Brooklyn Nets general manager Billy King has revealed that agreeing new deals with Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young will be priorities this summer.
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Lopez and Young have player options for next season which enables them both to become free agents if they choose to opt out and consider other offers around the league.
Brooklyn hold the Bird Rights on both players, which would enable them to pay Lopez and Young more than any other team with the pair set to make $16.7m and $10m respectively as it stands.
“Internally, the next big step is to keep Brook and Thaddeus here,” King said at his annual end-of-the-season news conference.
“They both have shown indications they want to be here in their exit interviews, and we want them here, so it’s incumbent on us to get that done.”
However, King was less committal about other big-name players on the current roster, with the likes of Deron Williams and Joe Johnson seemingly on the trade block, as they were prior to the trade deadline in February.
Williams is still owed $21m next season and has a $22.3m player option for 2016/17, while Johnson is entering the final year of his contract which pays him $24.9m in 2015/16.
Naturally, after failing to bring instant success to the organisation with their expensively assembled roster, the Nets will now have to consider a rebuild which ultimately starts with getting rid of those hefty contracts as neither Williams nor Johnson have performed to the level expected of them.
There are even question marks over King’s future at the Nets given that he is entering the final year of his contract with the franchise as their general manager.
Brooklyn qualified for the playoffs this year despite struggling through the regular season with just 38 wins, but their season was ended in the first round with defeat to the Atlanta Hawks.
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