NBA Trade Rumors: Potential Snags in Dwight Howard-to-Brooklyn Nets Deal

The Brooklyn Nets trade for Joe Johnson put a lid on Dwight Howard trade rumors momentarily, but it didn't take long for the chatter to pop up once again. But while the Nets would certainly love to add the All-NBA center to their rebuilding roster, they might not have the resources to bring him over. 

At this point, Brooklyn only has four guys under contract including Johnson, Gerald Wallace—both of whom have only signed in principal—along with recently acquired Reggie Evans and Bosnian big man Mirza Teletovic, according to reports. They also retain the rights to Brook Lopez as a restricted free agent and own the Bird Rights for Kris Humphries.  

So, the three main assets the Nets still have on the table are Lopez, Humphries and MarShon Brooks. In addition, they have a trio of 2012 draft picks (point guard Tyshawn Taylor and two draft-and-stash European players), future draft picks and a pair of trade exceptions.

What really hangs a Howard trade up at this point is salary discrepancies. A non-taxpaying team can bring in a total salary equal to their outgoing salary in the trade, plus $5 million only if the player coming back makes less than $19.6 million per year.

Lucky for the Nets, Dwight makes $19.53 million next season, allowing them to take on more salary even though they are over the cap. However, if they should end up over the cap after the trade, the maximum salary coming back is 125 percent of the outgoing salary plus $100,000.

And therein lies the problem. It's pretty well known that Orlando wants to get rid of an ugly contract or two in a trade involving Howard, but the Nets wouldn't be able to match an offer with Hedo Turkoglu and his $11.8 million involved. However, they would be able to finagle a deal including Jason Richardson's $5.8 million with that extra $5 million.

Unfortunately, the aforementioned trade for Evans has completely rid the Nets of their trade exception, which would have allowed them to take Quentin Richardson off Orlando's hands as well.

Now here's the key: Contracts can't be signed and deals can't be done until July 11th and the order in which the Nets complete these deals is what everything hinges on. If they complete their trades first, they will be fine:

"

@ZachLowe_SI If you don't re-sign Deron and/or Wallace until after it's done, boomtown. Problem solved. Cap holds aren't counted towards tax

— Mark Deeks (@MarkDeeksNBA) July 3, 2012"

That's the mumbo jumbo part of the trade, with numbers confusing us from every angle and calculators buzzing happily. But there's still a personal element that is going to be difficult to bang out.

For each of the unrestricted free agents involved, a sign-and-trade is necessary, which means every player who isn't restricted would have to agree to a deal beforehand with an implied trade to Orlando. However, with guys like Brook Lopez who are restricted, they don't need permission. They just have to match whatever deal they find elsewhere and then ship him off as part of the package.

With the incredible size of this trade, it would make sense for a third team to be involved, which is the case with Kris Humphries:

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For Nets-Magic to progress on a Dwight Howard deal, a 3rd team needed to take Kris Humphries in a sign-and-trade, league source tells Y!

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) July 3, 2012"

However, as it is coming out now, the deal would work as two separate trades with the Magic:

"

Appears dh-turk to NJ deal works if done as two separate deals and six different players accept S&T. Doesn't make it smart, but it works.

— John Hollinger (@johnhollinger) July 3, 2012"

What are the odds, you ask, that six guys agree to re-sign with the Nets so they could be traded to a rebuilding Orlando Magic team? It seems like there are too many moving parts for that one to go through, but crazier things have happened. 

Of course, the question that remains is the one that has nothing to do with numbers, but with basketball: Does Orlando really want to make this trade?

As of right now, the answer appears to be a no, according to a source close to the Magic:

"

At moment, Nets' deal doesn't work for Magic, and they'll hold on to Dwight Howard. As they should. Dwight's the one in a hurry

— Brian K. Schmitz (@MagicInsider) July 3, 2012"

However, there's also a feeling that the Magic are doing their best right now to get the rest of the players in on the Howard trade to show their cards. As John Hollinger is saying, they want to threaten the Lakers, Rockets, Mavericks and whoever else might want to make a run at Dwight to put together their top offer, much like the Nets have just done:

"

This entire Howard-BKN scenario smells more like a threat from Orlando to Houston, LA, Dallas, et al, to get their best offer in stat.

— John Hollinger (@johnhollinger) July 3, 2012"

Nothing is official yet and it may be a while before anything even approaches being official, but the wheels are in motion and the pressure is on for other teams to get their deals together. 

At this point, the Magic are already looking elsewhere, and it's being reported that the guy out there that Orlando wants more than anyone else is Andrew Bynum. Surprisingly enough, the Lakers seem to be willing to trade him, should Orlando get Dwight to sign an extension:

"

Source: Lakers are prepared to offer the Andrew Bynum and Metta World Peace to the Magic for Dwight Howard provided Howard signs extension

— Jarrod N Rudolph (@JRudolphSports) July 3, 2012"

Update, July 4: "Don't bet on Dwight in Brooklyn" -- Joel C. Cordes

ESPN's John Hollinger first thought the Nets an unlikely landing spot for Dwight Howard:

"

One fact covers pretty much every @reply I'm getting: 74.3 million. Hard cap. No exceptions. Once you sign Mirza, that's the rules.

— John Hollinger (@johnhollinger) July 4, 2012"

Signing free agent forward Mirza Teletovic for the full mid-level exception would have triggered the hard cap number and made swapping for Dwight nearly impossible. However, it now appears that Teletovic might be signing for the smaller exception, thereby changing everything:

"

Nets working to get Teletovic for taxpayer MLE; key implications for Howard chase (Insider) es.pn/NmFm57

"

"— John Hollinger (@johnhollinger) July 4, 2012"

If the Nets can sign their other players first, thereby getting above the tax, they can use the smaller mid-level exception. This creates a "soft" cap which allows them to continue crossing the threshold while paying the tax. 

Again, there are a ton of moving parts for this to work, but it appears the financial possibility still exists for a Dwight Howard to Brooklyn trade.