Report: Nets owners negotiating a 'combination of assets' deal with Guggenheim Partners

Perhaps panicked over the estimated $144 million the team lost last season, the Brooklyn Nets ownership group, led by majority stakeholder Mikhail Prokhorov, is looking to sell off at least a portion of its assets.

As Nets Daily reports, the Nets owners are in "ongoing discussions" with Guggenheim Partners, a global investment firm headquartered in New York and Chicago, on a "combination of assets."

Guggenheim Partners purchased the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012 for $2.15 billion, and earlier this year bought the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks.

Per Nets Daily's sources, the Nets are being valued at $1.7 billion and their arena, the Barclays Center, at $1.1 billion in the discussions. Those sources have reportedly emphasized that in any deal Prokhorov would continue to be the "governor and controlling owner" of the team "for the foreseeable future."

But other plugged-in sources around the league believe that Prokhorov is readying to trade in his chips. According to Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, "high-level NBA execs believe Prokhorov cashes out sooner than later," and Grantland's Zach Lowe claims that it "would not shock me if Prokhorov's full Nets stake came on the table in the not-so-distant future."

Prokhorov, who paid $223 million for the team in May 2010, currently owns 80 percent of the team and 45 percent of the arena, with the remaining shares of each belonging to Bruce Ratner's Nets Sports & Entertainment group.

As of now, there is no agreement in place, nor a deadline for a conclusion of the negotiations, and how much Guggenheim would control after the combination of assets remains uncertain.