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CHARANIA: NETS, PORTER REACH AGREEMENT ON $106 MILLION OFFER SHEET

By Net Income
Washington Wizards v Boston Celtics - Game Seven Photo by Elsa/Getty Images

The Nets have an agreement with Otto Porter on a four-year, $106 million offer sheet, with a starting salary of $24.75 million. Shams Charania broke the news in a tweet at at 9:40 p.m. Tuesday.

The Nets are now expected to submit the offer sheet to the Wizards who will have 48 hours from noon Thursday to match. The Wizards have leaked that they will match any offer for Porter including the max.

Charania’s colleague at The Vertical, Chris Mannix reports that the Wizards had wanted a better outcome.

Timing the submission will determine precisely when the Nets get word on the possible match. Under league rules, if the Nets present the offer sheet to the Wizards any time before noon on Thursday, the matching period ends midnight on Saturday the 8th. If the offer sheet is presented after noon, it ends 48 hours later.

The offer sheet represents yet another aggressive and dramatic move by Sean Marks, the Nets GM, this off-season. On June 20, he traded long-time Net Brook Lopez and the 27th pick in the Draft to the Lakers for D’Angelo Russell, the overall No. 2 pick in the Draft two years ago, and Timofey Mozgov.

Without the first round picks traded away in the Nets ill-fated 2013 deal with the Celtics, Marks and his front office have had to find creative ways to rebuild the Nets, who have won only 41 games the last two seasons.

Even if the Wizards match, the decision by Porter to choose the Nets is a win for Brooklyn. Despite all their issues, the Nets were able to get one of the off-season’s top free agents to agree to join the club. The Kings had earlier offered Porter the same deal, but he chose the Nets instead. (The Jazz were also reportedly ready to make him an offer after Gordon Hayward decided to leave Utah for Boston.)

However, If the Wizards don’t match, the 24-year-old Porter will become the highest paid Net ever, his four-year deal topping contracts signed by Deron Williams and Jason Kidd. In those two cases, the Nets were re-signing a player already under contract. The most the Nets have ever paid a “pure” free agent is $36 million, given Jeremy Lin last July.

This will be the fourth time in the last 16 months that the Nets will have gone the restricted free agent route. Last July, they offered Tyler Johnson $50 million but the Heat matched and Allen Crabbe $75 million but the Blazers matched. In December, they made another RFA rich, offering Donatas Motiejunas $36 million. The Rockets ultimately matched that offer but later released him.

Although the Wizards have been prohibited from publicly stating they will match, leaks out of Washington have made it clear they intend to. But the Wizards have never paid the luxury tax in their history —one of three NBA teams who haven’t. They would have to pay the tax if they match. According to one estimate, the bill for this season would be as much as $11.6 million.

As Bobby Marks tweeted, there are long-term consequences for the Wizards as well as short-term.

While blessed with a talented young roster, the Wizards are in difficult position of paying them all at the same time. And once Porter is dealt with, they will have consider a lucrative extension for their franchise player, John Wall.

The Nets reportedly met with Porter and his agent at some time over the extended holiday weekend. On Monday, Jeremy Lin was seen in the same Washington area hotel where Porter’s agent, David Falk, has his office ... and presumably where Falk and Porter met with team reps.

Porter, a 6’8” small forward, averaged 13.4 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 80 games this past season as the third option on the Wizards behind Wall and Bradley Beal. If the Wizards don’t match, they will no doubt have to contend with Wall’s disappointment, at the very least.

One interesting aspect of the matching process is what extras the Nets might attach to the offer: a 15% trade kicker, money upfront, something the Wizards might not expect?

Tim Bontemps of the Washington Post thinks the Wizards might have a surprise as well. He writes Washington could in theory delay the match —and keep the Nets money tied up till next Wednesday.

In addition to the two days the Wizards will have to match Porter’s offer initially, there also is a two day window in which Porter will need to report to the team and have a physical, plus another two day window after that for the team to announce that he’s passed the physical.

Mannix thinks it’s possible.

What else might the Nets do in the interim or after a Wizards match? There are continuing reports that they would be willing to do salary dumps as they did with the Lakers, permitting a team to shed a big contract in return for an asset. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported the Nets might even be interested in acquiring Tyler Johnson, who the Heat would now like to dump.

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