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Shortly after midnight, the Nets reached out to Gerald Wallace and are close to a verbal agreement, Marc Stein reports. Fred Kerber tweets the Nets have agreed to give the 6'9" small forward $40 million over four years.

It was one of several moves the Nets were reportedly involved in overnight. In addition to pursuing Joe Johnson ($82.9 million over four) and Luis Scola ($24.6 million over three) in trades, the Nets were looking at other possibilities either in place of or in addition to those deals. Adrian Wojnarowski reports that if the Johnson deal failed, the Nets were prepared to make a "significant offer" for O.J. Mayo, an unrestricted agent. Marc J. Spears tweets they are also in the mix for Josh Howard, who Avery Johnson coached in Dallas.

Wallace was traded to the Nets from the Trail Blazers in return for Shawne Williams, Mehmet Okur and a top three protected pick in March. The pick turned into Damian Lillard.The Nets also received two trade exceptions, one for $3 million and the other for $1.3 million in the deal. Some had criticized Billy King for trading a lottery pick for a "two month rental", but King had maintained that he knew all along that Wallace would likley opt out and likely re-sign.

Originally published at Nets Daily.