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NETS DUMP LIN, WHITEHEAD, ADD FARIED, ARTHUR, FIRST AND SECOND ROUNDERS

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In a series of post-midnight tweets Friday, Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Sean Marks has ended the Nets backcourt logjam, added two bigs, a first rounder in next year’s draft and two second rounders in 2020 ... all of it without cutting into their 2019 cap space.

Bottom line: The Nets traded Jeremy Lin and Isaiah Whitehead in two interrelated moves, dealing and swapping second rounders with Atlanta and engineering a salary dump that have them taking on Kenneth Faried and Darrell Arthur in exchange for the two picks.

Here’s how it came together, according to Woj,

—the Nets first traded Jeremy Lin, a Nets second rounder in 2025, the right to swap second rounders in 2023 to the Hawks for the draft rights to injured 21-year-old French guard Isaia Cordiner and Portland’s second rounder in 2020, which is protected top 55. That deal freed up $12.5 million in cap space which when added to the $10.5 million the Nets already had, gave Marks enough to make a second move.

—the Nets then dealt Isiah Whitehead to the Nuggets for Faried and Arthur in a salary dump that also yielded the Nets a protected (1-through-12) first round pick in 2019 and an unprotected second rounder in 2020. Denver will waive Whitehead, who had a non-guaranteed deal.

Neither trade affects the Nets cap space in 2019 since both Faried and Arthur are on expiring deals. It remains in the $50 to $70 million range, enough for two max players.

Here, for posterity, are Woj’s tweets, starting at 12:09 a.m...

Brooklyn still has $2.6 million in cap space available with 14 players under contract, Woj’s colleague Bobby Marks reported. The Nets can exceed the salary cap to re-sign Joe Harris at two years and $16 million because of the Early Bird exception. The $4.4 million room mid-level exception is reserved for Ed Davis. The Nets will also need to sign second round pick Rodions Kurucs out of cap space. He’s projected to get about $1.5 million in his first year, according to a report by Sportando, the European hoops site.

The Nets have been trying to trade Lin since before the Draft, engaging in talks with several teams. One league source, while calling Lin a great young man, said the Harvard product simply did not fit in the Nets future plans. Lin, who turns 30 next month, missed all but 37 games in his first two years of a three-year, $36 million contract, including all but one last season. The Nets were also unsure whether Lin would be ready for training camp. He is still restricted from full contact. Moreover, the Nets believe in their young guards: D’Angelo Russell, Spencer Dinwiddie and Caris LeVert.

Joe Tsai, the Nets new minority owner who had called Lin his “favorite player,” tweeted early Friday morning from China that he was well aware of the trade talks and wished Lin well.

Lin, who now joins his seventh NBA team, had his own tweet...

As for Whitehead, the only Brooklyn native to play for the Brooklyn Nets, he was seen as too much of a tweener, without the ball handling skills to play at the 1 nor the shot to play at the 2. He expressed his disappointment but also his gratitude.

Assuming the Nets retain both Faried and Arthur, they add two forwards who saw limited action this past season in Denver. Faried, a superb rebounder and still only 28 years old, is 6’8” while Arthur, more of a stretch 4, is an inch taller. He’s 30. The two are on expiring contracts and are owed $21 million.

If either one is going to be bought out, Arthur is the more likely to get moved. Faried is healthy but was caught in a logjam upfront. He has career averages of 11.4 points and 8.2 rebounds. Arthur, on the other hand, battled knee soreness all season and appeared in just 19 games, averaging 2.8 points and 0.8 rebounds. He has shot 35.2 percent from three over his career. Arthur exercised his $7.4 million player option for the 2018-19 season in June.

Barring any further moves, the Nets now have Jarrett Allen, Ed Davis, Faried and Arthur upfront along with their starting 4 from last season, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson.

More importantly, they now have two first round picks in 2019, their own and the Nuggets’ protected pick as well as one in each succeeding draft going forward. They also have multiple second rounders: the Knicks’ pick in 2019; the Nuggets’ pick in 2020; their own pick in 2022; the Pacers’ pick in 2023 (if not before) as well as the swap of 2023 picks with the Hawks and their own pick in 2024.

Cordinier, whose rights Brooklyn obtained from Atlanta, missed the entire 2017-18 season after surgery on both knees to solve a tendinitis problem. The 21-year-old Cordinier is a 6’5” shooting guard who’s played in the French league since age 16. His status for the upcoming season is uncertain. The Nets now have three overseas stashes: Cordinier, Juan Pablo Vaulet and Aleksandar Vezenkov.

First impressions of the trade from NBA pundits were overwhelmingly positive. Kevin Pelton, writing on ESPN, gave the Nets an A, the Nuggets a B and the Hawks a D-.

Others tweeted out their approval...

The Denver trade solved a number of problems for the Nuggets who got under the luxury tax threshold with the deal and alleviated their frontcourt logjam. The Nuggets signed two young players, Nikola Jokic and Will Barton, to big deals in the last week, worsening their cap situation and making it imperative they dump salary. They had already traded Wilson Chandler for two second rounders last week, but they were still $10 million over the tax threshold before Marks came to the rescue.

Expect additional news on Friday.

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