Nets waive F Maxwell Lewis prior to June 29 $2.2 million deadline
Lewis, 22, came to the Nets in December as part of a trade from the Lakers. Lewis averaged 5.3 points and 2.5 rebounds per game while shooting 42.2% from the floor and 38.0% from deep. Brooklyn had until June 29 before Lewis' $2.2 million salary was guaranteed. https://t.co/98QBBM0bBQ
The Brooklyn Nets came away from the 2025 NBA Draft with five new players being added to the team ahead of the 2025-26 season in which the Nets continue the rebuild. Brooklyn will be heading into the 2025 Las Vegas Summer League with the anticipation of seeing all of the new rookies, but it looks like the roster is already being affected by the many additions.
The Nets announced on Friday that they have waived forward Maxwell Lewis, two days before the team had to decide whether to keep Lewis on the roster given that his $2.2 million salary would become guaranteed on that date. June 29 is a pivotal date for Brooklyn since that is when they have to decide whether to extend qualifying offers to their four restricted free-agents and pick up the team options on four other players.
Lewis, 22, came to the Nets in December as part of a trade that sent forward Dorian Finney-Smith and guard Shake Milton to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Lewis, guard D'Angelo Russell, and three second-round picks, all from the Lakers. Lewis went on to average 5.3 points and 2.5 rebounds per game while shooting 42.2% from the floor and 38.0% from three-point land.
By waiving Lewis, the Nets will incur a $100,000 dead money cap hit or in other words, 0.1% of the salary cap for the 2025-26 season as a result of the move. As Nets Wire previously mentioned, Brooklyn was running into a roster crunch given that they technically had 23 players prior to Lewis being waived, including the five incoming rookies, restricted free-agents, and forward Terance Mann, who was acquired from the Atlanta Hawks in a multi-team trade earlier this week.
Now, the Nets have 22 players that are on the roster in some capacity so the numbers crunch is still an issue, but they still have some time to address that. Lewis being waived is the beginning of an offseason in which Brooklyn will have to make some tough decisions, especially since maximizing cap space is still presumably part of the equation for the rebuilding franchise.
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