Erik Slater of Clutch Points noted<\/a> that in his comments to reporters in Las Vegas three days ago, Marks seemed to suggest the big deals may be over, but did leave open the possibility, citing the Nets still have those assets handy should an opportunity arise, they\u2019re ready.<\/p>\n\u201cSomething we\u2019ve always done and sort of prided ourselves on with how we\u2019ve built is not using up all your flexibility. Just making sure you have that, whether it\u2019s going into the season or throughout the summer,\u201d Marks said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re rebuilding a team like we have been the last couple of years, that\u2019s important.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just never know what\u2019s going to come your way. So for us to have that optionality will be really important. But at the same time, I like the roster we have. I love what I\u2019m seeing out there. The guys are playing hard, they\u2019re playing the right way, and they\u2019re playing for each other. So I don\u2019t think we\u2019re in any immediate rush to do anything there from adding more pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n
Putting Watson aside, however, the comment by MPJ had additional relevance in that he readily admitted he was recruiting for his current team. This week, Sean Marks told media in Las Vegas that while he wants to MPJ back and happy, he was not in a rush to engage Marc Bartelstein. Two days later, Chris Haynes of TNT speculated that if there isn\u2019t progress in talks on an extension, the Nets might deal MPJ, which seemed unlikely considering all the positive things the two sides have had to say about their relationship. Indeed, Haynes said it\u2019s possible the two sides could talk as early as this weekend.<\/p>\n
Porter, 28, will earn $40.8 million next season has been eligible since June 19 for a four-year extension worth as much as $234 million. It\u2019s likely a final number would be more in the four year, $160 million range, however.<\/p>\n
And in a live interview on ESPN from the FanFest, MPJ once again talked about his happiness with the Nets and their fans while adding \u201cwe\u2019re building something special over there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really an honor because as an athlete because during the season, a lot of it is going to the gym, going to play games, coming home and you don\u2019t get a chance a lot to interact with the fans and see how much love they really have. So to come out here and shake people\u2019s hands and sign their autographs and take pictures of them is really an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked to compare his experience in Denver where he won a championship with last year in Brooklyn where he was mired in rebuild. Porter put this spin on things.<\/p>\n
\u201cLas year, it was a like new rookie season. It felt that drastic of a chance \u2014 in Denver being one of the younger guys, part of an established culture and winning a championship to come to Brooklyn and be the leader on the team, one of the oldest guys on the team \u2014 we have five rookies, youngest team in the NBA \u2014 was a completely different role that I had but it was soemting that I cherished and we\u2019re building someon this special over there.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no urgency for the Nets to ink an extension with Porter. They have until next summer to finalize things. And it\u2019s not at all absurd to suggest that Marks wants the additional team \u2014 and cap resources \u2014 to work on other possibilities. Perhaps PWat?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Porter Jr. was at the Fanatics Fan Fest in New York Friday and made a bit of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,4050,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-299882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-nets-free-agency","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}