Markieff Morris has agreed to a one-year deal with the Brooklyn Nets.

Morris spent last season with the Miami Heat, appearing in 17 games due to injury.

The deal is contingent on a physical which Morris will undergo this week.

The Brooklyn Nets are in "advanced discussions" with Markieff Morris, sources told Mark Stein.

Stein reported earlier on Sunday that the Nets and Sixers are both interested in Morris.

The Nets also signed Yuta Watanabe on Sunday. The team had six open roster spots prior to the signing. 

The Brooklyn Nets have signed Yuta Watanabe. The Nets had six open roster spots on the 20-man offseason roster prior to adding Watanabe.

Watanabe is a four-year NBA veteran. The small forward spent the last two seasons with the Toronto Raptors after starting his career with the Memphis Grizzlies.

During the 2020-21 season, on a Raptors team that struggled while playing out the year in Tampa, Florida, Watanabe played well. He appeared in 50 games and averaged 4.4 points and 3.2 rebounds in 14.5 minutes per game.

Last season, Watanabe battled some injuries and was on a deeper Toronto squad. He appeared in only 38 games and averaged 4.3 points and 2.4 rebounds per contest.

As was previously reported, the Brooklyn Nets have explored the idea signing free agent forward Markieff Morris. According to Marc Stein, the Nets may have some competition for Morris from the Philadelphia 76ers.

Morris is a Philadelphia native, and the Sixers are still looking to add additional frontcourt depth behind Joel Embiid and Tobias Harris. As it stands now, P.J. Tucker and Georges Niang project to be the primary backups in the frontcourt.

Morris played for the Miami Heat last season, which was his 11th in the NBA. Just as the veteran forward was rounding into form, Morris was injured in an altercation with Nikola Jokic in an early-November game. Morris was out with whiplash for over four months.

As for Brooklyn, the Nets are still looking to add depth as they rebuild their rotation. Kevin Durant has withdrawn his trade request, which has the Nets considering adding veterans to their bench.

In an appearance on the STUpodity podcast, Shams Charania of The Athletic said that the Miami Heat never aggressively pursued Kevin Durant. Miami last spoke with the Brooklyn Nets about a trade before or during Summer League in mid-July.

The Heat were aware that to acquire Durant, they would have had to gut their roster. As Miami was the top seed in the Eastern Conference and made it to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, they didn't see a need to drastically alter their roster to add Durant.

The Heat would have had to trade several players to match salary in a trade for the Nets superstar. That would have left the team with little depth behind several veterans with lengthy injury histories.

Miami, along with the Phoenix Suns, were the teams Durant reportedly wanted to be traded to. The Suns ability to complete a trade waned after Deandre Ayton signed an offer sheet with the Indiana Pacers. That meant Ayton could no longer be used as a trade chip in talks for Durant.

Donovan Mitchell hasn't requested a trade from the Utah Jazz as the team itself has made the decision to put him on the block, but he has a trio of teams he would prefer to join should a deal be consummated.

Mitchell has the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets and Miami Heat on his list. Mitchell cannot be traded to either the Nets or Heat without Ben Simmons or Bam Adebayo being sent outgoing in a deal due to the rookie max extension provision.

The Knicks are widely considered the frontrunners to trade for Mitchell, but the Jazz have been waiting for them to improve their offer.

The Jazz are seeking a collection of young players and future picks in return for Mitchell. Utah also reportedly is comfortable entering the season with Mitchell on the roster even as they have stripped down the roster around him.

When the Brooklyn Nets agreed to accommodate Kevin Durant's trade request on the eve of free agency, they expected to receive overwhelming trade offers.

"The best offer I'm told that the Nets had on the table was from the Celtics," said Shams Charania of The Athletic on the Rich Eisen Show. "Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and a first round pick."

On the evening of Durant's trade request, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that one team who submitted a trade proposal to the Nets for Durant called back with an improved offer. The trade market for Durant never actually materialized the way the Nets postured it would.

The Nets and Durant agreed to move forward in their partnership after it was clear there wasn't a trade on the table that would satisfy the parties involved.

Durant is entering Year 1 of a four-year, $198 million extension.

While speaking on The Ringer NBA Show, Kevin O'Connor lent some insight into the Kevin Durant trade request. The most notable item was Durant was never specific in why he reportedly asked for GM Sean Marks and coach Steve Nash to be fired.

Durant reportedly made the request that Marks and Nash be fired in an attempt to shake things up to aid his trade request. Durant had no specific reasons for either Marks or Nash to go, but instead was hoping it would help him break free of the Nets.

O'Connor additionally reported that he's heard the Nets now intend to keep Kyrie Irving after Durant recommitted to the team. Brooklyn hopes that Durant and Irving, combined with a healthy Ben Simmons and the team's offseason additions, will make the team a title contender.

Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets were believed to be heading towards a parting of ways this offseason, but they are stuck with each other. Durant realized that he would almost certainly have had to hold out and make the situation uglier in order to be traded. 

"I think that's the best way to describe it: as a business relationship," said Shams Charania of The Athletic while on the Pat McAfee Show. "Both sides looked around... and I wrote a piece yesterday that had all the offers laid out, all the interest. There was no one stepping up to the capacity that the Nets had. The Nets had a crazy asking price. They wanted an All-Star, they wanted multiple high level rotation players, they wanted all of your draft picks. And that asking price just was not met.

"The Boston Celtics put forth an offer. The Grizzlies made an offer. The Atlanta Hawks  made an offer. Every team. Phoenix, Golden State... It goes on and on.

"From everything I've been told, the outcome of that meeting they all agreed it was everyone's best interest to move on. No trade was happening."

Charania also reported that Durant realized his odds of winning a title were likely better remaining with the Nets than it would with a new team that would have had to gut their roster to acquire him.

The Brooklyn Nets announced this week that they've removed Kevin Durant from the trade market after nearly two months of talks following a meeting he had with the franchise's key decision makers on Monday.

Durant had expected to be traded to either the Phoenix Suns or Miami Heat, but a trade never materialized. 

"Brooklyn was not close to a trade for Kevin Durant," said Adrian Wojnarowski. "The trade market, I think, for both Kevin Durant and the Nets was not what they all thought it might be.

"Kevin Durant looked not only at the uncertainity of not being able to really control with the trade request where he would go. With four years left on his deal, Brooklyn could trade him anywhere.

"But also the team he had coming back in Brooklyn. Kyrie Irving on board ready to go this season. A rapidly recovering Ben Simmons, who is expected to be ready for the start of the season. And then a healthy Joe Harris. You go down the lineup, this is a very good Nets team.

"I think ultimately all those minds in one room getting together on the fact that Kevin Durant can return and play for these Nets. Begin his first year of his four-year, $198 million deal. I think ultimately it gets back to one thing for Kevin Durant: he loves to play basketball. It's typically always his focus and everything around it he has typically less energy and less time for."