Brooklyn Nets roster now at 19

With two weeks until training camp opens, the Nets roster is at 19 —one short of the maximum— now that the paperwork on Tyler Zeller is completed. Assuming the Nets gave Zeller a guaranteed vets minimum, that leaves Brooklyn with about $2 million in practical cap space.

Zeller is actually the first free agent signing of the offseason, not counting the team’s two-way signings and camp invites. His signing brings the number of fully guaranteed contracts to 14.

Previously, Sean Marks had drafted Jarrett Allen and acquired D’Angelo Russell, Timofey Mozgov, DeMarre Carroll, and Allen Crabbe in trades, losing Brook Lopez, the rights to Kyle Kuzma, Justin Hamilton, and Andrew Nicholson in the process. The Nets picked up Toronto’s lottery-protected first rounder and a second rounder next June in the same trade that brought Carroll to Brooklyn.

The Nets also have provided G League two-way deals to Yakuba Ouattara and Jacob Wiley. They’ve signed Milton Doyle and Jeremy Senglin to partially-guaranteed training camp deals. None of the four are guaranteed roster spots. Under the new two-way deals, players spend most of their time on the G League roster, but are carried on the parent club’s roster as well, effectively giving the NBA team 17 roster spots. Two-way players be cut and replaced.

The Nets have nine players returning from last season’s 20-win season: Jeremy Lin, Trevor Booker, Quincy Acy, Caris LeVert, Joe Harris, Sean Kilpatrick, Spencer Dinwiddie, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, and Isaiah Whitehead. Last year, the Nets returned five players from the previous season.

Breaking things down by position is difficult with so many players capable of playing multiple positions, but 13 players can be characterized as guards and wings, the remaining six, including the 7-foot Zeller, as bigs.

The Nets have declined to say whether they plan to fill the 20th spot on the roster ... or whether they’re open to trades. As of the weekend, the Nets had not renounced their rights to Randy Foye. Foye is not expected to return but his $3 million cap hold could be useful in a trade. As for Tuesday, it remains on the Nets cap.