Nets forward Mirza Teletovic will miss the rest of the season while he undergoes treatment for multiple blood clots in his lungs, the Nets announced. The 29-year-old left Thursday’s loss to the Clippers after experiencing shortness of breath. He’ll remain hospitalized for the time being, and he’ll go on blood thinners that will make it impossible for him to return in 2014/15, according to the team.
It seemed as though Teletovic had averted major trouble when he said on Twitter overnight that everything was OK following a “small problem,” and he had attributed the issue to fatigue, as Robert Windrem of NetsDaily tweets, but the issue is apparently more profound than he thought. The third-year veteran had been seeing more minutes per game this season (22.3) than in his previous two NBA campaigns, though his playing time had been receding with each passing month.
The Nets have an open roster spot, as our roster counts show, but they’re limited to handing out the prorated minimum salary to any free agents, and as a tax team, the cost of any signing would be multiplied. The deadline to apply for a disabled player exception was last week.
There were conflicting reports on whether Teletovic’s name came up in conversation between the Nets and Celtics when they apparently discussed potential Rajon Rondo trades earlier this season. The native of Bosnia and Herzegovina is in the final year of his contract, making slightly more than $3.368MM, and he said in the fall that he planned to listen to offers from the Nets as well as others after the season. The Nets can make him a restricted free agent if they extend a qualifying offer worth more than $4.21MM.