In his discussion with reporters two days ago, Sean Marks painted a positive picture of the Brooklyn Nets situation with Michael Porter Jr. who after being traded from the Nuggets had his best year of his seven-year NBA career, averaging 24.2 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 52 games before being shut down on April 3 with a hamstring strain.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure we\u2019ll have those discussions. I think we\u2019ve got time. There\u2019s no immediate hurry right now with Mike. We value him a lot. He had a terrific year last year, arguably his best year as a pro. I give him a lot of credit for that,\u201d Marks said. \u201cIt\u2019s been great to see what Mike\u2019s done for us. I look forward to having those discussions, and seeing what Mike can do the rest of the summer and the rest of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, any time you\u2019re in a hurry, that\u2019s when people make mistakes,\u201d Marks added. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a well-thought-out plan here over not only the last couple of years but the couple of years ahead. We\u2019re gonna try and find who the next Nets are gonna be. I don\u2019t think we wanna do anything hastily or in a rush here.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I said before, I love Mike, the guy, the person, the player, and I hope he is part of this team. But we\u2019re just gonna have to have those discussions between the two of us and our representatives and go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Porter is entering the final year of a five-year, $179.3 million contract with Denver, earning $40.8 million this season. He\u2019s been eligible for an extension since June 19. Although the Nets could sign him to a four- year, $234 million extension, taking him through age 32, most analysts think a deal worth somewhere in the four-year $160 million range is more likely. Yossi Gozlan of Third Apron has suggested the Nets could give Porter an immediate $9 million raise and sign him to an extension at a lower rate, starting in the thirties. The Nets have favored similar arrangements in previous talks with Nic Claxton and Cameron Johnson.<\/p>\n
Now, Chris Haynes, senior analyst for TNT, suggests that if the Nets and Porter \u2014 and his media-friendly agent, Mark Bartelstein \u2014 can\u2019t come to an agreement, a trade might be in the works.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichael Porter Jr\u2019s agent\u2026is scheduled to meet with the Brooklyn Nets\u2026towards the tail end of summer league or at the end of summer league to begin dialogue on an extension,\u201d said Haynes on NBA TV\u2019s \u201cThe Association\u201d Wednesday. \u201cIf it becomes apparent early on that an extension is not in play, then I do believe the next step will be the Brooklyn Nets and Michael Porter Jr potentially parting ways and potentially looking to move him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haynes\u2019 comments weren\u2019t detailed and were loaded with caveats \u2014 \u201cpotentially\u201d being used twice \u2014 the chief difference between Marks comments and his is the degree of urgency, Marks suggesting there\u2019s plenty of time, Haynes saying things could move quickly once Summer League is over next week. That reflects both the normal distance in bargaining points between teams and players in contract talks \u2026 and Marks reputation for holding off until the last moment, whether in trades or contract talks.<\/p>\n
They do, however, renew speculation that an MPJ trade could bring the Nets future assets, although with the league\u2019s most draft picks (35), most first round picks (14), most tradeable firsts (10), most first round swaps (two) and a record number of seconds (21), the Nets would seem set in that category and instead may want something more tangible, more creative \u2026 IF indeed something evolves.<\/p>\n
The teams most mentioned as possibilities for a Porter deal at last February\u2019s trade deadline were two contenders, the Golden State Warriors and Detroit Pistons. Both currently have other issues to deal before discussing such a big move as adding MPJ, the Warriors with the continuing mystery of where LeBron James will end up and the Pistons with their unpleasant negotiations with free agent Jalen Duren who Haynes said \u201cdoesn\u2019t want to be there,\u201d and is considering taking the qualifying offer \u2026 which seems unlikely.<\/p>\n
While the Nets may seem done or close to done with their summer duties \u2014 having traded Claxton for Julius Randle and a first, signed Day\u2019Ron Sharpe and Josh Minott to (reasonable) extensions, drafted Mikel Brown Jr., Joshua Jefferson and Tyler Bilodeau, and reached agreements with free agents Keon Ellis and Moe Wagner \u2014 they still have some cap space and a $9.4 million MLE to play with and have yet to sign Wagner to that two-year, $19 million deal.<\/p>\n
Moreover, Porter appears to be all in on continuing his tenure in Brooklyn, having repeatedly and effusively praised the organization, Jordi Fernandez and the team\u2019s strategy while happily assuming a role he never had in Denver \u2026 mentoring the team\u2019s younger players. Back in late May, he hosted four of the team\u2019s rookies on a mini-vacation at the Lake of the Ozarks in his home state of Missouri and this month he led a contingent of Nets veterans to cheer on the young players at the Summer League games. The Nets also had his young brother Jevon Porter in for a pre-draft workout.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, things might begin to clear up league wide in the next two days with James expected to make his latest pronouncement on his future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his discussion with reporters two days ago, Sean Marks painted a positive picture of the Brooklyn Nets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,6,671,38899],"class_list":["post-788191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn-nets","tag-basketball","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-brooklynnets","tag-nba","tag-nets","tag-nets-free-agency"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116930421979172445","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}