Time of essence for Nets
Time running out on Giants to put tag on Danny Dimes, Who's eyeing huge deal
In a normal year, as the regular season winds down, Jacque Vaughn would want to begin increasing his starters’ minutes for the playoffs.
It appears he started that process a bit early this season. The 2022-23 campaign has been anything but normal for the Nets.
NETS NOTES
Brooklyn has leaned heavily on its starters and sixth man Royce O’Neale the last couple of weeks, and Vaughn has repeated that the approach is “definitely something I’m cognizant of ” as he pieces together a lineup with four new starters following the trade deadline. In Sunday’s win against the Hornets, Mikal Bridges played 40 minutes, 58 seconds, which was still less than what he logged against the Celtics (42:45) two nights prior.
“In the past … we’ve played our guys not as many minutes, and then as the playoffs start to come around, we wanted to ramp those guys up so they can play, quoteunquote, playoff minutes,” Vaughn said. “I’m trying to hedge that a little bit with the short time between regular season and this group being together and playoffs.”
Outside of O’Neale, Brooklyn has trimmed its rotation, and that has led to limited court time for Seth Curry, Joe Harris, Yuta Watanabe and Cam Thomas, among others, with the exception of blowouts.
Thomas, who compiled three consecutive 40-point outbursts leading up to the trade deadline, has been on the court for only 13:47 the last two games. Watanabe, with the exception of Sunday when the Nets built a 30point lead, had disappeared from the rotation altogether.
“I’m cool playing a lot of minutes,” Bridges said Sunday. “If you ask anybody when I was in Phoenix, got nothing wrong with it at all. I just want to go out there and just do the best I can, help the team win.”
The Nets ruled Ben Simmons out for Tuesday’s game against the Rockets, though Edmond Sumner who had missed three games for the birth of his child, and Nerlens Noel, who signed his 10-day contract Monday, aren’t listed on the team’s injury report, meaning they should be available.
Not yet. But closer.
The Giants and Daniel Jones are moving toward finding common ground on a contract agreement that would link the player and the quarterback together for several years. Nothing is done until it is done but the signs are there that the Giants and Jones could hammer it out.
Although it may seem contentious from the outside, there has not been anything close to a “talks break down’’ setback, as both sides are highly motivated to get a deal done. The Giants want Jones and Jones wants the Giants.
That Jones’ representatives traveled to New Jersey on Monday to continue in-person negotiations, after meeting for several days together last week in Indianapolis during the NFL Scouting Combine, is a sign that progress is being made toward a possible deal.
The most recent quarterback signing, Derek Carr to the Saints on a four-year deal worth $150 million, probably has little effect on the Jones talks. Carr turns 32 this month and Jones will be 26 on May 27 — these are not players at the same stage of their development. The Giants see tremendous upside in Jones now that he is linked with a head coach, Brian Daboll, known to get the most out of his offensive players. That Carr came in at $37.5 million per year was not expected to complicate the Giants’ talks.
The logical outcome for Jones is a four- or five-year deal averaging close to or perhaps reaching $40 million per year, with somewhere near $100 million in guaranteed money. A deal must be completed by 4 p.m. Tuesday, as that is the deadline for the Giants to place the franchise tag on Jones. If that happens — neither side wants it to happen — Jones gets paid $32.4 million for the 2023 season and has no security beyond that.
This also would immediately remove $32.4 million from the Giants’ salary cap space, believed to be around $50 million. That would severely limit the ability of general manager Joe Schoen to improve the roster in free agency and could very likely end Saquon Barkley’s time with the Giants.
The Giants can tag Jones and continue contract talks, but the team believes this is the most advantageous time to get a deal done. A deal can be structured that backloads money, pushing the per-year average to $40 million but in actuality averages less than that in the first three years.
Barkley, like Jones, does not yet have a contract for 2023. Unlike Jones, who will not hit the open market because the Giants will tag him if no deal is done, Barkley could become a free agent. He turned down a bye week offer in early November of $12.5 million a year and the Giants are unwilling to go much higher. If a deal gets done with Jones, the Giants could put the franchise tag on Barkley for $10.1 million. Barkley does not want to play on the tag this season. The Giants do not want that, either.
Clearly, Daboll is a believer in what Jones can do for the franchise, now and in years to come. Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen did not select Jones in the draft. They inherited him and came in with no allegiance to him. There was no edict from ownership that Daboll had to become an advocate for Jones and no demand to Schoen to bring Jones back, at any cost. If Daboll did not believe he could win a Super Bowl with Jones the Giants would move on and find another quarterback.
Daboll has worked with NFL quarterbacks for more than two decades and was recently named the AP NFL Coach of the Year. That he is on board with Jones holds enormous sway within the organization.
Jones is such a non-dominating personality that those on the outside — and perhaps some inside the
building — were taken aback with these aggressive financial requests. Jones never engages in self-praise but it is evident he wants to be paid, in part, for his all-in investment the past four years.
The franchise wanted him to be poured into the Eli Manning mold and Jones obliged, never triggering even a hint of controversy. Teammates marveled that no matter how early they arrived at the team facility, Jones’ car was already parked outside. For Jones, first-in, last-out was real. He did not complain when the Giants shuffled through Pat Shurmur and Joe Judge as head coaches and Mike Shula and Jason Garrett as offensive coordinators. Jones did not complain when his offensive lines were shabby and the targets of his passes could not get open. No one in the locker room has a bad word to say about Jones — heck, Manning was benched for Jones and Manning is an admirer — and Jones wants to be compensated, in part, for that loyalty and professionalism.
Will it happen? The answer arrives soon enough.