NO ORDINARY JOE
Nets’ offseason plans revolve around re-signing versatile Harris
Figuring out way to re-sign Harris one of Nets’ top offseason priorities
When Nets GM Sean Marks decreed re-signing Joe Harris “priority No. 1” for this offseason, his words were interpreted as a basketball priority.
Pace and space is the name of the game, and no Nets player creates more space for his teammates as Harris, a marksman who became a 20-point scorer in the Orlando bubble last season.
But Harris isn’t just the key to the Nets on the floor. He’s also the key to their payroll, and the relationship between this shooter and team complicates matters heading into a pivotal offseason.
When the Nets signed Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan two summers ago, they committed more than $340 million in guaranteed salaries to three players over four seasons. Next season alone, the trio will account for just about $84 million in salary. The total Nets payroll entering the NBA’s 2020-21 offseason will be at minimum $132 million.
That doesn’t include a deal for Harris, who will be a coveted free agent as the best shooter on the market. To make matters worse, the Nets are going to be a team paying the luxury tax.
It’s a reality the team has faced since the stars aligned in Brooklyn with Durant and Irving choosing the Nets over their cross-bridge rivals. There is no salary cap explosion pending. The league is anticipating the cap to remain the same — $109 million — with a luxury tax line of, you guessed it, $132 million.
The luxury tax is in place to control team spending, and to penalize teams that continually exceed the cap to add talented players to their roster. That is to say, teams assembled the way the Nets have been over the last year and change.
Teams are taxed a certain amount for every dollar they spend over the tax line. The tax amounts increase for every $5 million spent on a player’s salary. Currently, the luxury tax is a progressive tax, meaning that for every dollar over the line between $1 and $4,999,999, teams are taxed $1.50. Then from $5 million to $9.99 million, they are taxed $1.75 for every dollar spent in that bracket.
Teams are taxed more severely if they go further than $10 million over the tax, having to pay $2.50 for every dollar between $10-15 million, $3.25 for every dollar between $15-$20 million and $3.75 for every dollar between $20-$25 million.
The tax, of course, does not include the value of the contract itself.
A friendly reminder: The Nets have $132 million in guaranteed salaries without re-signing any of their own players, signing draft picks or new free agents. The luxury tax line is projected to be $132 million, though that number is subject to change.
That luxury tax is the only reason why the Nets would consider declining Garrett Temple’s team option and cutting him loose as a free agent. Temple makes an impact on both ends of the floor and in the locker room as a veteran, but his $5 million salary becomes at least $17.5 million when you account for taxes.
Which brings us back to Joe Harris, the sharpshooter-turned-complete-player and posterboy for Nets player development. The Nets can re-sign him because they own his Bird rights, having employed him each of the past four seasons. If Harris was coming off of a contract with the Knicks, for example, the Nets wouldn’t be able to sign him. They don’t have any money. Not a dime.
Other teams know that, and other teams want Harris just as much as the Nets do. Marks shouldn’t expect any favors this offseason. Not after the stunt he pulled four summers ago.
After all, the Nets suckerpunched the Heat in the summer of 2016 by offering Tyler Johnson — then a restricted free agent — an exorbitant, four-year, $50 million deal. The Heat matched the Nets offer, begrudgingly, then ultimately traded Johnson to the Suns.
Marks also drop kicked the Trail Blazers the same summer, offering restricted free agent Allen Crabbe a four-year, $75 million deal. Portland matched the offer, and Crabbe never lived up to the deal. The Trail Blazers ultimately traded Crabbe to the Nets for salary cap relief.
Harris is technically an unrestricted free agent, meaning the Nets don’t own the right of first refusal on his deals. If another team offers a four-year, $100 million deal, Harris could accept it without the Nets having a chance to match. But the expectation is that, all things being equal, Harris would prefer to stay in Brooklyn, making him a de facto restricted free agent for most teams’ intents and purposes.
What’s Harris’ market value anyway?
Danny Green signed a twoyear, $30 million deal with the Lakers last summer. JJ Redick has averaged a $15.4 million salary over the past four seasons, including a one-year, $23 million deal in Philly. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has made an average of $12.6 million over the last three years with the Lakers, including $17.7 million in 2017. He took a pay
cut — two years, $16.6 million — to win a championship with the Lakers last season, but will opt out of Year 2 to command more money on the open market.
Four years, $56 million is an average $14 million annual salary, but given the scarcity of shooters (and Marks’ history in the RFA pool, it would be wise to expect rival teams to overpay in an attempt to poach Harris from Brooklyn. Even if those teams are unsuccessful, they’ll drive Harris’ price up, and the Nets’ tax bill along with it.
I would bet, though, that Harris will cut the Nets some sort of a deal. An $80 million deal in Atlanta isn’t the same as $54 million in Brooklyn. The teams that have space to offer a deal aren’t going as far as the Nets are projected, and Harris already said he wants to stay and be a part of this Brooklyn team.
“Definitely, why wouldn’t you?” he said in February of re-signing in Brooklyn and playing on a championship team. “Obviously, those are guys who I’ve gotten close with now that I’ve been with them this past year. They’re obviously incredible players. You see what they’re able to do when they are healthy and playing. I don’t think there’s anybody in the NBA who wouldn’t want to play with those guys.”
The Nets offseason is much more complex than just one player. Brooklyn is building a contender around two superstars recovering from injury who have never played with one another in an NBA game. They are faced with a number of difficult decisions, chief among them being whether or not to trade their young stars -- Caris LeVert, Spencer Dinwiddie and Jarrett Allen -- for a legitimate third star. They still have gaping holes in their roster, and after injuries limited Irving to just 20 games in his first Nets season, another backup point guard should be added to the Nets’ wish list.
But Harris may very well be the most important role player on the market this offseason. The Nets truly can’t afford to let him go. And even if there were another player on the market who matched his production, Harris would still be the only one the Nets could afford.
Check back tomorrow for Part 2 of the Nets’ free agency primer.