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The Brooklyn Nets are heading into a full-scale rebuild after trading Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks and re-signing center Nic Claxton to a four-year, $100 million contract. Now that Brooklyn has decided to move on from the Mikal Bridges era, they are looking to evaluate young talent and could bring back another talented player.
Per Brian Lewis of the New York Post on Saturday, the Nets will be extending a qualifying offer to forward Trendon Watford by Saturday’s deadline to do so. According to Spotrac, the deadline for Brooklyn to extend the qualifying offer ($2.7 million) was June 29th and once the Nets do that, Watford will be a restricted free-agent.
Per NBA.com, a restricted free-agent “can sign an offer sheet with any team, but the player’s original team can retain him by matching the terms of that offer. The original team is said to have the “right of first refusal.” Essentially, if the Nets want to keep Watford, they will have to match whatever offer sheet he gets from another team or that team gets the rights to him.
Given where Brooklyn is going right now combined with how Watford played towards the end of the season, it makes sense that the Nets are extending the qualifying offer to him. Watford, 23, played in 63 games (2 starts) in 2023-24 and averaged 6.9 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game while shooting 52.7% from the field and 39.7% from three-point range.
For those Nets fans wondering if Trendon Watford was coming back to the Nets, it looks like he’s 1 step closer to coming back. Time will tell what kind of offer sheets he gets in restricted free-agency, but as long as the price isn’t too high, he should be back in Brooklyn. https://t.co/6Qo7uYEEAr
— Sharif Phillips-Keaton (@SharifKeaton) June 29, 2024