Deadlines and Commitments - Stay Flexible Edition

As of Saturday, the Nets have 17 players under contract, but only 12 of them are on standard NBA deals and of those 12, three are vets minimum deals. They also have three players on 10-day deals: Andre Roberson, Iman Shumpert and Tyler Cook and two on two-ways: Chris Chiozza and Reggie Perry. their sole rookie.

That’s a lot of roster flexibility going into the March 25 trade deadline and April 9 buyout market. The Nets also have two exceptions that could come in handy, the $5.7 taxpayer MLE which can be used in a lot of ways (but which is pro-rated and is dropping in value) and the near equal-in-size DPE whose uses are more restricted but will not change until it expires in April. No, they can’t trade any first rounders but they have a few extra seconds that could be moved, perhaps along with the DPE.

The NBA and WNBA still haven’t set a lot of dates like the NBA Draft for free agency likely to be in late July and beginning of August. Nor is there a date for the WNBA Draft, likely to be next month. Also, the WNBA schedule, which will include the debut of Joe Tsai’s New York Liberty in Brooklyn, hasn’t been set yet. Expect a summer start, pushed back from mid-May which had been the norm before the pandemic hit.

In the meantime, expect a lot of rumors and probably a move or two or three. After all, Sean Marks has already been at the center of the three-team Draft Night deal that brought Bruce Brown and Landry Shamet to Brooklyn and the four-team mid-January deal that bestowed James Harden on the Nets faithful. So far, this season, 23 players have donned the Nets uniform. The record is 26.

Here ya go..

—February 27 - All salary cap exceptions except for trade and disabled player are now become pro-rated and are reduced in value per day. Example: Nets $5,718,000 taxpayer MLE is now $5,678,836 and will decrease $39,164 each day.

—March 3 - Players re-signed via Early or Full Bird rights in off-season can be traded.

—March 3 - End of first half of regular season for the Nets who play the Rockets in Houston that night.

—March 5-to 10 - Originally constituted as a “mid-season break.” Now with All-Star Game back, it’s a shortened “All-Star Break.”

—March 7 - NBA All-Star Game in Atlanta. Skills competitions included. Kevin Durant is captain of Eastern Conference team, but won’t play. Kyrie Irving will start and James Harden will come off the bench. No Nets in skills competition. Joe Harris, who won 3-point competition two years ago, has wished all this year’s competitors the best of luck.

—March 7 - All two-way contracts guarantee for 2020-21. Last day for teams to make changes on two-way players. Applies primarily to Chris Chiozza. In last two years, Nets have used this deadline to make changes in two-way players.

—March 7 - 10-day contracts for Andre Roberson and Iman Shumpert expire. Under league rules, teams can extend players a second 10-day immediately after the conclusion of the first.

—March 5-to-9 - G League playoffs underway in Orlando “bubble.” Single-elimination tournament. As of this writing, Long Island Nets won’t make it, meaning Reggie Perry is likely to return to Brooklyn on March 5.

—March 11 - Beginning of second half of regular season. Nets face Celtics at Barclays which will start allowing more fans in the building with start of second half. Watch for details.

—March 13-to-15 - Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Springfield, Massachusetts, for Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan.

—March 25 - NBA trade deadline. Usually set for 3 p.m. ET. Our busiest day.

—April 9 - NBA playoff eligibility deadline, aka the end of buyout season. Players waived on or before April 9 can still qualify for playoff rosters. After this date, no such luck. Expect Nets to at least take long looks at those let go.

—April 15 - WNBA Draft. Liberty currently hold overall picks Nos. 6, 25 and 29 in the 2021 WNBA Draft

—April 19 - Dinwiddie DPE expires. How could it be used if not used at the deadline? A DPE can also be used to claim players off waivers. Those players wouldn’t be able to play in post-season, but who knows, maybe there’s a prospect out there.

—May 16 - Regular season ends with Jarrett Allen’s return to Brooklyn.

—May 17-to-21 - Play-in tournament for 7-to-10 seeds. The Nos. 7 and 8 seeds need to win win once to stay in playoffs; Nos. 9 and 10 need to win twice to move up. Important in that with Nets high up in the East, their first round opponent will likely emerge from this tournament.

—May 22 - First-round playoffs begin.

—June 7 - Conference semifinals begin.

—June 22 - Conference Finals begin.

—June 22 - Publication date for Matt Sullivan’s book, “Can’t Knock the Hustle: Inside the Season of Protest, Pandemic, and Progress with the Brooklyn Nets’ Superstars of Tomorrow.” Expect excerpts, expect news.

—July 8-to-22 - NBA Finals with latest date for conclusion July 22.

—July 23 - Parade in Brooklyn??

—July 31 - Deadline for Dinwiddie player option.

—August 4 - End of 2020-21 season, beginning of 2021-22

—August TBA - NBA free agency. Lots of decisions. Unless they extend him during the season, Bruce Brown will become a free agent. Jeff Green, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Tyler Johnson will also be free agents.