Should the Rockets try to sign Bruce Brown or Nic Claxton this offseason?

The Nets are in trouble. They're WAY into the luxury tax. Their guaranteed salary for next season is currently sitting at $157,000,000 and that's before they resolve the Kyrie situation or add the number 23 pick's salary. Kyrie currently has a player option for 36.9m next season but if he signs a long term deal with them he could get a significant pay bump (up to 5 years 247.6m! yikes!). And that is further exasperated by the reports that the Nets lost money last year. It's reported that they lost somewhere between 50-100m. (https://www.yahoo.com/video/report-nets-lost-50m-100m-150025180.html#:~:text=The Nets and Barclays Center,100 million range is massive.)

Additionally, that 157m figure is with the following coming off the books:

Bruce Brown
Lamarcus Aldridge
Blake Griffin
Andre Drummond
Nic Claxton
Goran Dragic
David Duke Jr (not to be confused with the Grand Dragon of the Klu Klux Klan)

They have 9 players (if including Kyrie and Patty Mills, who both have player options) slated for their roster next year. And all they have to add talent in free agency is the taxpayer MLE which amounts to about 6.4 million. Additionally, they have 5 trade exceptions they could possibly snag a player or two with, the most valuable of which are worth 11.3m and 6.3m. The others are unlikely to yield a productive player.

The Nets are currently 13.1m into the luxury tax for next season which amounts to a 24m tax payment. I'm not familiar enough with the luxury tax penalties to tell you how much it will cost them to sign somebody like Claxton for 10m+ per year, but it I do know it's no longer a dollar for dollar proposition.

I know neither Brown nor Claxton are the guys who should be at the top of our wish list right now, but looking at the Nets and their depth issues, I could see an argument that it could be hugely beneficial to steal one of these guys with our mid-level exception (worth 10.35m). Why? Because anything that hurts the Nets could potentially make the draft picks we own more valuable. And currently we own the following:

2022, 2024,2026 outright.
Right to swap picks in 2023 (which we are very unlikely to use), 2025 and 2027.

They are very thin at center, so Nic Claxton would HURT. It would likely force them to try to resign Drummond as their starting center (and good luck with that, bruh) which would likely require their full tax payer MLE. This would also mean they wouldn't be able to add any wing depth with that money, which they will need more than ever if Brown leaves them. Unfortunately, Claxton is a restricted free agent, so the Nets would have the right to match any offer made. Would they be willing to match 4 years starting at 10.35 per year considering their cap situation and the fact that Joe Tsai lost a significant amount of money on the team last year?

Claxton is only 23 years old (on our timeline) and is long defensive minded center, which the Rockets could currently use. His stats aren't jaw dropping by any means. He averaged 8.7 points and 5.6 rebounds last season. But his advanced stats are a bit more friendly. He had a PER of 18.7 and a WS of 3.5.

Bruce Brown Jr is 25 years old (still within range of our timeline) and is an unrestricted free agent. If he would agree to our full MLE there is nothing at all the Nets could do to stop it. I honestly don't think we need him at all, but we could always trade him later if necessary. And the point here is to sabotage the Nets to strengthen the value of our draft picks anyway.

It's my opinion that with their depth situation they cannot afford to lose either of these guys. There is a very good chance they'll need to use their tax payer MLE just to bring back a guy like Drummond, not add a new player. And after that their options will be to hope somebody can shake loose for their trade exceptions (but I doubt anybody valuable is going to be given away for a trade exception but maybe if they're willing to throw in a pick?) or that somebody who isn't entirely washed up will be willing to sign with them in the buyout market. I'd add that after they got swept in the first round, it's less likely they'll attract those kind of ring chasers unless everybody is healthy and they've been setting the league on fire.

What are your thoughts? Is this a route Stone might be looking at? I'd kind of love to steal Claxton. We'd be adding a young defensive minded big while hurting the Nets simultaneously? That's basically the best kind of situation to me. And the worst case if we offered Claxton that money is the Nets would lose all leverage in negotiations with Claxton and would be forced to match, further worsening their financial problems.

Can't wait to hear what you nerds think!

 

Yeah but if Stone can get off of Theis then he can definitely get value for Brown. Hell, I'd think it was hilarious if we traded him back to the Nets for their trade exception and another pick. lol

 

If Stone can get off of Daniel Theis without taking back salary are you really afraid of him being unable to get off of Bruce Brown or Nic Claxton if necessary? I'd much rather have either of those guys.