Dwight Howard Trade Rumors: Los Angeles Clippers Not a Threat to New Jersey Nets

Dwight Howard might have added the Los Angeles Clippers to his trade wish list, but don't expect them to be too big of a threat to the New Jersey Nets' chances of landing the Orlando Magic center.

The Clippers will join the Nets, Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks as teams who are favorites to trade for the All-Star.

Despite being another piece of competition in the Howard sweepstakes, the Clippers are side by side with the Mavericks as far as not having enough attractive pieces to pry him away from Magic GM Otis Smith.

The Clippers gave away the majority of their valuable pieces in the trade for Chris Paul with the New Orleans Hornets. They've left their roster pretty bare moving forward.

The two teams with the best pieces to offer are still the Nets and the Lakers. I still feel New Jersey's package reigns supreme over that of the Lakers.

New Jersey would undoubtedly offer Brook Lopez, either Kris Humphries or Mehmet Okur for salary purposes, and future draft picks as well. The 2012 pick could be in the lottery the way the Nets are going. Even with Howard at the trade deadline, New Jersey could still miss the playoffs.

In what could be the one that puts them over the top, the Nets could throw MarShon Brooks into the mix to sweeten the deal even more. Brooks has shown to be a promising scorer and is a good young piece to rebuild around when combined with the rest of the Nets' offer.

It might sound like the Nets are giving up a lot if Brooks is included as well, but at this point everyone except for Deron Williams is expendable. Nets GM Billy King fully understands that if D12 doesn't end up in Newark, D-Will is gone after this season.

And that would be a disaster for the 2012-13 Brooklyn Nets.

The only way the Lakers could trump that package would be to offer both Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, effectively blowing up their whole roster. A move like that isn't likely considering Kobe Bryant is already ticked off at the senseless Lamar Odom trade with the Mavericks.

The Nets are less than two months away from finding out what their future holds beyond this season. The March 15 deadline couldn't come soon enough, and until it does the anticipation in Newark will continue to build.