Shaun Livingston Will Soon be a Free Agent

[Douglar]

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/br...71/source-nets-interested-in-shaun-livingston

The Nets have serious interest in free-agent point guard Shaun Livingston, a source told ESPNNewYork.com.

On Thursday, ESPN.com’s Marc Stein tweeted that Livingston and fellow free agent John Lucas are at the top of Brooklyn’s list of potential backup point guards.

General manager Billy King has said he’d like to bring in another point guard to compete with Tyshawn Taylor for backup minutes behind starter Deron Williams.

Livingston, 27, averaged 6.3 points and 3.3 assists in 22 minutes last season, in 66 games for the Cavaliers and Wizards. He shot 48 percent from the field, and 86.7 percent from the foul line.

Livingston is not a good 3-point shooter, however, having made just nine of 43 career 3-point attempts.

The Nets are in the market for a backup point guard because C.J. Watson left via free agency to sign with the Pacers. The Nets are likely to sign another point guard to the veteran’s minimum.

The Nets are also looking to use their mini mid-level exception to acquire a free-agent wing shooter.

There is still a possibility they will bring 24-year-old Bojan Bogdanovic over from Europe.

Mini-Mid-level is also called the TAXPAYER MID-LEVEL EXCEPTION. This year, it is worth $3.183 million and lets teams sign contracts up to three years in length with raises up to 4.5%. Seems like less money than Livingston wanted & I'm not sure that Livingston is a great fit with the Brooklyn Expendables, I mean Nets. Seems like they don't need a huge amount of minutes from their backup PG, and when they do, they could use shooting as much as play making, since Pierce and Joe Johnson can both start the offense in a pinch, and both like to post up.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was hoping that the Cavs would sign Livingston to a contract like they just gave Clark. However now that they gave that money to Clark, I don't know if they can afford to also give a contract like that to Livingston. The Cavs were pretty desperate for play making, especially with Kyrie going solo more often than not. He was creating the "flaming bag" assists for spot up shooters last season instead of running an offense. If that's how Kyrie is going to be this year, the Cavs will need to get a guard that knows how to get the ball to his team mates in their spots that work for them. I'll miss Shaun if we can't find a player like that.

 

[Dungong]

Looks like Shaun is going to Brooklyn after the Jack signing. I really enjoyed watching him play this year and really hoped we would be the team that revitalzied his career, especially since he was a waiver wire pickup. And it looks like the guy is going to get the league minimum for a year. I really thought he played well enough last year that he'd be able to get a multiyear deal with someone. I hope he plays well enough that he gets a multiyear look from someone else the following year.

 

[KilgoreTrout]

Too bad. I really like the guy. Showed a lot of heart in coming back from that injury.

 

[Kouki]

Why include the bolded? There's no mention of the Warriors or Jack ANYWHERE in that story before this piece of opinion is added. Even if its a popular opinion, there's no reason to include it in the article. Frankly, I view it as negative reinforcement, and it in no way contributes to a positive public opinion of the Cavs' franchise or front office.

Hmm....maybe Finnan knew something.

:chuckles: