Nets ownership threw caution to the wind at the beginning of last season and signed anyone they wanted to, regardless of the price tag. While many teams balk at the idea of having to pay a luxury tax for going over the salary cap, not the Nets. In fact, they paid an estimated $144 million in luxury tax for last season.
They’re doing things differently this time around. The team was interested in retaining the services of Paul Pierce but there weren’t willing to break the bank again.
“That was the plan of attack, and when we started negotiations, the numbers they asked for were [too high], and I thought at one point he was definitely leaving,” said King.
“So, you start switching gears because you start hearing he’s going to end up some other place so you have to start preparing, and when he came back to us we had already moved on.”
“Our goal is not to be where we were,” King said, referring to the Nets’ record payroll and luxury-tax bill last season of over $190 million. “We got there last year, but that wasn’t the intent when we started.
H/T: NY Post
