LAS VEGAS — Nets general manager Sean Marks is turning the salary dump into an art form.
After getting D’Angelo Russell from the Lakers last month, Marks pulled off a shrewd trade with Toronto this weekend, landing 2018 first- and second-round picks along with DeMarre Carroll for Justin Hamilton, The Post confirmed. For a rebuilding team in desperate need of young talent and assets, it was nothing less than a coup.
Just two hours after seeing his four-year, $106 million offer sheet to Otto Porter Jr. matched by Washington, Marks was huddled with Raptors GM Masai Ujiri at UNLV’s Thomas and Mack Center.
Minnesota had tried to get the Nets to take on Cole Aldrich’s salary, but wouldn’t offer Oklahoma City’s first-round pick as a sweetener. The Raptors reportedly had talked to the Nets about a similar trade involving Carroll, but just their first-round pick wasn’t enough of an incentive to get Marks to take on the two years and $30 million left on the small forward’s contract.
Late Saturday night/early Sunday morning, Marks’ patience was rewarded. In a deal first reported by ESPN, the Raptors also took Hamilton’s $3 million salary and threw in a second-round pick.
Caroll might be a salary dump, but like Timofey Mozgov, who came over from the Lakers in the Russell trade, he still can play. He averaged 8.9 points per game and shot 35 percent from 3-point range last season.
Caris LeVert was used as the starting small forward in the second half of his rookie season, but the Nets consider him to be more of a shooting guard. The 6-foot-8, 212-pound Carroll is a natural fit at the position, and he will be reunited with head coach Kenny Atkinson, who was an assistant in Atlanta when Carroll was one of the top wing defenders in the NBA.
The Nets’ dire draft-pick situation has been well-documented, and young assets desperately were needed. They got Porter to pick their max offer sheet over Sacramento’s, but at a league-worst 20-62 last season, they aren’t in a position to attract elite free agents. Marks often has talked about being strategic, and using his cap space for salary dumps is an example of that.
The Nets have $77.7 million in guaranteed contracts and should have roughly $17 million in cap space left. They also have the $4.3 million room exception.
They had been believed to be interested in unrestricted free agents Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and C.J. Miles. Caldwell-Pope turned down a five-year, $80 million deal from Detroit, and later was renounced. With the market drying up, it remains to be seen if the Nets still are interested and how much he would take.
Miles, 30, would be more cost-effective. He averaged 10.7 points on career-high 41.3 percent shooting from 3-point range last season. But with Carroll in tow, the Nets easily could move their focus to big men like Memphis’ restricted free agent JaMychal Green and unrestricted Dewayne Dedmon.
Chicago restricted free agent Nikola Mirotic could fit the profile as well.
Atkinson said Saturday adding a veteran at a position of need was a distinct possibility.
“Sure, I think it’s possible,” Atkinson said. “We’ve got to see how things play out with everything, but I do think [Marks and I] both agree that we don’t want to go in with a totally young roster. We do need that veteran support. If it’s the right position where somebody can help us, it’s definitely something [to consider].”