National Basketball Association

Report: The Nets might not be done paying insane luxury tax bills

Published May. 13, 2015 1:55 p.m. ET

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The Nets have made it clear they've wanted to save a little more money than usual over the past year.

They've placed Brook Lopez, Deron Williams and Joe Johnson on the trade block all at some point this season. Williams and Johnson are apparently still there.

They traded Andrei Kirilenko back in December. That didn't just unload the $3.3 million they owed him but also an addition ~$9 million in luxury tax money.

The Nets aren't cheap. Far from it. But this is a reaction to the record $90 million Brooklyn paid in luxury tax bills during the 2013-14 season. In the two years since the start of 2013, Brooklyn has averaged 41 wins, exactly a .500 performance. That's not what you should expect when you're paying all that dough.

So, it's reasonable for the Nets to try trimming the budget. Any owner or management group would consider that the intelligent tactic when his team isn't winning (Brooklyn went 38-44 this past season only to lose to the Hawks in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs). Except there's a problem: The Nets could be paying another massive luxury tax bill.

Here's the brief report, courtesy of NetsDaily:

Of course, this is a worst-case scenario for Brooklyn and doesn't seem like the most likely offseason outcome. The Nets already have to deal with the free agency of Mirza Teletovic and Alan Anderson, but if Brook Lopez or Thaddeus Young opt out (both distinct possibilities of separate likelihoods) and Brooklyn ends up ponying up big money for all of those guys, we could end up seeing another season of a bloated payroll resting next to an unacceptable number in the wins column.

Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov did recently imply that he would willingly go back into the luxury tax and that a repeater tax wouldn't deter him from doing so. General manager Billy King followed up those statements a few weeks later when he announced Brooklyn's top offseason priorities would be to bring back both Young and Lopez.

“We need a championship team, and I’m very committed to continue to do all the best for the team,” Prokhorov said in April. “This is my perception. And if we need to pay a little bit more than any other teams, it’s not an obstacle."