Day’Ron Sharpe gets Nets return he strongly wanted: ‘It’s always home’

LAS VEGAS — Day’Ron Sharpe may technically have had his free agent rights renounced by the Nets, but that’s just paperwork.

The big man is coming back to Brooklyn, and he is excited about it. 

“It feels good to be back in Brooklyn,” Sharpe said during the Nets’ 102-96 summer league loss to Washington on Sunday night. “I feel good to play for Jordi [Fernández], to play for the Brooklyn Nets organization. I got drafted here, it’s always home, so it’s good to be back for the team, for the Brooklyn Nets.” 

Sharpe and the Nets had agreed to a two-year, $12 million deal, as previously reported late last month. 

The Nets had declined to give Sharpe a qualifying offer, briefly making him a restricted free agent.

But the center was never a flight risk, saying he wanted to stay with the team that made him a first-round pick in 2019. 

“I just feel that was the best option for me, and that’s where Brooklyn was at,” Sharpe said. “I just decided what I decided.” 

The Nets renouncing his free agent rights was more about sequencing. 

Sharpe and Ziaire Williams — who agreed to an identical deal — can be signed into cap space, or one could be signed into the room exception.

But the Nets would need to exhaust their cap space first if they want to maximize taking on salary dumps, the way they did to garner two first-round picks this offseason.

Using the exception and re-signing restricted free agent Cam Thomas would come later.