I don't think the Nets will play B Lopez or Joe Johnson lots of minutes in a year they have no chance of competing.
they don't own their pick and Johnson is old. They have no incentive to be bad at all, they have no incentive to shut down, etc.
They also have no incentive to drive their guys into the ground and risk injury in Lopez case, or to make any "win now" moves that will make them marginally better in the short term including not trading Johnson if they get a decent differ for him.
All the moves they made this off season say their biggest interest right now is re-establishing flexibility and acquiring assets that can make them better in the future. If trading Johnson can get them a 1st round pick in return, it seems like they'll do that. If someone makes a pretty good offer for Lopez involving young prospects and/or picks, they'll probably take that too. What they won't do is sacrifice what little flexibility and assets they have left, or turn down the chance to get more, just to give us the worst pick possible out of spite.
Besides, that team is so thin outside the starting 5 (which itself is pretty poor) I really don't see any way they land any higher than the top 10. With Miami healthy, Paul George back, Jefferson healthy in Charlotte, Melo back in NY, plus Orlando and Detroit looking a lot better I'd be surprised if they're even in the conversation for the 8th seed.