6:05pm: The trade is now official, the Nets announced in a press release. Brooklyn received the draft rights to David Michineau, who currently plays for Napoli Basket in Italy’s Lega Basket Serie A, to complete the deal.
3:39pm: The Kings and Nets have finalized an agreement, a league source tells James Ham of The Kings Beat (Twitter links). Ham confirms that Sacramento will end Burton’s 10-day contract a little early to open up a roster spot for Edwards.
2:54am: The Kings and Nets are close to reaching an agreement on a trade that would send forward Kessler Edwards to Sacramento, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link), the deal will send Edwards and cash to Sacramento. It’s essentially a salary dump, since moving off Edwards’ minimum-salary contract will save the Nets approximately $8MM in salary and tax money in addition to opening up a roster spot, per Wojnarowski.
As Wojnarowski notes, Edwards must sign off on the trade, since the terms of his deal with Brooklyn give him the ability to veto a trade. He intends to approve it, according to Woj (Twitter link).
The 44th overall pick in the 2021 draft, Edwards signed a two-year contract with the Nets this past offseason after spending his rookie year on a two-way deal that includes a second-year team option. He showed promise in a limited role last season, averaging 5.9 PPG and 3.6 RPG on .412/.353/.842 shooting.
However, Edwards hasn’t seen regular playing time in 2022/23, logging 79 total minutes across 14 contests. He has scored just 15 points on 6-of-24 (25.0%) shooting for the season.
It’s unclear whether Edwards will finish the season with Sacramento. According to Wojnarowski, the club’s plan for now is to give him the opportunity to play for its G League team, the Stockton Kings, but Woj says his future remains “fluid” with two days to go until the trade deadline. It sounds like if Sacramento needs to open a roster spot at the deadline, Edwards would probably be the odd man out.
The Kings technically have a full 15-man roster for now, but one of those spots is occupied by Deonte Burton, who is on a 10-day contract that expires Wednesday night. His deal may be terminated a little early to accommodate the acquisition of Edwards.
As for the Nets, they’ll create a trade exception worth approximately $1.6MM (Edwards’ salary), but the financial savings and the newly opened roster spot will likely end up being more valuable than that exception.
The problem with Edwards is that when he misses a shot, its normally an airball or wasn’t even close to hitting. His defense is ok, nothing special. He really needs to improve his shooting and bulk up a bit more. Potential 3-D player if he can find a good shooting coach
100% accurate analysis.
The Nets have to receive something. I’d figure a future second rounder, semi-protected. I don’t buy that this is about cap savings. I think they’re clearing the roster spot either for another deal where a team needs to send two of its players for one of the Nets or for the buyout market.
LaMarcus Aldridge II – this time with more Aldridge
All the dridge, one could say
Well played
Nets got the rights to David Michineau who may get invited to Summer League but, in the meantime, just lets them complete the deal. The more promising stash is Nikola Milutinov who will complete his contract with CSKA Moscow this year.
Opening a roster spot to move Simmons and Curry with draft compensation for Poetl and McDermott or Kelly O + Sexton/Conley + Vando …. Nets FO wants to go all in prove KD they can build a contender team
The Nets might as well pull the plug on thus cursed season and see what they can build for next season…
Over Kessler Edwards? Pretty extreme, no?
Would there be an advantage for Sacramento to sign Edwards into the trade exception of Marvin Bagley, expiring 10th of Feb?
Sacramentento also has 4 million trade exception of Halliburton expiring 8th of Feb I see. Wonder if they will use that one.
They can’t use the Bagley trade exception as Edwards salary is roughly $7k too high…
No need to use a trade exception — Edwards is on a two-year, minimum-salary deal, so he can be taken on using the minimum salary exception.
I see. So that trade exception of Bagly is basically useless?
If Edwards had been on a three-year minimum-salary contract, that exception would’ve come in handy. We touched on this here: link to hoopsrumors.com
Totally agree,perhaps baby Ben would agree to a buyout ?
I would like to see Queta get a longer look. He has looked good in limited minutes.
If the NBA would just compute the luxury tax on – get this – the aggregate salary a team pays out during the year, it would put an end to this nonsense. If economic reality is too pedestrian a concept to rule the day, then how about the fact that it’s really not helpful to the development of young players for them to be transferred from team to team for tax reasons.
Mike Brown will get something out of Edwards.
I’m wondering if they traded for him, so he could be included in a bigger yet to come move. Otherwise why would they trade for him and then just assign him to Stockton of the G league. Makes no sense.
If they don’t plan to use or trade him, the deal makes no sense indeed. So they must have some plan.
Never forget how dumb it was when they cut James Johnson for this guy last year
Sounds crazy but develop him at SG. Trade Holmes and Davis for a shot blocking Center or PF