Nets agree to trade sharpshooter to Pistons

The Nets reached an agreement on a trade that will send Joe Harris to the Pistons, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter links), Brooklyn will also send two second-round picks to Detroit in the deal and will generate a traded player exception worth $19.9M, the amount of Harris’ 2023-24 salary.

The picks being acquired by the Pistons are the Mavericks’ 2027 second-rounder and the Bucks’ 2029 second-rounder, per Charania (Twitter link).

While the deal looks like a simple salary dump on the surface, it’s a fascinating agreement that will have a major ripple effect on both teams’ offseasons. The Pistons had frequently been cited as a potential suitor for Nets restricted free agent Cameron Johnson in the weeks leading up to free agency, and there had been a belief that they could make life difficult on Brooklyn by signing the forward to a lucrative offer sheet.

By convincing the Pistons to take Harris instead, the Nets will gain more financial flexibility to re-sign Johnson and stay out of luxury tax territory. They also may take their biggest competitor for Johnson’s services out of the mix, since Harris will take up a significant chunk of Detroit’s cap room and will reduce the need for the Pistons to go out and acquire another sharpshooter.

It’s not a bad arrangement from the Pistons’ perspective either. Rather than potentially overpaying Johnson on a four-year, nine-figure offer sheet and hoping the Nets won’t match it, they’ll get one of the NBA’s best outside shooters on a short-term contract, retaining long-term flexibility and picking up a pair of future second-rounders in the process.

Injuries limited Harris to just 14 games in 2021-22, and he played a reduced role when he returned to action this past season, averaging just 20.6 minutes per game, his lowest mark since ’15-16. However, he remains as effective as ever from beyond the arc, knocking down 42.6% of his three-point attempts in 74 games last season. He has now hit at least 42.4% of his threes in five straight seasons, leading the NBA in three-point percentage twice during that time.

According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link), the Nets now project to be about $32.4M below next season’s tax line, so Johnson’s starting salary could determine how much of the $12.4M non-taxpayer mid-level exception the club will feel comfortable using. Brooklyn also will no longer feel any pressure to move either Royce O’Neale or Dorian Finney-Smith to stay out of the tax, though that doesn’t necessarily mean that both veteran wings will remain with the team.

The Pistons, meanwhile, likely won’t have more than about $10M in cap room after acquiring Harris using their space, tweets Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype, so they’re unlikely to be a major player for top free agents unless they shed salary in a separate move.