NBA Trade Rumors: How Brook Lopez's Injury Will Impact Pursuit of Dwight Howard
Leave it to the New Jersey Nets to get crushing news on the same day they are the lead on Sportscenter.
Deron Williams’ 57-point performance was the greatest we’ve seen in the NBA this season, yet after the game there was little time to celebrate as the team awaited word on center Brook Lopez’s right ankle.
He ended up spraining it, and the Nets’ PR team has confirmed he will be out of action for the next three weeks:
"Lopez will have his foot placed in a walking boot as a precautionary measure. He is expected to miss three weeks of action.
— Nets PR Dept. (@Nets_PR) March 5, 2012"
This is a crushing blow that has little to do with the hole Lopez leaves in the post.
The trade deadline is March 15, and Lopez was supposed to be the main piece in a package to land Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard.
Now a trade to the Nets is not happening. They don’t have the assets on their roster or the draft to yield the greatest center of the past decade. Howard is a rare talent and the package to land him has to be enormous.
The Magic would rather gamble and keep him for the remainder of the season than trade him for anybody on the lowly Nets roster. Lopez, 23, was the one guy that had a blend of success at the pro level and is still very young.
The Lakers have Andrew Bynum; the Mavericks have financial flexibility in the offseason. What do the Nets have now?
A 12-26 record, which is good enough for 13th in the Eastern Conference, 6.5 games back of eighth place...and 12 back from the Magic.
The Nets had to land Howard via trade before he could listen to the Mavericks’ sweetheart deal this summer. With Lopez sidelined and the hopes of landing Howard this season all but gone, the odds of him going to the Nets is now at about a million to one.
Fans better hope Jay-Z has a miracle to pull out of his New York Yankees cap because that’s what it will take to make Howard a Net at this point.
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