The Brook Lopez trade rumors won’t die. The Brooklyn Nets big man dropped in 35 points in double overtime last night and news broke this morning that a proposal by the Denver Nuggets to land him had been shot down. Lopez has been rumored to be on the move for months now, as the often injured center is part of a roster that was built to compete for a title, but failed. That’s led to Brooklyn slowly moving towards a total “blow up”, which could include trading Lopez, Deron Williams and others out of Brooklyn.
For now, though, the Nets are content holding onto their 26-year old big man. It’s not a bad idea, either, since the Nuggets’ offer was a joke. Denver offered big men J.J. Hickson and JaVale McGee in return for Lopez, while it’s highly arguable that Lopez should garner much more than two players that aren’t nearly as talented as he is. Lopez has major issues on defense, doesn’t rebound well for a 7-footer and gets hurt frequently, but at just 26 still carries immense upside.
Lopez is probably going to be on the move eventually, and probably even this year, but the Nets are clearly trying to get better talent and/or some draft picks for their top players. Brooklyn isn’t winning and most of their players carry ridiculous salaries or injury risks, but most of them at least offer upside or would provide their new team a major positional upgrade. Teams coming to the phones with offers like the Nuggets may have to re-think their approach – especially if Lopez is going to go out and increase his trade value with huge outings like he had on Friday night.
Fantasy Impact: Lopez being traded would probably not hurt his fantasy basketball value, as going to Denver would possibly be a nice change of scenery for him and he’d have the center position all to himself. His presence would hurt the development of young big man Jusuf Nurkis in Denver, however, while Mason Plumlee would stand to benefit greatly in Brooklyn.
