First the obligatory roster update which is finally starting to get interesting.
Media Day is September 23 and first day of practice two days later. That same day,will be be the grand opening of the Brooklyn Basketball Center across the street from Barclays Center in the old Modell’s, Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park reports, In other words, the season is getting closer.
On Friday, the Nets made a minor move — waiving two-way player Tosan Evboumwan — but it signaled something more. On Sunday
morning, Fanbo Zeng’s Phoenix-based personal trainer tweeted that Fanbo was headed to Brooklyn. His management had previously said he’d be training in Phoenix through the end of August then travel to New York for camp. Well, today is September 1!
There was immediate speculation that the Nets were about to once again re-jigger their roster. Teams can go into training camp (which for Brooklyn opens September 25) with 21 players — 18 players on some form of standard NBA deal and three others on two-way deals. At the moment, the Nets have 21 players just a different configuration: 20 players on some sort of standard NBA deal and one two-way, Tyson Etienne. Fanbo will add one
Beyond that there’s been serious reporting that another player — 6,11” Alabama forward Grant Nelson — will get an Exhibit 10. So, we should soon see more roster moves in the next week to 10 days, including more serious discussion between the team and Cam Thomas. That’s not speculation. Although the two sides are far apart, according to league sources, Thomas not not get exercised his qualifying offer. The status quo continues on that.
There are other roster issues outstanding beyond the Thomas restricted free agency, particularly the status of the team’s two other RFA’s, Day’Ron Sharpe and Ziaire Williams. As we and others have reported, the two have agreed to two-year, $12 million deals with only the first year guaranteed. The issue is whether the deals will be carved out of cap space or the $8.8 million room MLE.
And as we and others have also reported, Sean Marks and co. want to work their way through their remaining cap space — at minimum of $16.5 million — before tackling the Thomas situation. With Evbuomwan now gone and September dawning, we expect one final push in that area. The Nets were reportedly part of trade discussions with the Mavericks on third-year player Olivier-Maxience Prosper, but Dallas decided rather than give up one of their two remaining second rounders in a trade they’d buyout and stretch the 23-year-old 6’7”, 230-pound power forward to get under the second apron. He’s now a free agent and there’s been some speculation by Clutch Point’s Brett Siegel that Brooklyn may still interested in him even without a second rounder attached.
There still have a few teams looking for similar cost-saving moves, but the number keeps shrinking as does the Nets cap space, another indication that the final nut-cutting is upon us. Moreover, and this is hardly discussed, having some of the cap space left over for the February trade deadline would be smart.
NO indication whatsoever that anything has changed with Thomas though. The 23-year-old shooting guard’s advocates — and there are many in the Nets worldwide fanbase — point to his 24-point scoring average last season. On the other hand, his critics note that he’s missed almost a whole season — 73 games — to hamstring issues over the past two years. Moreover they that the team is moving to more quick decision-making with the ball and less iso. Again, he could have exercised his QO but despite speculation, has not. He has a month, till October 1, to make a decision.
As one pundit noted this week, everything is part of one big picture that involves cap space, the room MLE, the five non-guaranteed players, the Exhibit 10s and how the training camp roster will be configured, let alone the final roster. Fans who wonder why free agency has taken so long — and it’s not just the Nets, the Warriors have six roster openings — it’s a combination of the CBA’s restrictions and one team having a monopoly on free agency. It’s taken teams time to figure things out. Do they do buyout and stretch players or give up precious draft assets? For the most part, it’s been the latter. Relatively cheap, four-year rookie deals are the bargains that balance the deals for stars and superstars.
The Mavs and the Heat went in different directions this week in getting out of CBA trouble. Dallas, as noted, bought and stretched Prosper rather than trade away one of their two remaining second rounders while the Heat sent the Nets one of their remaining two second rounders to dump Hayward Highsmith. Yes, the two teams had a total of two seconds over the next seven years. The Nets have 19.
So why all those seconds? Steve Lichtenstein wrote his substack, Steve’s Newsletter this week about the Nets hoarding of seconds. The second round pick, he argued, are the new coin of the realm in the NBA.
[S]econd round picks are the NBA’s currency du jour, like cigarettes in a prison. Acquiring teams see them as healthier for trade flipping than for personal use. And boy do the Nets seem like they’re attempting to corner the market.
NetsDaily.com has the franchise’s future Draft pick count up to 32—13 firsts and 19 seconds—through 2032 following the Haywood Highsmith trade with Miami two weeks ago that netted them one more second rounder. Only six of the Nets’ 2s are their own.
In the good ole pre-apron days, overgenerous teams would be forced to part with 1s to rid themselves of onerous contracts. Other than the Nets with Deron Williams, we’ve never seen waivers of the magnitude of Damian Lillard and Bradley Beal before. In the current CBA climate, 1s are too valuable to throw away on sunk costs. Hence all the 2s that have exchanged hands in the last year or so.
It’s also about flexibility, the simple ability to move in any direction the CBA takes you. Can’t hurt.
The banality of Michael Porter Jr. … and friends
Once you get over the outrage of the latest commentary by MPJ on either “Curious Mike,” his own vlog, or guest appearances on other assorted podcasts, blogs and vlogs, you come to realize that it’s just so banal, defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “so lacking in originality to be obvious and boring.”
To summarize another week to forget. To begin…
Indeed, MPJ said the Women’s Olympic Team would also fall to a group of 16 and 17-year-olds. To remind people, Team USA is one of the most dominant in all Olympic teams, with a 78–3 record in Olympic play, and a record eight consecutive titles. As Wikipedia notes,“they have no Olympic losses since 1992, no losses in any major tournament since 2006, and their gold medal in 2024 broke the U.S. men’s basketball team’s record (1936–1968) for the most consecutive Olympic team victories in all Olympic sports.“
But the debate, as stupid as it gets, ignores a basic point: why the hell would the women’s Olympic team or the WNBA All Stars need to justify their greatness by playing a group of kids?!? They don’t need to prove a damn thing on any basketball court! That should’ve been Porter’s response.
Of course, MPJ has a history of diminishing women’s basketball saying they don’t deserve equal pay, something that’s not on the table in the current labor negotiations. What IS on the table is equity. Why can’t one of men’s basketball leading figures offer solidarity to the game’s women rather than diminish them at an artificial level? Besides, it ain’t his money! He’s already been paid $115.3 million in his career and is owed another $78.1 million. MPJ will make more than twice as much money this season than the entire WNBA.
Next up!
To us, this is even worse and indeed, tops the list of vile things he’s said since joining Brooklyn and that list grows every day. Sure every American (last we checked at least!) has a right to free speech but what’s the point of using your fame to be hurtful, dismissing the value of a child because of their sexual preferences or proclivities? Don’t kids, particularly those dealing with being “other,” have enough to confront on a daily basis? Unlike the debate over WNBA salaries, there’s no data to debate here, just simple kindness. Enough!
But getting back to the banality. Watching MPJ’s videos with Steiny of “One Night with Steiny”: and PlaqueBoyMax, it’s not hard to recognize how these two are playing him. They laugh uproariously at his comments knowing how it will create controversy for him to their benefit. What does he get out of all this? The cost/benefit analysis is decidedly not in his favor.
In your face update:
On Monday afternoon, “Curious Mike” released a mini-episode in which Porter told Steiny aka Aaron Steinberg that he was “out of the club,” because Steiny didn’t tell him that the “clips” that he willingly appeared in “would go viral like that.” It’s an apparent reference to the video in which MPJ told Steiny and co-host Bob Menery that people he will often have dates listen to the sexist, misogynistic rants of Andrew Tate whose spent time in a Romanian prison on charges involving rape, physical assault, sex trafficking of minors among other things, last week’s atrocity…
As one fan posted, the emotion was obviously fake, that indeed he’s making light of the controversy and doubling down on what he said.
One final thing: when these latest clips came to the fore, we suggested that someone should acquaint Porter that he now resides in New York City as if the Big Apple has some cultural superiority. That was wrong, This stuff should be vile to everyone.
What next for LinSanity?
The magic is over for Jeremy Lin at least on the court. Lin now 36 years old and newly a father announced his retirement from the game, ending a storybook career that included three weeks of pure New York hoops joy called LinSanity…
He announced the big life event on Instagram
and other social media.
There’s a lot to review about how a 21-year-old undrafted Asian point guard out of Harvard who barely escaped being waived used all those improbabilities to become for three weeks not just the center of basketball worldwide but the very heart of the city, the child of immigrants who came to the great boiling melting pot and succeeded beyond anything imaginable. Like a lot of New York dreams, it peaked but like a lot of New York dreams, it lived on, particularly in the city’s Asian community.
He also won a ring in Toronto and had an injury riddled couple of seasons in Brooklyn that truth be told ended badly. But the relationship between the Tsais and Lin is strong. Clara Wu Tsai and Lin are second cousins.
Indeed, the two spoke about it a few weeks back.
“Our grandmothers were sisters,” Wu Tsai explained. “Obviously my grandmother was the older sister and his grandmother was the baby of the family, but we are second cousins.”
Wu Tsai that she and her family were well aware of the connection 15 years ago when LinSanity burst on the scene at Madison Square Garden elevating the 23-year-old Asian-American to superstar status at least for a couple of weeks.
“LinSanity was such a big part of my family when it came out. It brought so much joy to us. Just the way Jeremy was an underdog and captured the hearts of the nation, of so many people. including all the young Asian hoopers, including my two sons. It allowed them to dream that they can play in the NBA sometime.”
Beyond that, Joe Tsai recruited Lin to join the advisory board of The Asian-American Foundation, which he helped found and fund to combat discrimination. The two are also personally close, which leads us to speculate whether Lin will find next role with the NBA or even the Nets. Next month, the Nets and Suns are traveling to Macao for the renewal of the NBA Asia Games, the first ones since 2019 when a tweet by then Rockets GM Daryl Morey on the political status of Hong Kong sent the relationship into a tailspin. Expect a grand pronouncement or two to further cement things. Don’t be surprised if Lin’s name pops up.
Final Note
This is going to be (another) tough year for fans. The Nets see the 2026 NBA Draft as a game changer, They’re throwing their first first rounders into the fire. It’d be best if there were few “distractions” like the best player being a jerk.
