:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/50068209/GettyImages-513255072.0.jpg)
Well, it looks like Mike Mazzeo was right.
Think both T. Johnson and A. Crabbe's offer sheet matching decisions must be made by 11:59 ET Sunday night.
— Mike Mazzeo (@MazzESPN) July 10, 2016
After a lot of refreshing and even more confusion, it appears that Nets fans will have to wait until one minute before midnight Sunday to find out if Miami and Portland will match Brooklyn's offer sheets for Tyler Johnson and Allen Crabbe.
If the Nets can sign both, it will be a spectacular success for Sean Marks strategy of overpaying young (24-year-old) restricted free agents to make up for the Nets lack of assets, particularly draft picks. As Marks has said, the leading asset the Nets have is a committed ownership. If one but not the other, it will still be a success, giving the Nets another big "building block" to go with the youth they already have on the roster. But if both teams match, the Nets will be hard-pressed to avoid head-shaking disappointment from fans.
The Nets have structured the deals, particularly the Crabbe deal, in such a way to make it tough to match.
Crabbe/TJ offer sheets also both have trade bonuses Blazers/Heat would need to match, making it even harder to trade them down the line.
— Albert Nahmad (@AlbertRandom1) July 10, 2016
Would also have up to $64M tied up in Lillard ($26M) + Turner ($17M) + Crabbe ($19M - $21M), as CJ McCollum becomes RFA next summer.
— Albert Nahmad (@AlbertRandom1) July 10, 2016
There is no doubt a Plan B. Mikhail Prokhorov's business philosophy has always been to have, as he says, Plans B, C, D and so forth. We don't know what that plan would be but note that any depth chart on the Nets this summer has shown big holes up front, you'd have to think the Nets would move on to finding a back-up center. There isn't much out there, players like Jared Sullinger, an RFA; Tyler Zeller, who may have been renounced by Boston, and Jordan Hill, an unrestricted free agent. And even if the Nets sign Johnson and Crabbe, the Nets will still have around $6.43 million to play with. As for wings, the cupboard is a bit more bare, with baggage-lade players like Dion Waiters and Lance Stephenson still out there.
As for the two teams contemplating matches, nothing has changed. Neither Miami nor Portland have made any moves since Friday when the Blazers signed Festus Ezeli to a two-year $14.7 million deal with the second year a team option.
Meanwhile, we're with Johnson's sentiment expressed last night.
Anxiety setting in lol
— Tyler Johnson (@RealTJohnson) July 10, 2016