NBA Trade Rumors: Brook Lopez Injury Opens Up Lakers To Deal for Dwight Howard

The New Jersey Nets announced today that their starting center, Brook Lopez—aka Dwight Howard Trade Bait—is going to be missing four to six weeks with a stress fracture in his right foot. 

Bad news if you're a Nets fan. Not so bad if you're a Lakers fan. Normally, you wouldn't draw a straight line from New Jersey to Orlando Los Angeles, but in this case, you can.

The two teams who have been actively engaging the Magic in trade talks for the services of the best center in the league are New Jersey and the Lakers. New Jersey's injury news becomes LA's bargaining position. 

Who'd have thunk that the Lakers would be the ones sitting in the position of strength when the word "injury" came up? But here we are and there they are. 

There is no question that Andrew Bynum, when healthy, is a better player than Lopez, but it's the whole "when healthy" part that was a hangup. While Bynum can scarcely make it though more than half a season unscathed, Lopez had never missed a game in his career. 

Suddenly, while Bynum is hopping up and down the court on two good knees, Lopez will be facing the "agony of de-feet" while he rides the pine in his civilian clothes.

The door is open now for the Lakers to make a trade to land Howard. I would qualify it by saying it's barely open, even just a crack, but it is open. It remains to be seen whether the Magic are willing to take just Bynum or whether the Lakers are willing to part with Pau Gasol too, but this changes the game to where the two teams could start talking again. 

Needless to say, landing Howard would be an absolute game changer when it comes to grading the Lakers' offseason.