Brooklyn Nets rumors: Nets frontrunners for Kevin Durant?

According to a report, the Brooklyn Nets have emerged as the frontrunners to land former NBA MVP Kevin Durant when free agency opens on June 30.

The Brooklyn Nets managed to clear almost $2 million more in cap space for the new league year that starts July 1 and, according to a report Friday, the Nets could use that space because they have emerged as the frontrunners to land superstar Kevin Durant.

According to Brian Windhorst on ESPN’s The Jump Friday, Brooklyn has gained ground in the chase for the injured former NBA MVP and two-time NBA Finals MVP.

"“The Nets are gaining confidence they can pull this off. They’ve made three moves in the last week … they’re right there for a second slot.”"

That point was supported by analyst Kendrick Perkins, who called Brooklyn the “frontrunners” for Durant. Windhorst said Perkins is not the first person “associated with the NBA that’s told me that.”

Those moves began with the trade of Allen Crabbe to the Atlanta Hawks, which was actually agreed to on June 6 and will become official on July 6, when the Hawks have the cap space to absorb Crabbe’s $18.5 million salary for 2019-20.

The price for dumping Crabbe’s contract was steep — the No. 17 pick in Thursday’s NBA Draft, which the Hawks flipped to the New Orleans Pelicans, who chose Virginia Tech guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker, as well as a lottery-protected first-round selection in 2020.

In return the Nets got forward Taurean Waller-Prince, who will be entering the final year of his rookie contract in 2019-20, and a 2021 second-round selection from Atlanta.

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The Nets gained roughly $15.02 million in cap space with that deal when they took on Prince’s $3.48 million salary.

The second move was the report Brooklyn will not extend a qualifying offer to free agent Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, allowing him to become an unrestricted free agent.

Not extending a QO is the first step in renouncing the rights to a potential restricted free agent, which would turn RHJ’s $7.41 million cap hold into cap space.

Finally, the Nets traded the No. 27 pick in Thursday’s draft — acquired from the Denver Nuggets last July in the trade for Kenneth Faried and Darrell Arthur — to the LA Clippers in exchange for the No. 56 pick in the second round and the lottery-protected 2020 first-rounder the Clippers had acquired from the Philadelphia 76ers in the Tobias Harris trade in February.

According to Jeff Siegel of Early Bird Rights, that move will leave the Nets $16.05 million over the cap at the start of the new league year, but with the potential to open up a maximum of $68.67 million in space.

To do that, the Nets would have to not extend qualifying offers to restricted free agents D’Angelo Russell and Theo Pinson, then renounced their rights to free up their cap holds, which are $21.06 million for Russell and $1.64 million for Pinson.

Brooklyn would also have to renounce the rights to their three other unrestricted free agents, along with Hollis-Jefferson, including DeMarre Carroll, Jared Dudley and Ed Davis. Carroll has a $23.1 million cap hold, with Dudley’s at $14.3 million and Davis’ at $5.34 million.

Finally, the Nets would have to waive Shabazz Napier and Treveon Graham before their 2019-20 contracts become guaranteed on July 10. Napier’s 2019-20 salary is $1.85 million, while Graham’s is $1.65 million.

That would still leave Brooklyn approximately $2.18 million short of what would be needed to sign Durant and fellow All-NBA free agent Kyrie Irving to max deals.

A max deal for Irving would be four years and $140.61 million, with a first-year salary of $32.7 million. A max for Durant, who has more than 10 years of NBA service, is four years at a heftier $164.05 million and a first-year ticket of $38.15 million.

Durant would be leaving more than $57 million on the table if he doesn’t re-sign with the Golden State Warriors, who can offer him a fifth year and annual salary increases of 8 percent, as opposed to the Nets (or any other team) only able to go four years with 5 percent annual raises.

Windhorst suggested on ESPN’s Get Up Thursday that Durant and the Warriors could agree to a delayed sign-and-trade arrangement.

They would sign Durant for the max of five years and $221.27 million, then move him to another team at some point after the six-month moratorium on trading a recently signed player expires.

An actual sign-and-trade doesn’t benefit Durant financially, as the last Collective Bargaining Agreement closed the loophole that allowed a team to use its Bird rights to sign a player for an extra year with higher raises before immediately trading him.

A max contract for free agents with less than six years of service, such as Russell, is projected to be five years and $158.05 million if they remain with their old teams or four years and $117.18 million with another team.

For players with seven to nine years in the NBA, those amounts are $189.66 million and $140.61 million.

Durant underwent surgery to repair his torn Achilles earlier this month at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. If that name sounds familiar, it should.

HSS purchased the naming rights for the Nets practice facility — the HSS Training Center — and the surgery was performed by Nets team physician Dr. Martin O’Malley, the same doctor who operated on Durant’s broken foot in 2015 (as well as the surgery on Caris LeVert‘s broken foot the same year).

If there is not actual fire around a potential Durant-Nets deal, there is enough smoke to set off a lot of alarms.