One trade every NBA team needs to make
By Tom West
Brooklyn Nets
Out of all the teams in the NBA, the Nets are right at the top of the list when it comes to franchises who could benefit from hitting the reset button and heading in another direction. They have no noticeable identity, they’re extremely limited in terms of young talent, and with players like Joe Johnson making more than $20 million a year, they aren’t getting much in return for their money.
The problem for the Nets is that while they’d surely love to trade out a few assets and start afresh, they don’t have many. If they really want to bring in some new talent, their best bet is moving Lopez, who is one of the top scoring centers in the NBA (20.3 points per game) and could help multiple franchises.
One possibility involves the Nets making an effort to reclaim some of their draft picks by trading with the Celtics. In exchange for Lopez, they’ll receive Jared Sullinger, David Lee and the rights to their first round draft picks for 2017 and 2018 (these picks are highly valuable, so asking for both could be a push by the Nets).
This allows the Celtics to trade some quantity for quality and acquire an elite low-post, mid-range scorer in Lopez, while the Nets get to partially resolve the worries haunting their organization by getting back some draft picks. This way, rather than having no reward for the poor seasons that are undoubtedly in store, they can add some new young talent in the draft.
Plus, they get a solid role player in Sullinger and they can clear a bunch of cap space when Lee’s $15.49 million contract expires at the end of this season.
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