The Brooklyn Nets have an important decision to make in free-agency as they have to do what they can to re-sign unrestricted free-agent center Nic Claxton. While Brooklyn is expected to bring Claxton back to the franchise that drafted him with the 31st overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, there is more reporting on what kind of money he will be looking at this summer.
Per Jake Fischer of Yahoo! Sports, Claxton is “likely command a similar dollar figure to Hartenstein’s expected range, sources said, although NBA personnel have long prepared for the Nets’ switchable center to remain with Brooklyn.” Earlier in his article, which is primarily about New York Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein, Fischer wrote what Hartenstein could be commanding in the free-agency this offseason.
“league executives and cap strategists are projecting Hartenstein will be able to draw at least $80 million, and perhaps upward of $100 million, from a team hoping to steal Hartenstein from Madison Square Garden,” Fischer wrote. Essentially, Claxton, like Hartenstein, is expected to command somewhere between $20 million and $25 million in terms of average annual value (AAV).
This report by Fischer tracks with what has been reported over the course of the 2023-24 season when it comes to what the Nets may have to pay to bring Claxton back to Brooklyn. As has been written by Nets Wire earlier this season, if Claxton gets the kind of money that he’s reportedly expected to command, he would find himself among some of the better centers in the NBA.
There are five centers who are making somewhere between $20 million and $24 million in terms of AAV and the player with the most AAV in that range is Milwaukee Bucks center Brook Lopez. If Claxton were to earn a contract paying him $25 million in AAV, he would rank ninth amongst centers, just behind Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo ($32.6 million AAV).
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