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With three 10-day contracts expiring this weekend —and rumors of a Blake Griffin signing still flying, the Nets roster is in flux.
As of Saturday, Tyler Cook’s 10-day deal had expired and by Sunday, those of Andre Roberson and Iman Shumpert will likely expire as well. It’s not likely any of them will be immediately extended to a second 10-day deal, as permitted under league rules. A league source said there’s no urgency in extending any of the three, if indeed that’s what the Nets want, since league play doesn’t resume until Thursday. That’s when the Nets take on the Celtics at Barclays Center.
Of the three, Roberson, the 6’7” wing, has played the most games and most minutes.
So the Nets could have three roster vacancies on Sunday afternoon when Griffin officially becomes an unrestricted free agent. In addition, the Nets have to make a decision Saturday on guaranteeing Chris Chiozza’s two-way contract. (Similarly, the Nets have to make a decision on rookie Reggie Perry’s two-way but that’s not going to be an issue.)
Assuming reports from Marc Stein and Shams Charania are correct about the mutual interest (and neither are in the business of being wrong), the Nets could sign Griffin as early as Sunday night. But the NBA isn’t crazy about having news break during their big events like the All-Star Game on Sunday night. So don’t expect anything official.
The other question about Griffin and Brooklyn revolves around the framework of a contract. Griffin agreed to give up $13.3 million in salary, including $4.3 million on this year’s deal. If he wanted to be made whole —and the Nets agreed, Brooklyn could dip into either one of its two exceptions — the $5.7 million DPE or the $5.4 million taxpayers MLE.
Also, if the Nets were willing to sign Griffin to a deal that would pay out more than the vets minimum, might they want him to sign a multi-year deal, perhaps partially guaranteed? In that case, they’d have to use the taxpayers’ MLE. DPE rules prohibit signing players to anything more than a one-year deal, even if subsequent years are non-guaranteed.
The Nets will also get Reggie Perry back from the G League “bubble” this week. The Long Island Nets ended their season on Saturday with the 20-year-old averaging 18.1 points and 8.9 rebounds in 29 minutes a game.