/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/55726081/usa_today_10126739.0.jpg)
This could change at any minute with a WojBomb or ShamWow, but here’s our best guesstimate of where the Nets stand with their cap space; exceptions; salary dumps; stretch payments; two-way G-League contracts; draft picks; even draft stashes.
As of Saturday afternoon, they have more cap space than any NBA team. The question is whether they will spend it, trade into it or simply hold onto it until next July when few teams will have cap space ... and the Nets would have tens of millions of dollars.
The basis for the data was derived from ESPN Insider, Basketball Insiders, Sportrac and Pro Sports Transactions web pages ... and maybe communications with a “league source” or two.
CAP SPACE: The Nets have $16.7 million in cap space left. That’s 15 contracts with the addition of DeMarre Carroll on Thursday. Of those 15, 12 are guaranteed. The other three —Quincy Acy, Spencer Dinwiddie and Archie Goodwin— are owed a combined total of around $4.8 million, nearly evenly divided. If the Nets want or need to increase cap space, they can with the stroke of a pen ... although that changes a bit this weekend.
Acy’s $1.71 million contract becomes fully guaranteed Sunday. Dinwiddie has a small guarantee— $50,000 — which he will get at some point this month. Goodwin has no guarantee. If they make the final roster, both will get more money —Goodwin $250,000, Dinwiddie $200,000— but neither will become fully guaranteed until January 10. Bobby Marks of ESPN reports there are no free agent capholds, meaning the Nets have renounced the rights to Randy Foye.
EXCEPTIONS: The Nets currently have access to the “room exception” worth $4,328,000. The Room Mid-Level Exception is awarded annually to teams who are below the cap (eliminating the NTMLE/TMLE/BAE) and can be used for contracts up to 2 years in length. The Nets have no trade exceptions. In both the Lakers and Raptors trades, exceptions were created for the other team, small in the case of the Lakers, more than $10 million in the case of the Raptors.
SALARY DUMPS: The Nets have acquired $98.1 million in contracts as part of the deals to acquire Washington’s pick in the 2017 draft (Jarrett Allen), D’Angelo Russell and two picks in the 2018 draft, a first and a second. Timofey Mozgov is owed $48 million over three years; DeMarre Carroll is owed $30.2 million over two years and Andrew Nicholson is owed $19.9 million, including a $6.9 million player option in 2019-20.
STRETCHED PAYMENTS: Deron Williams will receive an annual payment of $5.47 million through 2019-20, as a result of the $27.5 million buyout and stretch of his contract on July 10, 2015. It all counts against the cap.
TWO-WAY CONTRACTS: Jacob Wiley reportedly has agreed to a two-way G-League contract (which does not effect a team’s cap until the player is with the parent club for 45 days). The second two-way deal will be decided later, with the two most likely candidates Jeremy Senglin and Milton Doyle. Wiley and Senglin have small guarantees —apparently no more than $50,000. Doyle does not. The guarantees do count against the cap.
DRAFT PICKS: The Nets have a dramatically improved pick situation in 2018. They currently have...
—The Raptors lottery protected first round pick, acquired in the DeMarre Carroll salary dump. With the Raptors likely to be a top team, the protections seem perfunctory, much like the protection that was attached to the Wizards pick obtained in the Bojan Bogdanovic trade at the deadline. If the Raptors wind up in the lottery, the pick will transfer to Brooklyn in the first year Toronto is out of the lottery through 2023. If the pick still hasn’t been transferred, the Nets get the Raptors second rounders in 2023 and 2024. (The Nets own pick goes to the Celtics, the result of the 2013 trade for Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry.)
—The less favorable of the Lakers and Magic second round picks, also acquired in the Carroll salary dump. The Raptors received the pick from the Magic as compensation for Orlando’s hire of Raptor GM Jeff Weltman. That pick should be mid to high second round pick. (The Nets own pick goes to either the 76ers or the Hornets, depending on draft position.)
—The “reverse-protected” Pacers second round pick. Acquired in the Thaddeus Young trade on Draft Night 2016, Indiana’s second rounder automatically goes to the Nets the first year the Pacers fail to make the playoffs. So, should the rebuilding Pacers fail to make the playoffs in 2018, the Nets get their pick. The arrangement continues through 2022. At that point, the protection is removed.
The Nets have all their first round picks from 2019 forward. They still owe second rounders in 2019 (currently held by Magic) and 2020 (also currently held by the Magic). From 2021 on, the Nets control all their second rounders.
DRAFT STASHES: The Nets have two stashed picks, both 21 years old.
—Juan Pablo Vaulet, a 6’7” forward drafted in 2015 with the 39th pick, which was acquired from the Hornets in return of two second round picks in 2018 and 2019 plus $880,000. He currently plays for Bahia Blanca in Argentina.
—Aleksandar Vezenkov, a 6’9” forward drafted in 2017 with the 57th pick, which was acquired as part of the 2017 swap of picks with the Celtics that goes back to the 2013 Pierce-Garnett trade. He currently plays for F.C. Barcelona and the Bulgarian national team.
The draft rights to stashed picks can be traded, just like draft picks. They have no monetary value in trades. Rights are held until the drafting team signs the player, moves him or the player retires.