Nets agree to three-year, $52.5 million extension with rising star Caris LeVert

The Brooklyn Nets made an enormous splash this offseason by signing free agents Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Now, the team is locking up one of its own best players.

The Nets have agreed on a three-year, $52.5 million extension with shooting guard Caris LeVert, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

The deal will keep LeVert under team control until 2023. Also under team control through the 2021-22 season are Durant, Irving, DeAndre Jordan and Spencer Dinwiddie, so the Nets will be locked into that core for the foreseeable future.

Best of all for LeVert, he got his big payday on his 25th birthday.

Why the Nets extended Caris LeVert

LeVert has played his way into the Nets’ future plans over the last three seasons since being drafted 20th overall out of Michigan in the 2016 NBA draft.

The 25-year-old seemed in the middle of a breakout season last year, averaging 19.0 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists until he sustained a gruesome leg injury in mid-November. He was somewhat limited in his return three months later, but showed what he was capable of with a team-leading 21.0 points per game in a five-game loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.

Foot injuries like last season’s have long been a problem for LeVert, however. Both his junior and senior seasons at Michigan ended early due to foot injuries, and one of them lingered long enough that it also cost him a solid chunk of his rookie season.

LeVert was set to hit restricted free agency next offseason, but the Nets clearly believe he’s player worth keeping around as the prepare for a major run at the Eastern Conference over the next few years.

More from Yahoo Sports:

• Colts QB Luck stunningly announces retirement

• Fans boo Luck, but Indy may be in good hands with Brissett

• Florida-Miami slog shows Week Zero is a bad idea

• Texans RB Miller carted off with reported torn ACL