NBA Trade Rumors: Nets Insane to Pass on Brook Lopez for Monta Ellis Proposal

The New Jersey Nets are like the naïve friend you have that doesn’t understand the reality around them.

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports is reporting that the Nets have shunned the idea of bringing in a potential All-Star for Brook Lopez:

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Nets have no interest in trading Brook Lopez for a Monta Ellis package, league source tells Y!

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) February 29, 2012"

Ellis is fresh off a buzzer-beater to end the first half of the season and is currently registering 22.2 points, 5.7 assists and 3.5 boards. He has one of the quickest first steps in the league and has averaged at least 19 points in five of the seven seasons he has been in the NBA.

May I remind Nets fans that they are currently ranked 25th in points scored at 92.5 a game.

Lopez is coming off foot surgery and won’t be able to play the second night of back-to-backs for the remainder of the season. He has played in a grand total of three games this year, averaging 20.7 points and four rebounds on a 51 percent shooting clip.

I understand at the age of 23, there is still a ton of upside with Lopez, but his lack of rebounds is incredibly disturbing. For his career, he has averaged only 7.5 a game despite playing 34 minutes a night. And he’s a seven-footer! He admitted to the New York Post that he was “lazy” last year.

Not exactly what a coach wants to hear.

Obviously, the Nets are holding out hope they can flip Lopez into the prize of this summer’s free-agent class, Dwight Howard. Problem is, the LA Lakers with Andrew Bynum possess a much more attractive trade package.

Nets management thinks that if they can trade Lopez for Howard, Deron Williams will re-sign as well. They need to stop thinking like this.

Williams has recently said how badly he wants to win and how that it’s his only goal at the moment. He sounded like a guy who can’t wait to leave town. With his hometown Dallas Mavericks lurking this summer, I’d be shocked to see Williams re-sign regardless of if they land Howard.

With that in mind, might as well shake things up. The Nets stink with Lopez, so what’s the harm in bringing in a new talent that is owned a very reasonable $22 million over the next two seasons and has shown considerable improvement in his passing ability in recent years.

The Nets are hinging their future on a prayer that’s not going to be answered. They need a dose of reality to realize that Williams is a goner and Howard doesn’t want to play for a team that’s currently 11-25.

Ellis wouldn’t be the savior, but he could certainly be a big part of the solution.