The Nets continue to replenish the draft-pick cupboard, and still are giving up little to do it.
They traded recently acquired Darrell Arthur to the Suns on Friday for Jared Dudley and a 2021 second-round pick, The Post confirmed.
With Dudley on a $9.5 million expiring contract, the Nets take on an extra $2.1 million in payroll this season. But it doesn’t impact their all-important 2019 cap space, and they get a better player in the present and pick up an extra pick in the future.
The Nets didn’t have a second-round pick in 2021, but get a pick that’s protected to No. 35, according to ESPN, which first reported the trade. With Phoenix expecting to be a competitive squad by that point, it’s likely the pick would convey.
Arthur had buyout candidate written all over him — and still does, expecting to have those discussion with the Suns — but it’s unclear whether the Nets will want to buy out Dudley, or if he would be amenable to the notion.
Nets general manager Sean Marks reportedly went to Dudley’s house two summers ago at the midnight start of free agency, but his two-year, $20 million offer was rejected for the Suns’ three-year, $30 million bid. Now he’ll be paying for the third year of that deal.
When a fan tweeted at him awaiting his reaction to the trade,
, adding laughing emojis. But the 33-year-old forward told local media he was uninterested in a buyout. He said Brooklyn briefly broached the topic. As of Friday morning he was led to believe he’ll be a part of the Nets roster. Anxious to play, Dudley is satisfied with the current situation.
“I’m excited about going out and showing I can still play,’’ he said. “I’m looking to bounce back.’’ People will see I’m the healthiest and in the best shape I’ve been in for years,” Dudley told AZCentral.com, adding that he has shed 10 pounds this offseason. The Suns created cap space and sent $1 million to the 76ers in the Richaun Holmes deal.
“I still have some basketball years left in me. That’s why this isn’t hard for me. I love Phoenix, I love Devin Booker and Robert Sarver and what the organization did for me but there was zero chance I was going to get to play. I was going to get 65 to 70 DNPs.”
Dudley averaged a career-low 3.2 points and two rebounds in 14.3 minutes this past season, playing only 48 games. But he still managed to shoot .363 percent from 3-point range and is a career .396 from behind the arc. At 6-foot-7, 225-pounds, he may be able to play some stretch-four for the Nets, who are in desperate need of somebody — anybody — to fill that role.
But that’s micro, for this season only. The macro is collecting draft picks and a 28-54 team rebuilding from that ill-fated Boston deal that still haunts them. And now they have four first-round picks over the next three seasons — including their own this coming year for the first time since 2013 — and five second-rounders.
One of the second-rounders is unlikely to convey, but this one is. Any production they squeeze out of Dudley is gravy. They’ll still have a trove of cap space and two first-round picks next summer.
