The Brooklyn Nets lost Paul Pierce to the Washington Wizards on Saturday night and it’s starting to become apparent that all the talk about Billy King never wanting to give up Pierce was a lot of hot air.
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Washington gave Pierce a two-year, $11 million contract but that’s a deal that the Nets not only didn’t feel like matching to their veteran forward but it’s one they didn’t even feel like offering at all. According to Nets beat writer Michael Scotto, the Nets never even approached Pierce with a contract offer before he bolted to Washington and the Wizards.
Sources: Brooklyn Nets never made an offer to Paul Pierce. Meanwhile, the franchise expects Kevin Garnett to return despite Pierce leaving.
— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) July 13, 2014
This seems to make Billy King look like even more of a fool for making claims that it would take a lot for the Clippers to wrestle Pierce away from the Nets — or at least heavily implying that from his stance on the sign-and-trade rumors that were going around.
But instead, King let Pierce walk to a team that will likely be leaps and bounds ahead of the Nets next season without even so much as making an offer to him, which likely won’t sit well with Nets fans hoping that the team is going to be better than it was last year — which wasn’t all that great to begin with.
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