When the Brooklyn Nets made the boldest move this offseason so far by trading for longtime Celtics Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and NBA sharpshooter Jason Terry, many initially tabbed the Nets as instant Eastern Conference contenders.
On paper, the Nets now have arguably the best starting 5 in basketball, but we’ll have to see how things play out under new head coach Jason Kidd as they attempt to beat the Heat, Pacers, Knicks, and Bulls for the Eastern crown.
But along with a superstar roster rife with future Hall of Famers and All Star caliber talent comes a steep price for billionaire owner Mikhail Prokhorov, as the Nets team salary now stands at a league high $89+ million dollars. Assuming they will fill the remaining 3 roster spots with veteran minimum and mid level exception type players, their salary could balloon to around $100 by season’s start.
In fact, their starting line-up, consisting of Deron Williams ($18.5), Joe Johnson ($21.5), Paul Pierce ($15.3), Kevin Garnett ($12.4), and Brook Lopez ($14.7) makes an astronomical $82.4 million alone, a figure more than every other NBA team salary outside of the Miami Heat for ’13-’14.
With the projected salary cap at $58.5 million with the luxury-tax threshold at $71.6 million for next season, the Nets could be forced to pay an all time NBA record of $80 million in luxury tax penalty for next season. The previous high for a luxury tax payment was the Portland Trailblazers back in ’02-’03, that paid more than $51.9 million.
But never fear Nets fans, as the whopping $180 million total bill for next season seems like a tough pill to swallow, it would represent barely 1.3% of owner Prokhorov’s estimated vast $13.5 billion fortune, according to Forbes.
In fact, the amount almost matches the total price of more than $223 million, Prokhorov once paid back in 2010 for 80% ownership of the Nets and 45% interest in the Barclays Center.
Let’s hope the Nets make a deep 2014 Playoff run, in addition to selling out the Barclays, and potentially lead the NBA’s figures in jersey sales in order to recoup most of the monsterous salary and luxury tax the team will be forced to pay out next season.
Source: HoopsHype
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen has also provided content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, Cleveland.com, CSN Philly.com, Buckets Magazine, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
