The Nets waived forward Maxwell Lewis on Friday, clearing up roster space after taking the biggest crop of first-round draft picks in NBA history.
Lewis had initially arrived in the Dec. 29 trade that had sent Dorian Finney-Smith to the Lakers, but he immediately fractured his left tibia making a 3-pointer seconds into his New Year’s Day debut.
The injury stunted his opportunity to show what he could do, in the end averaging 5.3 points in 14.2 minutes over just 21 appearances.
But more importantly, Brooklyn had to make room for their huge incoming class of rookies.
The Nets took five players in the first round of Wednesday’s NBA draft, a league record. Two days later, they waived Lewis to clear the deck.
Those first-round picks, along with some other undrafted rookies, will be on display in a couple of weeks when the Nets head to compete in the Las Vegas Summer League.
The schedule was released Friday, showing four games, though every team is guaranteed to play at least five tilts.
The Nets open up on July 10 vs. the Thunder (5:30 p.m., ESPN2).
Then on July 13, they’ll face the Wizards (8:00 p.m., ESPN2), on July 15 take on the rival Knicks (6:00 p.m., ESPN2), and then play the Magic the next night (7:30 p.m., ESPN).
All times are Eastern, with the first two games at Thomas & Mack Center and the latter pair at the smaller Cox Pavilion.
Then the Nets and other teams head into a tournament for the summer league title.
Brooklyn should contend for that with a team including first-round picks Egor Demin, Nolan Traore, Drake Powell, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf.
Late-season signee Drew Timme will play in the summer league per CBS Sports, while 2023 first-round pick Dariq Whitehead — who has seen his first two years slowed by injuries — presumably should be in the mix as well, along with several undrafted prospects.
Six-foot-11 Alabama forward Grant Nelson and 6-foot-5 Oregon wing TJ Bamba will both join the Nets for the summer league.
The former is in the mix for a two-way contract, per HoopsHype, while the latter is a Bronx native who was on the Big Ten All-Defensive team.
Sunday is the deadline for Brooklyn to pick up team options on Timme, Keon Johnson, Tyrese Martin and Jalen Wilson, as well as make qualifying offers to Cam Thomas, Day’Ron Sharpe and Ziaire Williams in order to make them restricted free agents.
Without qualifying offers, they’ll become unrestricted free agents.
Timme can play with the Nets’ summer league team even if Brooklyn doesn’t pick up his team option.