Predicting the Brooklyn Nets' Opening Day Roster, Post-Joe Johnson Trade
Barring another "dramatic" turn of events, Joe Johnson will be joining the Brooklyn Nets, which doesn't say much for the rest of the roster.
Not yet, anyway.
According to Marc Stein and Chris Broussard of ESPN, the Nets will send Jordan Farmar, Johan Petro, Anthony Morrow, Jordan Williams, DeShawn Stevenson (via sign-and-trade) and a conditional first-round pick back to the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for the six-time All-Star, who's slated to make nearly $90 million over the next four years.
Assuming the deal goes through, the Nets wouldn't have much to speak of on their payroll. Granted, there's still plenty of work to be done by GM Billy King and, with free agency just two days old, plenty of time in which to do it. Aside from Johnson and Gerald Wallace—who's slated to sign a four-year, $40 million deal to stay in Brooklyn—the Nets have only one player (MarShon Brooks) under contract for next season. King has already tendered Brook Lopez a qualifying offer, thereby rendering the 24-year-old center a restricted free agent and allowing the Nets to match any deal thrown his way. Lopez spent most of last season sidelined by a foot injury, though as Tim Bontemps of The New York Post considers, he still stands to profit handsomely, given the exorbitant deals already tendered to the likes of Roy Hibbert and Omer Asik. The Nets also figure to hang onto Gerald Green, who enjoyed a rather stunning renaissance of sorts in New Jersey last season.
The biggest domino of all, though, has yet to fall. The team is awaiting the decision of Deron Williams, who met with both of his free-agent suitors (the Dallas Mavericks and the Nets) on Monday, while Twitter was busy exploding over the news of Joe Johnson's move. The Nets can offer D-Will more money ($100 million over five years vs. approximately $75 million over four) and more marketing opportunities in the New York metropolitan area than he'll find in Dallas, and with Johnson, Crash and Lopez on board, they can all but promise him a spot in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, as well.
Wherever Williams signs, he's expected to bring fellow free agent Jason Kidd along with him, per ESPN's Ric Bucher. If the eventual destination is Brooklyn, the Nets would then be left with seven players under contract for next season, four of whom—Johnson $19.75 million, Williams at $17.2 milion, Wallace at $10 million and Brooks at just under $1.3 million—would likely take up $48-to-49 million of Brooklyn's cap space, not including a $7.6 million hold for Lopez. That puts the Nets nearly up against a salary cap that's expected to remain in the $58 million range, as it was this past season.
Supposing the Nets, then, are able to re-sign Lopez and Green and bring J-Kidd back aboard, they could look to fill their front court by signing Bosnian free agent Mirza Teletovic and/or inviting Kris Humphries to stick around for some portion of the $5-million-per-year mid-level exception afforded to teams over the cap but under the luxury tax threshold, as the Nets would be.
Not to mention a $1.96 million biannual exception that would be at Brooklyn's disposal.
All of which would leave the Nets with four or five open roster spots to fill with late draft picks (i.e. Tyshawn Taylor), undrafted free agents and veterans hoping to land on the end of the bench.
However those last four-to-five spots turn out, head coach Avery Johnson's depth chart would look something like this:
| Point Guard | Deron Williams | Jason Kidd | Tyshawn Taylor |
| Shooting Guard | Joe Johnson | MarShon Brooks | |
| Small Forward | Gerald Wallace | Gerald Green | |
| Power Forward | Kris Humphries | Mirza Teletovic | |
| Center | Brook Lopez |
Not exactly a cast of world-beaters, though it'd certainly be a significant upgrade over the band of misfits who've finished at least 14 games under .500 in each of the last five seasons. These Nets would presumably have the look of a team capable of cracking the Eastern Conference playoff picture, perhaps even as a top-four-or-five seed.
That may seem like a stretch at first, until factoring in the Chicago Bulls spending half the season (if not longer) without Derrick Rose and bidding farewell to Omer Asik, the Indiana Pacers potentially losing Roy Hibbert to a massive offer sheet, the Hawks (of course) shipping out Iso-Joe and Marvin Williams in an effort to clean house, the Orlando Magic staring down Dwight Howard's seemingly imminent departure and the Boston Celtics potentially losing Ray Allen to any number of suitors.
In other words, the East could be significantly weaker behind the Miami Heat when all is said and done. Any number of teams may end up vying for home-court advantage behind the defending champions, including the Nets.
To be sure, the Nets (specifically, owner Mikhail Prokhorov) would've preferred to have gone for a bigger splash by bringing Dwight Howard to his destination of choice. And some (like Chris Sheridan of Sheridan Hoops) would suggest that a swap for Superman is still well within the realm of possibility for Brooklyn, should Orlando be privy to a package involving Lopez, Brooks, Wallace, Humphries and a handful of draft picks.
Either way, so long as the Joe Johnson deal goes through and D-Will decides to stay, the Nets' debut in Brooklyn this fall may well be legitimate cause for excitement on the hardwood.
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
