Brooklyn Nets waive Mitch Creek, sign Drew Gordon

In a swap of forwards Friday, the Brooklyn Nets announced they had waived Australian Mitch Creek and signed former Philadelphia 76er Drew Gordon.

The Brooklyn Nets on Friday waived forward Mitch Creek and signed power forward Drew Gordon as a free agent. The moves were announced Friday night on Nets.com.

The signing of Gordon wasn’t completely off the radar, as it had been reported in August that Nets were looking at inking Gordon to a camp deal before moving on Creek and point guard Jordan McLaughlin.

Creek, a 26-year-old undrafted free agent from Australia, signed on Aug. 20 with the Nets after playing for the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Summer League.

Creek missed the first two preseason games with a straight right adductor before getting into Wednesday’s game against the Toronto Raptors in Montreal. Creek played the final two minutes and his only stat line was collecting a personal foul.

If Gordon, who turned 28 in July, has a familiar sounding name, that’s because he is the older brother of Orlando Magic forward Aaron Gordon.

The elder Gordon was undrafted out of New Mexico in 2012 and has played most of his career in Europe, playing in Serbia, Italy, Turkey, France, Lithuania and Russia.

His only season in the U.S. was 2014-15, when he was allocated to the D League’s Delaware 87ers after being waived by the Philadelphia 76ers in the preseason.

He was called up to the 76ers in November 2014 and spent nearly a month with Philadelphia, averaging 1.9 points and 2.0 rebounds in 7.9 minutes per game over a nine-game stint. He shot 8-for-19/0-for-3/1-for-2.

Last season, the 6-foot-9, 245-pounder played in Russia with Zenit Saint Petersburg, playing 21 games in the VTB United League and 17 games in Eurocup competition.

In those games, of which he started 25, Gordon averaged 11.7 points and 6.8 rebounds in 20.8 minutes per game, shooting .594/1-for-8/.559.

Gordon played in the VTB United League All-Star Game last season, as well.

Gordon began his collegiate career at UCLA in 2008 before transferring to New Mexico in 2010. He played Summer League stints with the Dallas Mavericks in 2012, both the Sacramento Kings and Utah Jazz in 2013 and with the 76ers in 2014 before landing his first NBA contract.

Similar to the signings earlier Friday of Tahjere McCall and Shannon Scott, both of whom played for the G League’s Long Island Nets last season, Gordon is likely being signed so he can be allocated to the Uniondale affiliate.

Creek’s G League rights will also belong to Long Island. He played last season with the Adelaide 36ers in Australia’s National Basketball League, earning All-NBL Second Team honors, before moving to BG Goettingen in Germany last spring.