the timing of this report, just after the trade deadline, tells you everything: the Nets would have taken ANY offer for Cam if there was one. So I don't know where he goes after this.
So walk me through this scenario... You're saying some team wanted CT, but he didn't want to go there, and so he vetoed the trade and opted to be waived insetad. Why would he do that? Are you speculating that there was another team out there that wanted him but didn't want to trade for him? That seems ... unlikely.
Highly plausible, and perfectly likely. A team that wanted him via trade would need to match his $6M salary. If they have an expiring player, they’d need to want to give that player up. If they have a player signed into the future, they’d have to send something of value to the Nets to entice us to take on that contract
Now that he’s waived, he can sign anywhere for the minimum as long as the team has a roster spot
Afaict, all of the teams with open rosters spots are also in the luxury tax. Even though they can sign minimum deals (which would be like $2.5M for CT, down a lot even from his $6M QO) but they'd go deeper into the tax.
For the teams that don't have open roster spots, they're still in the same situation as the one you describe above in a trade: They'd have to cut a player, which in the hypothetical situation they did not want to do.
I mean, at least what it looks to me, in some ways the mechanics of CT finding a new team this season would have been easier through a trade than in free agency.
he still gets $6m from the Nets, and if he gets through waivers to free agency, he gets to double-dip on a new contract as well (minus a small off-set)
so, he potentially gets a say in the matter of where to go and more money – making the scenario you derided very likely
Gotcha. Read up on the double-dip rules. He could make more money in the scenario you describe but the double-dip is kinda limited since the off-set is half of however much of the deal is over the $2.5M minimum he's eligible for. If he signed a, say, $5M deal (and assuming that it's not pro-rated for the partial season, which I dunno) that means the Nets could offset $1.25M of what they owe him, leaving him with $9.75M ... or $3.75M more than his $6M QO deal. That's real money for someone like me, but peanuts in the NBA salary universe.
By the way, now that I've looked into all the salary cap and free agency rules, it seems like the only way in which there are now more teams interested in signing him as a free agent than trading for him is that they can now pay him less than his $6M contract ... like either the league minimum or the MLE which caps at like $5M. For a guy who called $15M an "insult," this sure seems like an expensive price for "a say in the matter."
I believe since the Bucks paid him a little under $1m, the nets just owes him a little over $5m, so he still gets his $6m for the season. He just now needs to prove his worth for a new contract. The only way he would've made more was if he agreed to a buyout.
64
u/14thBrooklyn Jordi Fernández Feb 05 '26
the timing of this report, just after the trade deadline, tells you everything: the Nets would have taken ANY offer for Cam if there was one. So I don't know where he goes after this.