Could Nets buy a late pick? Sure, but would they?

With all the speculation about what the Nets will do with their three picks on June 21, they could, if they wished, buy another pick late in the second round, perhaps to draft and stash a player they like, or secure the rights to a player they think worth a two-way deal.

The Nets have $5.1 million in cash considerations they can use before June 30 on a pick or to sweeten a trade. In the current marketplace, that’s probably more than enough to buy a pick after their two seconds, at Nos. 40 and 45. Would they? Hard to say, but they’ve certainly done it before.

A NetsDaily survey shows that they have bought (or upgraded) eight picks, all second rounders, since Mikhail Prokhorov bought the team in 2010. They’ve paid out a total of $9.83 million for those eight players, only two of whom became rotation players. Only Isaiah Whitehead is still with the team.

Here’s the year-by-year breakdown...

-- 2011: Purchased rights the of 31st pick from the Minnesota Timberwolves for $1.3 million (Bojan Bogdanovic). The Nets also included a 2014 second rounder in that deal.

-- 2012: Purchased rights of 42nd pick from the Trail Blazers for $2 million (Tyshawn Taylor). Purchased rights of 54th pick from 76ers for $750,000 (Toko Shengelia). Both were traded to Chicago within two years. Both are out of the league.

-- 2014: Purchased rights of 44th pick from the Timberwolves for $1.1 million (Markel Brown). (This is the same pick the Nets had sent to Minnesota for Bogdanovic.) Purchased rights of 59th pick from the Toronto Raptors for $500,000 (Xavier Thames). Purchased rights of 60th pick from the 76ers for $300,000 (Cory Jefferson).

--2015: Purchased rights of 39th pick from the Charlotte Hornets for $880,000 (Juan Pablo Vaulet). The Nets also sent two second round picks in 2018 and 2020 respectively, in the deal. That the Nets had to send two picks plus a hefty cash payment shows how the value of even second round picks have jumped.

—2016: Traded the rights to the 55th pick and $3 million to the Jazz for the 42nd pick to they could take Isaiah Whitehead.

The Nets didn’t do a deal last year. They had $3.425 million out of a possible $3.5 million available, having spent $75,000, the minimum, to purchase the contract of K.J. McDaniels at the trade deadline. On Draft Night last year, the Warriors bought the Bulls pick, at No. 38, for the full $3.5 million. There were reports at the time that the Nets were holding on to their cash to be used in a possible trade.