The Brooklyn Nets Still Have a Lot of Cap Space. When Must They Spend It?
I look at the Nets fluid cap space situation, how much they'll need to spend before the season starts, and how Cam Thomas' situation factors in.
The Brooklyn Nets entered the offseason with the most cap space and spent most of it on imbalanced trades that significantly increased their payroll. Despite that, they still have a lot remaining and must spend a certain amount by the start of the regular season. They remain one of the offseason’s main unresolved situations outside of the top unsigned restricted free agents.
The Nets entered the offseason with 12 players under contract and $64.3 million in cap space. That projection factors in renouncing all free agent cap holds, except for Cam Thomas ($12.1 million). They also kept all their non-guaranteed players, except Maxwell Lewis ($100,000 partial guarantee).
They’ve used $36.1 million of their cap space so far with imbalance trades and extracted strong value with it. They used $15.5 million to acquire Terance Mann and the remaining three years, $47 million on his contract. In exchange, they also acquired the 22nd overall pick in the 2025 Draft, and selected Drake Powell with it.
They used another $17.3 million to acquire Michael Porter Jr. for Cameron Johnson and a 2032 unprotected first-round pick. This was the only first-round pick the Nuggets were able to trade due to Stepien rule restrictions from their other outgoing selections. If Nikola Jokic remains in Denver by then, good chance that also results in a mid-to-late first-round selection.
The Nets essentially have acquired a mid-to-late first-round pick for an average of $16.4 million of their cap space. It’s reasonable not to expect them to lower their asking price in negotiations over subsequent salary dumps with their remaining cap space.
How much cap space the Nets are working with is up in the air due to several factors. If we’re looking at their official cap sheet based on the moves they’ve made, they’re sitting with $28.1 million in cap space. They could be working with less or potentially much more, but it depends on how much they need.
For example, the Nets agreed to re-sign both Ziaire Williams and Day’Ron Sharpe to two-year, $12 million contracts with a team option on the second year. Neither deal has been signed yet as the Nets continue to explore trades with their cap space. There is no deadline for the Nets to officially sign the player, though they may want to get them signed by September 15 so they’ll become trade-eligible on December 15.
If the Nets do nothing else, they can re-sign both players with their cap space. That would reduce their cap space down to roughly $16.1 million. They could spend that amount, then go over the cap to re-sign Thomas. They could also instead call it an offseason by burning their cap space and re-signing him.
However, the Nets could choose to re-sign one of Williams or Sharpe with their cap space and the other with the $8.8 million room mid-level exception (R-MLE). This would allow them to use $22.1 million in cap space in trades, then go over the cap to re-sign Thomas and sign the other of Williams or Sharpe with the R-MLE.
The Nets could use their $28.1 million in a trade right now and then sign one of Williams or Sharpe with the R-MLE. They’d need to create additional cap space to sign the other player by reducing their payroll in a trade, or waiving three of their four of Keon Johnson, Jalen Wilson, Tyrese Martin, and Drew Timme, all of whom are on non-guaranteed contracts.
Alternatively, the Nets can gain more cap space if the Thomas situation gets resolved early. For example, the Nets would gain $6.1 million in cap space if Thomas signs his $6 million qualifying offer. That would eliminate the need for the Nets to waive players in the previous scenario. They could also sign and trade him to another team without taking any salaries back. Eliminating his cap hold would create $12.1 million in cap space.
The Nets are essentially working with a range of $0 in cap space, if they simply re-sign their players, or up to $41 million in cap space, if they waive three of their four non-guaranteed salaries, sign and trade Thomas without taking any salaries back, and sign one of Williams or Sharpe with the R-MLE. So if you’ve been making fake trades with the Nets taking on $20 million in salary, you could aim higher, if you’d like.
Several teams still need to reduce their payroll. For example, the Raptors are $5.2 million above the luxury tax line and would still be slightly above it if they waive the non-guaranteed salaries of A.J. Lawson and Colin Castleton.
However, they don’t need to make a deal right now. They could make a small trade ahead of the trade deadline to get under the tax line, but they would probably like to clear more right now if they’d like to re-sign Chris Boucher. Trading RJ Barrett could accomplish that while opening up more minutes for Gradey Dick, Ochai Agbaji, and Ja’Kobe Walter.
There is an element of time in all this since the Nets cannot carry all this cap space into the season. The 2023 CBA limits teams to having a maximum of 10 percent of the salary cap in cap space during the regular season. This means the Nets can only carry a maximum of $15,464,700. They could get to that amount simply by re-signing Williams and Sharpe, but they would be capped out if they re-sign Thomas.
The timing of it all could motivate other teams that need to reduce their payroll to make a trade with the Nets earlier. For example, the Celtics are reportedly looking to reroute Anfernee Simons to save more money. They would get under the luxury tax line and eliminate their $70.75 million projected tax penalty by trading him into the Nets' cap space. It would be more difficult to reduce $17.6 million, the amount they are above the tax line, during the season when the Nets have less cap space.
It’s worth noting that the Nets cannot officially use the R-MLE to preserve cap space. For example, if the Nets had $15.5 million in cap space remaining, they wouldn’t keep that amount if they signed someone with their R-MLE. It would eat into their cap space since they’re increasing their payroll, so they must use their cap space first.
If the Nets cannot exhaust all their cap space by the start of the regular season, they’ll likely structure their moves so that their cap space into the season is within 10 percent of the salary cap. They’d likely keep their R-MLE, but have anywhere between $0-$15.46 million in cap space, depending on what happens to Thomas.
Thomas and the Nets are reportedly very far apart in negotiations. This has led to speculation that he may accept his qualifying offer. He has until October 1 to accept it or let it expire. The Nets would have the option to extend it if they’d like, but he’d remain a restricted free agent if they don’t.
If he accepts it, and the Nets re-sign Sharpe and Williams with cap space, they would have roughly $22 million in remaining space. This would mean the Nets need to increase their payroll to get within the $15.46 million maximum before the season begins. They would probably need to increase it by roughly $11-12 million when factoring in cutting some of their non-guaranteed players to get within the 15-player roster maximum.
While the Nets can add a $28-46 million player, they could reach their spending requirements by adding an $11-12 million player. But with most teams not needing to reduce their payroll, the Nets may need to consider reducing their price or focus on smaller trades. Perhaps they could acquire multiple smaller salaried players with second-round picks or pick swaps attached.
For example, the Mavericks need to trade a player like Olivier-Maxence Prosper ($3 million) so they can create a roster spot and apron space to sign Dante Exum. The Magic may want to trade Jett Howard ($5.5 million) so they could get under the tax. The Sixers might want to trade a player like Andre Drummond ($5 million) to create more flexibility to retain Quentin Grimes.
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