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Nets ‘magic number’ is $10.5 million ... or so

By Net Income

Depending on which reporter you follow, the Nets got either $4 million (Mike Scotto) or $5 million (Tim Bontemps) back from Dwight Howard when he agreed to a buyout Friday. That would give the Nets somewhere around $10 million in effective cap space. That’s after a million or so is subtracted to pay Rodions Kurucs, the Nets second round pick, out of cap space.

That $10 million gives the Nets some flexibility as they approach the end of free agency over the next couple of weeks. They may not have enough space to work a salary dump — Kenneth Faried’s expiring $13.8 million contract for a future first round pick. They could again tender an offer sheet to a restricted free agent like Davis Bertans, the Spurs 6’10” stretch 4 , or Montrezl Harrell, the Clippers’ 6’8” power forward.

Or they could just save it for a week or two to sign a player at a bargain price or use it to facilitate a trade, as they did last summer, when they traded for DeMarre Carroll and two picks on July 9 and didn’t do the Allen Crabbe deal until July 25.

Would they trade Jeremy Lin —or someone else— to break the logjam in the backcourt ... and bring in someone to shore up the thin bench in the front court?

Not necessarily,” Sean Marks said on Friday at Summer League. “As we’ve seen before, it’s been handy to have a couple of extra point guards.

“There’s absolutely no need for us to rush to do any particular deals to solve the so-called glut at point guard or whether it’s to get a shooting four or whatever it may be.” On Saturday, he told NBA TV that he thinks competition will help Kenny Atkinson sort things out.

The only real deadline the Nets face is July 31 when they must exercise a team option on Isaiah Whitehead. Otherwise, we could be seeing the Nets making minor moves into August.

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