Brook Lopez: Nets' Star Resumes Practice After Extended Injury Absence

The New Jersey Nets finally are receiving some good news.

Starting center Brook Lopez is back according to Andy Vasquez of NorthJersey.com:

While he has begun to practice, that doesn’t mean he isn’t going to be playing this week according to Vasquez:

This is big news for the Nets and it really doesn’t have much to do with Lopez helping the team turnaround another disappointing season.

Lopez was thought to be the main piece in any potential deal with the Orlando Magic for Dwight Howard. He is the Nets’ only hope of landing him in a trade before next month’s deadline.

Yet he was sidelined on December 23^rd with a screw in his right foot, after breaking the fifth metatarsal bone in the foot and has yet to see the floor thus far in the 2011-2012 season. Originally the team said he would be out 6-to-8 weeks and Friday made it officially seven weeks.

Avery Johnson hasn’t declared him out for Friday yet claiming, “We’re not ruling anything out” and his status will be reevaluated after Thursday.  

After practice Lopez talked to the New Jersey Star-Ledger about how he felt getting thrown back into the mix:

"

It was good. It was nice to be back, obviously... I went pretty much the whole five-on-five.

"

It’s a positive development, with potentially a month of playing time to try and sway the Magic into liking a player that scored 20.4 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.5 blocks last season.

While 5.9 rebounds a game for a player that averaged over 35 minutes a game for a 7-footer is less than ideal, he’ll certainly be an upgrade over Johan Petro.

This is an interesting development in the whole Dwight Howard trade saga.