In a three-team deal, involving the Brooklyn Nets, Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Clippers announced Wednesday afternoon, the Nets acquired 6\u20195\u201d shooting guard Ochai Agbaji, a 2022 lottery pick; and a 2032 second round pick from the Raptors plus $3.5 million in cash considerations from the Los Angeles Clippers. all essentially for nothing.<\/p>\n
In return, Brooklyn sent the Clippers their draft rights to Vanja Markinovic, a 29-year-old Serbian shooting guard who the Nets acquired as part of the 2023 Kevin Durant trade with the Phoenix Suns. He was not seen as an NBA prospect even before he injured his knee last week, ending his season in Serbia. Also in the deal announced , the Raptors obtained Chris Paul from the Clippers. He is expected to be waived, freeing him up to sign with any team other than LAC.<\/p>\n
Shams Charania was first with the news\u2026<\/p>\n
Moreover, ESPN\u2019s Brian Windhorst reported that the Nets are not near done. \u201cBrooklyn, I expect to be in multiple deals in the next 24 hours.\u201d he said on ESPN following the Shams tweet.<\/p>\n
Ogbaji is in the final year of his rookie deal which will pay him $6.4 million. A 6\u20195\u201d 25-year-old, Milwaukee native was taken at No. 14 in 2022 after starring at the University of Kansas with Nets forward Jalen Wilson. Agbaji was named a consensus first-team All-American and voted the Big 12 Player of the Year in 2022. He led the Jayhawks to a national championship and was named the Final Four Most Outstanding Player.<\/p>\n
He was drafted originally by the Cleveland Cavaliers as a 3-and-D prospect. However, he was traded to the Utah Jazz that September before playing a regular-season game in Cleveland then later traded to the Toronto Raptors in February 2024.<\/p>\n
In 243 NBA games, 108 starts, Agbaji has averaged 7.3 points on 45\/34\/75 shooting splits. His best year was two years ago when in 64 games, he averaged 10.4 points on 50\/40\/71 shooting splits and a registered 1.0 \u201cstocks,\u201d aka steals and blocks.<\/p>\n
His acquisition, once completed, will put the Nets roster at 16 players requiring them to cut someone before game time in Orlando Thursday.<\/p>\n
Yossi Gozlan of capsheets.com and the Third Apron podcast laid out the Nets current salary cap and draft assets situation\u2026<\/p>\n
The actual configuration of the deal may be subject to some tweaks, however, added Bobby Marks\u2026<\/p>\n
In other words they can either absorb Agbaji into their league-high $15.3 million in cap space and still have $8.9 million left. However, if in other deals, they exhaust the rest of their cap space to take on more expensive contracts before Thursday, then they could instead use their $8.8 million Room Mid-level Exception to absorb Agbaji, according Gozlan.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Nets left Cam Thomas behind in New York Wednesday at they flew from Newark to Orlando for Thursday\u2019s game vs. the Magic.<\/p>\n
Michael Scott reported that Thomas is \u201creceiving trade interest\u201d from the Cleveland Cavaliers and Milwaukee Bucks.<\/p>\n
After exercising his qualifying offer in October, Thomas is making $6.0 million this season as an unrestricted free agent. As such, he\u2019ll have to approve any trade.<\/p>\n
This is the fifth salary dump the Nets have participated in since last summer. In the others, they acquired:<\/p>\n
Michael Porter Jr. and an unprotected Nuggets first in 2032 from Denver for Cam Johnson;Terance Mann and an unprotected Hawks first in 2025 (that became Drake Powell) from Denver for $1.1 million in cash considerations;Haywood Highsmith and an unprotected Heat second in 2032 for a heavily protected second in 2026 from Miami;Kobe Bufkin for $110,000 in cash considerations from the Hawks.<\/p>\n
All but Bufkin remain with the team.<\/p>\n