Two years ago, as Sean Marks was trying to pull together his first team, he offered Jared Dudley a deal, two years and $20 million, according to various reports at the time. He went with Phoenix who was willing to give him another year and another $9.53 million.
Then, in the mid-July deal-making that defined the Nets summer, Marks got his man, sending Darrell Arthur, acquired in the Nuggets salary dump, to Phoenix for Dudley and a lightly protected second rounder in 2021.
There were rumors at the time that the Nets were planning to buy out Dudley, but both Kenny Atkinson denies it and Dudley says he wouldn’t have agreed to a buyout anyway.