It’s that time of the year again when top players are mentioned in trade rumors that have them going to five different teams for five different combinations of players and draft picks.
Now, it’s Brook Lopez’ time to be the most prominent player dangled publicly as a trade piece for various teams that need a center of his caliber to push them over the edge.
Yesterday, rumors were flying left and right on Twitter about the Nets, Hornets and Thunder coming close to agreeing on a framework that would send Lopez to Oklahoma City, Lance Stephenson to the Nets and Jarrett Jack and Jeremy Lamb to the Hornets. The deal would put the Brooklyn native Stephenson back in his hometown while giving the Thunder the center they’ve been searching for and ridding the Hornets of a player they probably wish they’d never signed.
But, later that night after it appeared as if a deal was certainly going to get done, the ever-present Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the teams weren’t able to make an agreement and Lopez would still be a Net on Friday. Chris Broussard also noted that the Nets were the only holdout in the proposed deal which was very close to coming to fruition.
Earlier today, the trade shifted to being just between Brooklyn and Oklahoma City with Lamb and Kendrick Perkins–former Celtics teammate of Kevin Garnett–heading to the Nets directly for Lopez. Perkins’ big contract (a little under $10 million for this season) is expiring which would be valuable to a cap-cutting team like the Nets.
In this rapidly changing discussion, Broussard then said the original three-teamer was “dead” while ESPN’s Marc Stein joined the fold to say that the Nets were interested in flipping Perkins to the Timberwolves for Thaddeus Young if the OKC deal could get done.
Then, right as it appeared as if something was going to happen, Woj tweeted that Brooklyn was “standing pat” and that “there was nothing we (the Nets) liked” at the moment. So, after all of that, no trade right now.
All of that aside, a bunch of other teams reportedly showed interest in Lopez, such as the Rockets, Heat and even the Lakers, which doesn’t make a ton of sense.
So, here’s where the Nets stand: they have no deal in place to trade Brook Lopez anywhere, but clearly have a few teams really interested. They have also kicked the tires on trading Deron Williams, again, but have found no suitors. They also have a game tonight, and tomorrow as well, against the Wizards as Brooklyn tries to win a game for the first time since January 2nd.
The trade deadline is in a month, which means Billy King has more than enough time to pick a trade partner, or partners, that offer the Nets the best possible deal giving them the most value in return. It also means there’s more than enough time for the oft-injured Lopez to get hurt again, which would negate any forward momentum for any deal.
This gives a sense of urgency to make something happen that sometimes makes general managers say yes to trade that aren’t really that good. Brooklyn cannot afford to have that happen.
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