Nets may let Martin walk! Just Wonderful!

[bballfreak524]

NETS MAY LET MARTIN WALK
By FRED KERBER

June 20, 2004 -- The Nets' toughest opponents next season might not be the Pistons and the Pacers but purse-strings and the payroll.
In developments that could break up the Nets' trio of Jason Kidd, Kenyon Martin and Richard Jefferson, prospective owner Bruce Ratner has ordered cost-cutting measures that might drastically alter next year's team, according to multiple sources around the club.

"Obviously, in the course of doing daily business, we have had discussions regarding free agents, the draft, business as usual," said Nets CEO Rod Thorn. "Now our team has a high payroll but there have been no decisions made regarding free agents. That area is totally up in the air as to what we are going to do. As part of your due diligence you examine all possibilities." "The sale of the team has not been voted upon yet by the NBA," said Barry Baum, a spokesman for Ratner. "Therefore no comment can be made at this time."

The moves already have started, sources claim, and include the trading of Thursday's No. 22 first round pick to Portland for several million dollars and a non-guaranteed contract player, likely Omar Cook or Eddie Gill; a 40 percent hike in premium tickets prices; and exposing Kerry Kittles and his $10,266,667 salary to the expansion draft.

Full Article

 

[Erin]

Pretty dumb move by NJ if you ask me.

 

[Streetball2k5]

I agree. I don't think this is a good move by the Nets organization.

Oh well. As long as Kenyon Martin is in a Nets jersey next year I'll be happy, whatever the consequences!

 

[Next Level Game]

Here's another article:

<font color="Navy">*Article deleted as there is no link provided. For legal reasons you MUST post a link with any article!* - SS</font>

It just seems like the new owner wants to cut all costs for the new arena....This might be the dismantling of the Nets, just like the Lakers....

I hope it isn't true, cause I really don't want another dark ages for the Nets.

 

[Henacy]

I understand Bruce Ratner wants to cut cost.But you cant raise ticket prices or expect to move to New York in the future with a sub par product. How does he expect a New York city boad approval, if he isnt holding up his end of the bargain to put the product on the court that would be beneficial to the City of New York(finacially & other wise). And by letting K-Mart go this summer, imo isnt a good away to impress the fans or anyone else. If K-mart leave this will be the saddest day for me since Sam left duing the lockout season. I dont care what he has to do he better make sure that Martin is back in a Nets jersey, especially since all season it seemed like they were going o do any & everything to make that happen. Dont start backing away from your word now.

 

[throwback]

wow. this just increases my hatred towards ratner. he is supposidly a 'business man' but it seems he knows nothing about it. why don't we just trade away kidd and jefferson while we are at it? lets go back into the nba doghouse, because we all know those were the best years. this is like a nj developer buying the mets and moving them to jersey, who the hell wants that team!? bruce has to START spending money to try and get the nets to win a title b4 the possible move. if a championship team goes to NY then maybe they will actually have a chance to turn knicks fans into nets fans. the move didn't make sense to me when the sale first happened and definitley looks worse now. if ratner has Trex arms, then our days one being a top 3 team in the east will be over. we just started winning and being successful and started to rebuild our fan base and then this douche comes along and is going to kill it all. this summer will be the beginning of whether Nets fans from NJ will follow the team to brooklyn. if this supposed move of not resigning kmart happens and more moves like that happen, i might have to go in a different direction with my sports selection. bruce, sit down and realize what you are doing. you are about to ruin a team who has a shot at a title with a few more pieces.

im trying not to believe all these reports about us not using the MLE or trading kmart and making all these stupid moves, but after reading all these day after day it gets me thinking that maybe we are screwed as a franchise. it sucks when a team that you put all your emotions and money into is going to go backwards and a new owner doesn't care about the average loving fan. feels like i might be getting pee'd on if all this goes down.

 

[BigfnJoe96]

Hopefully his business partners, specifically (Jay-Z) will teach him a little about the team he just bought. I'm on the other side of the river. But the Nets have done an amazing job in turning that franchise around. They even have a descent futer ahead of them. K-Mart is a crtical piece to NJ. If these stories are true, NJ mine as well get ready to endure what the Knicks have endured the last couple of years, with Cablevision. Talk about not knowing how to run a team. My mother always told me "Business & Pleasure" just don't match.

 

[thedude9990]

im live in nj im a nets fan and i have herd this rumor. i think that if the nets get rid of kittles than martin will probably get re signed. but wat i dont understand if they want to free money why were they in talk with seatle about ray allen

 

[jbbNJNetz]

I agree with all of you on this how do you raise ticket prices with a very sub par team? you cant cause whose going to watch them with Kmart. If this happens then we are going to go through the dark ages. Like the Knicks, Magic (after Shaq left), Cleveland, Detriot and all of those teams. We have gone through it much too long. They owe it to the fans to have and keep the player that made the Nets a team KMart, Kidd, and Jefferson. Because if we let all our talent go what did we sign Jason Kidd for? Did we sign him to play on a losing team, 125 million for nothing. We can not allow our players to leave without at least trying to keep them. Let alone we would get rid of our 22nd draft pic. It just pisses me off that they could do this. I have been waiting so long as nets fan for a team that could represent us at the nba level. Let alone all the other teams around use are only getting better. We wont be know as the beast of the east anymore just take the beast out and put in puppy.

 

[Ice]

It's obvious the Nets are tying to cut down their salary. From a business standpoint, it's a logical decision. Kenyon Martin is NOT worth a maxed contract, and the Nets already offered him an extension worth approximately $66 million last season. It's obvious thats not good enough for him, and it will be rather difficult for him to get an 85-90 million contract - because he's not worth it (yet).

 

[jbbNJNetz]

Ice i agree with you on that 66 mil was a good offer at the time being that he wasnt even an all star yet. I guess he belives his stock has gone up since he has become an allstar. i say he is worth at this time 65-70 mill. Plus how does he expect the team to get any better asking for money like that. but we need to keep him. but i would like to keep him below max. He must think he is at the level of other power forwards like Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and Elton Brand, but he is not even close. Garnett and Duncan can carry a team sort of Kenyon can not do it. In his eyes he looks at other pf like duncan and garnett who were number one picks and wants a salary like they have.

 

[AznInsight]

Ya, K-Mart is not worth that much, hes an all-star but he is not the player they can rely on in clutch situations especially since hes not a good offensive player.

 

[Henacy]

Well, you have to take in consideration that Jermaine Oneal, TD, KG, Brand etc are all locked up to major long term contracts for the next 5+ years. So that raises Kenyon Martin value on the open free Agent market. After K-mart gets signed this offseason their wont be alot of good Power forwards available for sometime to come other than unproven bgmen like Zach Randolph & Amare, and teams will have to wait 2 or3 years before they become available.

The only must have PF that will available in the next year or so is Carlos Boozer. And the one thing he has in common with Zach & Amare is he is also unproven. Those guys will probably be asking for max deals but at the rate their teams are going(with the exception of maybe Zach) they will be asking for it without little to no playoff experience. So teams arent going to be overwelmed about giving max contracts out to guys who havent proven them selves on the biggest stage in the playoffs. Thats what makes Martin so interesting to say a team like the Nuggets. Why wouldnt they want Martin who is young & proven himself at the very least to be ablet to hold his own in the playoffs against the likes TD in the finals, JO in the playoffs, Walker in the playoffs, even battling the Pistons frontline alone this year & holding his own. They feel he what they need to get them over the hump & become a legit contender, so that makes him a max player in there eyes.

Martin is the last bigman for sometime to come, who is young with alot of upside, but still has years of playoff experience under his belt, thats what makes him a max player.

With that being said Rasheed Wallace may set the market price for Martin this offseason snce his deal will probably be signed 1st. I feel they are both on that 2nd teir of bigman after TD & KG. So their per year salary maybe kind of similar with Martin possibly having more years on his contract

 

[thedude9990]

he isnt worth that much i agree but now if no one offers him that much then he probably wil come back to nj. because if nj thinks he not worth it then at least 25 of the teams dont c he is worth it eaither. the problem here is he will be worth it and if they let him go now when hes worth it then he wont be a net

 

[throwback]

it is just sad that bruce ratner probably doesn't know who kenyon martin or jason kidd is in the first place. the nets are just a piece of property to the rat. he wants his name to be everywhere just so he can make money. if our owner was an nba/nets fan who loved the game of bball and wanted to get ppl or keep ppl and cant and then we have to possibly let kmart go, then i would understand. but we dont have to let kmart go. we can match any offer and he is just becoming/has been a selfish person. if david stern and the nba can see this happening where he is not caring about the franchise, they should stop this sale from happening. there was and still possibly is a group of buyers who want to keep the nets in nj and care for the nets to improve them and try to win a title. this is starting to get scary. ratner wants to keep and grow fans, not kill the only fans he still has. this isn't good for the nets franchise for short-term or long-term. why would ppl who live in ny who are basically almost 100% knicks fans turn into a sub-par nba doghouse nets team? for ratner to even have success in the future with the nets franchise is to have a winning team/championship team come into brooklyn from day 1 to try and lure fans away from msg and become nets fans. it just seems stupid to put a team in NY who already has a historical bball team to begin with. the move is bottom line stupid and ratner doesn't care b/c he wants to make more money. greed has controlled the world. (ahhhhh! im so pissed off right now. its father's day. it was going so well till i read about the ax that was about to cut the head off of our team and let us bleed to death)

 

[jbbNJNetz]

Exactly Ratner is a business man with no interest in this team. Thats why we needed a owner like the kings or better yet like the Mavs that know he needs to contend with the other big teams. Cuban is the man no matter what people say he has dedication to his team. Since acquiring the nets how many game has Ratner gone to. You can probably count them on 2 hands. this guy make me sick. On another note dont you think the owner of the Piston is a really happy guy right now being that he has the stanley cup and the nba championship. Hes a great owner to great dedication to his team did you see him when the net were playing against the pistons. he was o ghetto had a tv on the floor watch the hockey game. but it shows his dedication.