You can call it part of the cost-cutting/fiscal responsibility or the youth movement, both of which the Nets are trumpeting this summer, but whatever you call it, Brooklyn's front office is making unprecedented use of partially guaranteed contracts.
For years, the Nets didn't do partial guarantees. From 2004 through 2010, the Nets had issued only one partially guaranteed deal, a $25,000 stipend given shooting guard Robert Hite in 2007. Then, after Mikhail Prokhorov opened his substantial wallet in 2010, the Nets were more willing to take the risk, giving Brian Zoubek $50,000 and Ben Uzoh $35,000.