Revisiting the trade for Brook Lopez idea

[Hemingway]

Ok, so we discussed this idea in the offseason- trading for Lopez could both help us and improve the nets pick we own. A major reason against trading for Lopez is his injury history coupled with his contract.

Now the Jan 15th date when he can be traded is quickly approaching and he Lopez is looking healthy. His contract has 2 more years after this one for big money, but the cap is going up and we would have an expiring contract let in Lee or Amir (whomever is not traded.) I kind of agreed not to get him before but now I'm thinking he looks good for this year and we'd just be taking a risk for 2 years after that he stays healthy and the last of those 2 years he would be an expiring contract.


If getting Lopez makes some sense, the question becomes how much better does he make us? He'd probably be our best big but he wouldn't launch us into contention either. But...

What if getting Lopez was a follow up move to getting a real star?
If Ainge can find a deal to overpay for a star(or very good young player that could fit into lesser contracts so we can keep Amir), if might be worth it to make a follow up move to get Lopez

[MikeJelly]

I'm not against it. If you don't do something dumb and trade a cornerstone of this years Nets pick then you add your Center of the future and draft your SF of the future.

[obnoxiousmime]

There's no way they don't demand their own 2015 pick back for any Lopez deal. I understand you're "supposed" to take the best deal possible but sometimes you just can't accept such an embarrassing PR hit, especially when it comes to owners who are always concerned about saving face. We already ripped them off in the PP/KG deal, now they're going to deal their best player to us and not get any of their own picks back? Not to mention, trading Lopez will make the pick even more valuable.

It reminds me of the T-Wolves - Kevin Love situation. Not that they were ever close, but I think there really was hesitance to deal him to the Celtics, regardless of the return. It would have been basically crapping on all their fans with the message "we are the Celtics minor league system and Danny Ainge's b----."

Another reason why it probably won't happen: Teams always want to deal their stars to a difference conference, or at least geographically further away.

[Celtics4ever]

I don't think they trade him, they still need to sell tickets and he is the closest thing they have to a star with few picks coming in and do you trade a not sure thing in a draft pick for a star?

[pearljammer10]

Lopez would be an awful fit in BS's uptempo system. He is one of the slowest players I have even watched play the game.

No thanks.

[rollie mass]

the knicks with lopez,young and rjh arn't that bad-till the injuries set in rjh and jarrat jack if anything happens to lopez and it from goes a non flushing toilet to outhouse-

[Hemingway]

I don't think the owners are as concerned with "saving face" as much as it gets talked about. They realize that so much of heir money comes from people who would be hard pressed to name more than a few players on their team (remember a lot of people buy tickets to see Kobe or LBJ and just go to the team that is closest to them) let alone know that their team lost 2 trades to the same team.

But what is we could get DMC or Melo for all of the nest picks except the 16 one, a few other picks and assets and then we could turn Lee and s few late picks into Lopez? We would be cashed out of picks but we would still have the nets pick coming up and we'd have added what would maybe be our 2 best players.

I do agree this is all not very likely.

[obnoxiousmime]

I don't think the owners are as concerned with "saving face" as much as it gets talked about. They realize that so much of heir money comes from people who would be hard pressed to name more than a few players on their team (remember a lot of people buy tickets to see Kobe or LBJ and just go to the team that is closest to them) let alone know that their team lost 2 trades to the same team.

But what is we could get DMC or Melo for all of the nest picks except the 16 one, a few other picks and assets and then we could turn Lee and s few late picks into Lopez? We would be cashed out of picks but we would still have the nets pick coming up and we'd have added what would maybe be our 2 best players.

I do agree this is all not very likely.

I guess it depends on the owner. Prokhorov doesn't seem engaged, so there's that. Nor is he from this country so the rules about facing the media and the fans are different.

If you're a typical American owner, however, it's hard to be so isolated that something like this doesn't touch you. The stories would be embarrassing. Ainge already swindled the Nets and gave them no hope for the next 3 years. Now he gets their best player and they don't even get any of the picks back in return? What does that tell your fans?

Imagine the new GM trying to explain such a deal to him:

"Hey, so remember how we bet big and traded all our picks to Boston? Now I want to deal our last remaining star to them as well."

<through Russian translator> "Well, that certainly sucks. But at least we get our picks back."

"Well, not exactly."

"We get at least one back though, right? The 2016 one?"

"No, we get two late first rounders, David Lee, and Jared Sullinger."

"THAT FAT TUB OF GOO!?? YOU'RE FIRED!"