ROSTER MATH: Will Brooklyn Nets add a final player? How does Cam Johnson effect thinking?
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Tyson Etienne is the latest Brooklyn Net, but the team still has an opening. Will the fill it and how does Cam Johnson’s incentive package effect their thinking, their flexibility? When the Brooklyn Nets waived an injured two-way Kendall Brown and signed Long Island teammate Tyson Etienne in his place, the 6’2” 25-year-old Etienne became the 23rd player under contract with Brooklyn this season. That’s four short of the franchise record of 27 set in 2020-21, the height of COVID. Remember Alize Johnson? Andre Roberson? Norvelle Pelle? Didn’t think so.
Is Etienne the last Net signing of the season? Maybe not. The team still has a roster opening following the decision not to renew Killian Hayes for a second 10-day. Hayes had momentarily filled the void created by the Ben Simmons buyout. Moreover, DeAnthony Melton’s name still fills a spot on the roster if not a seat on the bench. He’s out for the season and not with the team after tearing his ACL when with the Warriors and being traded to Brooklyn in the Dennis Schroder deal.
So could the team have two openings, you might thinK. Indeed, a developmental team should give fallen angels a look-see, even with only 21 games left. And signing a player to a standard deal would give the team his Bird Rights for next season if indeed he shows progress. It appears to be risk-free, but is it?
Here’s the rub: the dreaded luxury tax threshold. Being saddled with the repeater tax during a rebuild would be disastrous for a team like the Nets and they have said both publicly and privately they’re not going there.
At the moment, according to capologist Yossi Gozlan of CapSheets.com, the Nets have a cushion of $1.08 million before they’d face the tax threshold. That should be enough for two minimum signings because minimum salaries are pro-rated this time of year. Again, at the moment, a minimum is just under $500,000 pro-rated and drops a little less than $12,000 a day.
However, as Gozlan also notes, it’s not that simple. Call it the Cam Johnson factor. He is about to reach a milestone that will add a $563,000 bonus to his salary ... and subtract the same amount from from the team’s cap space. Johnson gets the bonus, deemed unlikely for contract purposes, if he averages 15.0 points or better with a true shooting percentage of 60.0%. He’s likely to get there, Gozlan notes, and even if he just misses, Sean Marks & co. can’t take that risk.
“They are technically $1.08M below the tax. But they’re effectively working with half that assuming Cams incentive hits,” Gozlan told NetsDaily two days ago. “Today the minimum is just over $500k, so they could sign one player to a rest of season deal while staying below the tax.”
Gozlan suggests there’s a couple of way the Nets could get value out of that half million: sign Tosan Evbuomwan to a standard deal seems like an easy decision. He’s currently on a two-way but playing for Long Island as the team tries to preserve active NBA days for him. Brooklyn signed Evbuomwan to a two-year, two-way so they have some options.
“For what its worth Tosan is on a two year two way deal, so Nets could just keep him on it. No real rush to convert him since they’re missing the playoffs,” said Gozlan.
He even raised the possibility of bringing back Hayes.
“I could see the Nets bringing back Killian on another 10 day and then sign him to a standard deal later. I could see them dragging things out to keep as much tax flexibility as possible,” he added.
A second 10-day would cost the Nets a little less than $120,000, well within their means related to the tax threshold.
Of course, Brooklyn isn’t limited to signing Long Island Nets players. They are plenty of young, once highly thought of players with their mobile phones set to ringer so they don’t miss the call.
The Nets have some time. They can sign a player through the end of the season. Stay tuned.
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