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Brooklyn Nets Agree To 2-Year, $6 Million Deal With Justin Hamilton

By Matthew Hallett

Mar 11, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves center Justin Hamilton (41) and guard Zach LaVine (8) against the Phoenix Suns at US Airways Center. The Suns defeated the Timberwolves 106-97. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 11, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves center Justin Hamilton (41) and guard Zach LaVine (8) against the Phoenix Suns at US Airways Center. The Suns defeated the Timberwolves 106-97. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports /
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Justin Hamilton agrees with the Brooklyn Nets on a two-year, $6 million deal.

The Brooklyn Nets have made a move or two in free agency; they had to because last season was simply terrible.

Jeremy Lin is a smart signing; he has his mojo back after a year with the Charlotte Hornets and should provide some tremendous spark to this Brooklyn team once he can officially ink the deal on July 7.

Another deal which has passed under the radar because he is not a big name, at all, is Justin Hamilton as reported by Shams Charancia from The Vertical.

The Nets agreed with Hamilton on a two-year, $6 million deal to come on as one of their backup centers along with Henry Sims, if he re-signs.

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In his two years in the league Hamilton averaged 5.0 points and 2.9 rebounds in the 49 games that he played for Charlotte, the Miami Heat and the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Hamilton last played in the NBA in 2014-15 and spent last season with Valencia Basket in Spain’s ACB, also playing in Eurocup and Spanish Cup competitions and averaging 13.1 points and 5.5 rebounds in 22.2 minutes per game and shooting .526/.407/.750.

Center is a position of strength for Brooklyn with their franchise player being Brook Lopez, who last season averaged 20.6 points and 7.8 rebounds per game.

This signing is not a world changer by any means. Hamilton will get some court time so that Lopez can have a break and I am sure that he will score somewhere between 4.0 and 8.0 points per game.

What this signing does do however is leave a heap of salary cap room for much more important signings. Only spending $3 million a year on a backup center makes sense.

Brooklyn has holes all over the roster and spending money on a position that already has quality would have been stupid.

With Lin agreeing to his $36 million deal over three years, the point guard position is now looked after.

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson is a good young combination shooting guard and small forward so will rotate with Lin and Bojan Bogdanovic who really showed an offensive streak after Joe Johnson was waived. I will take a long time to forget his 44-point game.

The Nets also just agreed to terms with Trevor Booker to a two-year deal and while his numbers were never that high with the Utah Jazz, his energy always was. It made him a fan favorite in his time there.

I am sure that the Nets are not done in this period of free agency.

They have a shooting guard that they need to sign and possibly another power forward, considering that they traded away Thaddeus Young so that they had the cap space to facilitate this rebuild process through free agency.

They had few draft picks, the Young trade netted them pick No. 20, which they used on shooting guard Caris LaVert, who has a good shot and length but has an issue with foot injuries.

Their other pick was No. 42, where they selected another point guard, Isaiah Whitehead, who is not NBA-ready yet.

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The moves that the Brooklyn Nets have made in this free agency period are positioning themselves to have a better season than the last one. Each deal that the Nets are doing is two or more years, which is smart, the contracts end when Brooklyn start getting some draft picks back.

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