If the Nets trade Kenyon Martin to Portland or elsewhere, whether they get Rasheed Wallace or someone else in return for this season may not matter as much as what they ultimately could do next summer:
Sign Kevin Garnett.
It's a salary-cap game of dominoes the Nets may play that would enable them to unload Dikembe Mutombo's bloated contract, which has two years and more than $37 million remaining, and eventually create the salary cap room needed to make another run at Garnett, a free agent after one more season.
It could, for the short term, send Martin and Mutombo to Portland for the volatile Wallace - also a free agent next summer - and a second player. That could be troubled swingman Ruben Patterson, who has had three brushes with the law; Arvydas Sabonis, whose non-guaranteed contract the Nets could waive; or forward Clifford Robinson from the Pistons in a three-way scenario.
Portland general manager John Nash, the former Nets' GM, declined comment Saturday on whether his new and old teams are talking, although he acknowledged the Nets' desire to trade Mutombo, now a high-priced backup to former Georgetown teammate Alonzo Mourning. Reports in Portland, meanwhile, indicate that in the three-way scenario, the Blazers would trade Patterson, who has four years and more than $25 million left on his contract, to Detroit for Robinson, who has two years and $9 million left.
Martin's agent Brian Dyke also said Saturday that he's "heard about several trades involving [Martin], involving Mutombo," but that, "Kenyon loves the New Jersey fans, his teammates, and the staff. It's very obvious from his actions and his charitable involvement ... that he believes he's an important part of the Nets."
Although Dyke wouldn't comment on reports that Martin demanded a trade when the Nets didn't meet his demand for a maximum-salary contract extension (six years, $87 million), it's clear the impasse could prompt K-Mart's departure - the first domino to fall in a row that could end with Garnett.