As you should all know by now, the NBA season cannot officially begin until there’s been at least one Brook Lopez trade rumor.
Related: The NBA season is officially underway.
From ESPN.com’s Marc Stein:
But what’s happening behind the scenes is newsy, too. Some rival executives are increasingly convinced that the Nets are open to moving Lopez between now and the February deadline in the proverbial right deal.
Rumblings of Boston interest have been forcefully shot down by sources familiar with the Celtics’ thinking, but the situation bears monitoring — and not simply because the Celts could ultimately decide that a big in-season move is wisest in the event they can’t create as much cap space next summer as they once hoped.
Sources familiar with the Nets’ thinking stressed to ESPN.com in recent days that, as it stands, Brooklyn is merely fielding calls and doing its due diligence. Listening to other teams, in other words, as opposed to outright shopping the former All-Star center.
These feelings from those around the league aren’t going away, even if they are overblown, even if they aren’t partially true. That’s just the nature of where the Brooklyn Nets are at right now. They don’t control the rights to their own first-rounder until 2019–Boston can swap its pick with Brooklyn’s this summer and owns it free and clear in 2018–and they’ve already dealt away Thaddeus Young, now of the Indiana Pacers, to get into the draft-day festivities.
Everyone will now expect them to explore the same option with Lopez, their best trade chip. He is owed a very reasonable $43.8 million through this season and next, and he’s now turned into a big who blocks shots and shoot threes. He isn’t nearly as defensive adaptable as Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Davis or Kristaps Porzingis, among others, but seven-footers who space the floor and can at least begin to hold their own at the rim are valued commodities. Lopez is no different.
If the Nets decide to move him—and there’s no guarantee they will–it’ll most likely be after December 15, at which point free agents on new deals are eligible to be traded, significantly increasing the possibilities at their disposal.
