Brooklyn Nets: Impact of Allen Crabbe trade on team’s future

Potential free agency plans revolving around D-Lo

The elephant in the room is D’Angelo Russell‘s future with Nets. Recently, Russell has indicated that he’s willing to be patient during free agency per Yahoo Sports.

While his public statement doesn’t say he’s willing to take a less than the maximum to stay with the Nets, it could be interpreted that way by some.

This presents a potential dream scenario for the Nets where they can go after two stars like Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving or Jimmy Butler and still retain Russell, if he’s willing to take a less than a max deal.

However, the Nets would need to clear up even more cap space to pay D-Lo something close to his perceived market value.

In this scenario, the Nets would have to renounce Russell’s restricted status to free up the allocated $21 million cap for him. They’d also have to renounce all their restricted free agents and waive several players.

This could prove to be very risky if the Nets can’t acquire their preferred two free-agent stars and Russell decides to sign with another team, as the Nets won’t have the right of first refusal to match any offer-sheet D-Lo receives and he decides to leave.

If the Nets don’t renounce Russell they would only have enough cap space to sign one other star free agent to a maximum contract. They would then have to let the market dictate Russell’s value.

This can be complicated because the Nets will have to wait and see what kind of offer sheet Russell might receive and then decide if they want to match it or not. This will take time to play out and the two superstars Marks covets most could be gone by then.

According to Shams Charania of The Athletic (subscription required), there are four other teams interested in acquiring Russell.

Those teams include the Jazz, Magic, Pacers and long-shot Timberwolves. Realistically, it is likely one of these four teams will offer Russell a maximum contract.

This would force Marks to either match the offer, which would be four years at $117.18 million, or lose Russell and get nothing in return.

Ideally, the Nets would like to ink Russell to a contract of four years at a $20 million annual salary, but that doesn’t seem realistic right now based on the level of interest these other teams are showing in Russell.

According to Bleacher Report, other teams are planning as if the Nets are now the odds-on favorites to land Kyrie Irving in free agency.

If these rumors are to be believed, this means one of Brooklyn’s two max-contract slots will go to Kyrie Irving. This would leave Brooklyn with just one max slot left, which would almost have to be awarded to D-Lo if the Nets want to keep him.

As if this wasn’t complicated enough, Stephen A. Smith of ESPN recently said that Kevin Durant would likely follow Kyrie Irving if Irving signs with Brooklyn.

With the Nets current cap situation, signing Kyrie and Durant would likely force D-Lo out of Brooklyn. If Marks wants to pair Kyrie with Durant he would have to renounce Russell and pull other strings to make it work financially.

If Marks wants to pair Kyrie with Durant and keep D-Lo, he would likely have to create enough cap space for a 3rd max-slot (or very close to a max-slot) in order to do so.

He would have to do that assuming D-Lo would take less than the max to play with Irving and Durant in Brooklyn. That could prove to be difficult unless Irving and Durant are also willing to take less than the max.

Assuming this proposed trio is unwilling to take less money, the Nets would have to trade Spencer Dinwiddie and Joe Harris to free up an additional $18.3 million in cap space, as well as renounce Rondae Hollis-Jefferson to free up his cap hold of $7 million.

In that scenario, they would still be short of a third max slot. Even if they did manage to bring Irving, Durant and D-Lo together they’d have virtually nothing left to round out the roster so that doesn’t seem very plausible.

Such a move would make re-signing Caris LeVert and new Net Taurean Prince virtually impossible after next season as well.

If Kyrie is the piece needed to lure Durant to Brooklyn, most likely D-Lo would be gone if Marks truly wants to pair Irving with Durant.

For this trio to coalesce, two of the three would almost certainly have to take significant less than their max to afford Marks the ability to bring them all together and surround them with capable role players to vie for a title. Unlikely? Yes, but not out of the realm of possibilities.

Despite all these rumors, the Nets are still faced with an important decision to make regarding D-Lo.

Another unpopular, but savvy, option would be to renounce D-Lo, acquire Irving and Durant and simply move Dinwiddie to the shooting guard position.

The result would be an incredibly potent lineup of Irving, Dinwiddie, LeVert, Durant, and Jarrett Allen with Joe Harris and Taurean Prince coming off the bench.

It would also leave the Nets with some cap flexibility to address their roster depth next season and some wiggle room to possibly extend LeVert or re-sign him after next season.

If Prince plays well he’d be in a similar predicament as LeVert, but the Nets would struggle to keep both of them. In fact, they’d be lucky to keep just one of them as they will both be restricted free agents in 2020.