The Nets Will Trade Jeremy Lin To The Hawks And Acquire Kenneth Faried From The Nuggets

The Brooklyn Nets are in the midst of a rebuild, which made the fact that a player the caliber of Jeremy Lin was on their roster a little strange. Lin is coming off of an injury that let him play in one game this past season, but he’s still a good basketball player who can be a steady backcourt hand for the right team.

Apparently, the team that decided it needs that steady backcourt hand is the Atlanta Hawks, which acquired Lin from the Nets as the calendar turned to Friday on the east coast.

It’s an interesting pickup for the Hawks, as they already have Dennis Schroder and Trae Young on the roster, although doing this makes the former extremely expendable, especially considering he has been vocal about wanting out of Atlanta. Lin is also on a far more palatable contract, as he’s slated to make $12 million this season before hitting free agency whereas Schroder has three more years and more than $45 million left on his deal.

Wojnarowski also reported that the teams will swap second rounders in the future. But the Nets weren’t done quite yet, as they turned around and were on the receiving end of a salary dump from the Denver Nuggets. Just minutes after word dropped that the Nuggets will sign Isaiah Thomas, Wojnarowski reported Denver will send Kenneth Faried and the $13.76 million he’ll make this year to Brooklyn. Some other pieces were involved in this move, most importantly a protected 2019 first-round pick from Denver going to the Nets.

It’s quite the flurry from Brooklyn, which now has the flexibility to enter the 2019 offseason with a pair of first-round draft picks and gobs of cap space if they want to make an impact next summer. While the Nuggets saved a ton of money and the Hawks got a really fun player in Lin, time might eventually deem the Nets the biggest winners in this sequence of moves.