Brooklyn Nets: 3 reasons to re-sign Joe Harris
By Alec Liebsch
3. Affordability
In a normal summer, Harris would command much more money than he does in 2018. Fortunately for Brooklyn, few teams have significant cap space to work with. This makes re-signing him more affordable.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find any of these few franchises willing to unload all their cap space onto a guy like Harris. He’s a valuable piece, as I said in his player grades article, but several superior role players are also available.
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A team signing him at close to eight figures per year seems ludicrous in this market, which is great for Brooklyn. They can probably lock him up for no more than the non-taxpayer’s mid-level exception, which is about $8.6 million per year. He might not even cost that much.
That’s great for Brooklyn’s salary cap situation. The Nets are currently over the cap via the Dwight Howard trade, though renouncing certain cap holds does alleviate some of that burden. When the Nets do have more cap space next summer, Harris’s deal can look quite good for the franchise’s bottom line.
If a team overpays to exceed Harris’s market price, then that’s just an onerous contract the Nets no longer have to deal with. It would hurt to lose a drive-and-kick maestro like him, but worse things have happened.
This context makes it an advantageous situation for Brooklyn. He’s either a good re-signing, or he’s not re-signed at all.