NBA Trade Rumors: Brooklyn Nets Exploring Various Options to Acquire Superstars

The Brooklyn Nets are hoping to make a major splash in free agency, and they do not plan to make the mistake of keeping all their eggs in one basket this time around.

According to CBS Sports’ Ken Berger, the Nets are in discussions to land Deron Williams, Steve Nash, Joe Johnson, Jason Kidd and, of course, Dwight Howard.

While the organization obviously won’t be able to get all of these players (via trade or free agency), they aren’t trying to keep it a secret that they plan to shake things up this summer and will be major players in the offseason.

Brooklyn just inked Gerald Wallace to a new deal and is in negotiations to sign restricted free agent Brook Lopez to an extension. The team will still have cap space for one major signing (D-Will, Nash) and one big sign-and-trade (Howard, Johnson) to overhaul the roster.

Berger put together a hypothetical way for the Nets to keep D-Will, Johnson, Wallace, Lopez and MarShon Brooks while still having plenty of cap room available:

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The Nets would have Williams, Johnson ($19.75 million), Wallace (about $10 million), Lopez (whose cap hold until he's either signed, traded or renounced is $7.6 million) and Brooks ($1.16 million) on the books for a total of $55.9 million. Seven spots would count at $473,604 each -- the rookie minimum -- as cap holds, including a spot for second-round pick Tyshawn Taylor, bringing the total to $59.2 million. The Nets would be over the cap, but nowhere close to the tax apron ($69 million), so they'd have the full mid-level exception of $5 million, the bi-annual exception of $1.96 million and minimum contracts to fill out the roster. They also have two trade exceptions -- one for $3 million and another for $1.4 million -- to toy with. 

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That’s not a terrible roster and the fact that they have exceptions would allow them to land a great player like Kidd in free agency. While it would not offer the Nets a huge window to compete before getting inundated with rising salary costs, that is a team that could certainly compete for championship in the East.

As long as Mikhail Prokhorov and his ridiculous deep pockets is running the organization, the Nets may just be able to buy themselves into the postseason.