The Nets signed former second-round pick Marcus Zegarowski to a contract on Friday and waived him on Saturday, according to NBA.com’s official transactions log.
The No. 49 overall pick of the 2021 draft, Zegarowski signed a G League deal last offseason and spent his first professional season playing for the Long Island Nets, Brooklyn’s G League affiliate. The 6’1″ guard, a former Creighton standout, averaged 11.6 PPG, 3.0 RPG, and 2.4 APG with an underwhelming .351/.331/.650 shooting line in 21 total NBAGL appearances between the regular season and the Showcase Cup.
Brooklyn still held Zegarowski’s NBA rights entering the 2022/23 league year, but the decision to sign and waive him is an indication that he’s no longer in the team’s plans. If and when he clears waivers on Monday, he’ll be free to sign with any other NBA club.
The terms of the contract Zegarowski signed aren’t known, but it wasn’t an Exhibit 10 deal, since they don’t show up in NBA.com’s log. It was presumably a non-guaranteed contract, with the lack of an Exhibit 10 clause signaling that the Nets probably don’t plan on having him back in Long Island in 2022/23.
As NetsDaily tweets, the sign-and-waive maneuver was likely a procedural move freeing up the 24-year-old to seek an opportunity elsewhere.
Creighton was really good with Zegarowski but they’re about to have their best season in school history with Ryan Nembhard, Trey Alexander & Kaluma leading the way… link to youtube.com
Don’t forget to add Baylor Scheierman.
They got a deep squad no doubt. Alexander & Kaluma gonna be the key guys tho. I think Creighton & Villanova are gonna get top2 seeds this season
You forgot about Kalkbrenner, the reigning DPOY in the Big East… Scheierman could be the best player in the conference and in the discussion for NPOY this season. Alexander was a back up for Nemhard until Nemhard got hurt. Scheierman, Kaluma and Kalkbrenner are the top 3 players on that team and 3 most important
Other teams have used the sign and waive maneuver with the intention of using the player in the G-League. Are you saying that’s not the case here? Why would they need to sign him if they wanted to free him up? Couldn’t they simply renounce his draft rights? Those often come in handy in trades, though.
I think it was decision to go that route. His brother is Michael Carter Williams so he definitely discussed that option has his best route to be a free agent faster.
It looks like Zegarowski signed his required tender, so it may have been a matter of him forcing the Nets to make a decision on him, rather than the team charitably setting him free.
The contract is likely the one required to be tendered to a 2nd round pick by a pre-season deadline (I think it’s Oct 1st), unless the player waives the right to get it. MZ and Gray must have waived this last year since they were drafted by, but never signed with, BKN, only their GL club directly, and BKN retained their draft rights. If MZ wanted the required contract tendered, BKN had to give it to him or they’d lose his draft rights. They can, of course, release him at any time after signing it, and the draft rights are lost by the release.