public. (Road trip?).  Free agents can switch teams, playing for one team in Orlando and another in Las Vegas.

July 24 - European national teams will gather at training camps for Eurobasket 2015. Bojan Bogdanovic will play for Croatia and Mirza Teletovic may play for Bosnia, depending on the status of his NBA contract.. Sergey Karasev may be able to play for Russia. He is in full rehab from his March knee surgery. He expects to resume contact basketball in August.  (He's told Stefan Bondy he's likely to travel with the summer league teams to Orlando and Las Vegas, where he got married in a helicopter!)

The actual games start September 5 after a round of exhibition ("friendly") games and run through the championship game on September 20 in Lille, France,  Some teams, like Croatia, have as many as nine "friendlies."  The final game is 10 days before the opening of NBA training camps. Croatia is expected to be a title contender and if both Teletovic and Jusuf Nurkic of the Nuggets play for Bosnia, they could do well, too. Russia is rebuilding. Two years ago, Bogdanovic made the first team All-Eurobasket.  And of course, the Nets could draft or sign other Europeans.

First week of August -- NBA schedule released. Will Nets wear their neat new cream-colored, "Christmas Card" uniforms on December 25?

Late July/August -- Teams fill out their rosters with mostly vets minimum deals.

October 1 -- Training camp opens, but not at the new $50 million HSS Training facility on 39th Street in the Industry City section of Brooklyn. It won't be ready for training camp or apparently the season, so the team's 38-year tenure in New Jersey continues.  Thames has said he's been invited.  Who knows who else will be there to pick up their jerseys.