The midnight that the NBA Finals draw to a close — whether that ends up being Monday in Boston or some later date — teams will enter an exclusive window to officially start negotiating with their own free agents.
We emphasize the word “officially,” because rules and reality are not the same.
The Nets will be one of those teams, with re-signing Nic Claxton being arguably Brooklyn’s top offseason priority. But it won’t be their only one, as they also have to weigh moving into a weak NBA Draft (they could), whether to entertain offers for Mikal Bridges (they aren’t) and if they should hoard assets for the next star that becomes disgruntled (they will)?
As soon as the Celtics wrap up winning the championship — a title largely achieved thanks to the Nets’ ill-advised 2013 trade with Boston that eventually netted the Celtics Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown — Brooklyn can talk with Claxton.
