First of all, the Houston Rockets are getting their asses kicked in NBA Free Agency 2011. With the news that Nene has reached an agreement to re-up with the Denver Nuggets, Houston has officially had Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol and now Nene snaked from them in various ways. And now they’re screwed.
Nene has been one of the hottest commodities on the free agent market since the the NBA Lockout was lifted, and now he’s going to be paid like one. ESPN’s Marc Stein is reporting that Nene’s agreement is for five years, $67 million, and we’re assuming that that fifth year was major reason for his decision to stay with the Nuggets.
Now the big question is, “What does this mean for Dwight Howard?” It’s been assumed that Nene would be the Nets‘ immediate Plan B if they couldn’t work out a deal for DH (Dwight and Nene share the same agent, Dan Fegan). So, with Nene now unavailable because he couldn’t pass up that fifth year, does that make the Nets step up the urgency in their pursuit of Dwight? (They’d probably have to settle on Kris Humphries if they can’t get Howard.)
Or, is there a deal between the Nets and Dwight that is so close to materializing that Fegan needed to get Nene his money while they still had leverage with Denver? We’ll see shortly …
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