SAN ANTONIO – The end of the Finals means the start of a lot more work for Nets management.

For starters, there’s Jason Kidd and his free agency. Kidd’s decision is only as important to the franchise as, say, oxygen is to the average human. Come Aug. 1, Kenyon Martin can seek a contract extension to avoid being a restricted free agent after next season. Don’t forget Byron Scott, who’d enter his final contract year. Then there are matters such as the draft, Lucious Harris’ free agency, trade questions, the possibility of CEO Lou Lamoriello giving up the reigns of the Nets, other teams’ wooing of assistant Eddie Jordan and director of scouting Ed Stefanski by several teams, the status of last year’s first rounder Nenad Krstic. But Kidd tops the list.

“If he’s going to leave there’s nothing we can do because that’s up to Jason and his family. If he does go I’ll tip my cap to him and wish him the best, and then I’ll knock him on his butt when I see him again,” said Kenyon Martin.

“We’re getting closer to the point where [his free agency] is going to become the main concern,” team president Rod Thorn said yesterday. “Then we wait until July the first.”

Teams can negotiate with free agents July 1 and sign them two weeks later. Kidd and his agent Jeffrey Schwartz undoubtedly will seek the maximum – six years at $102 million or, if they can get a seventh year, a $116 total. Kidd, conceivably, played his last Net home game in Game 5.

“If that really was his last game at the Meadowlands, then the energy level he played at for all 48 minutes was . . . as amazing as anything I’ve ever seen,” Thorn said. “We’d like to sign him . . . San Antonio, really, is the only team that can pay the big money. They’re the only team out there. Anybody else, the only way . . . is if it’s a sign-and-trade.”