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Many casual fans of the NBA do not watch the NBA draft lottery, but for Brooklyn Nets fans there may have been a lot more people watching this year, and here is why. When the former New Jersey Nets traded MehmetOkur, Shawne Williams, and their 2012 protected first-round pick to the Portland Trail Blazers for Gerald Wallace, there was a chance that they would not wind up with their first-round pick in the 2012 NBA draft. Well, for Nets fan, that fear was realized today when there lottery ball was picked at No. 6 overall, thus forfeiting their pick to the Trail Blazers.
So, now that the order of the NBA draft has been determined for the Nets, and they have no first-round pick (the Nets first pick doesn’t come until Round 2 No. 57), it seems that their chances of acquiring Dwight Howard via trade are nearly zero. The realization of this news, added on top of the recent news that was leaked, that DeronWilliams will leave the Nets if Howard is not acquired via trade, is terrible for a franchise looking for a fresh start in Brooklyn.
Delving a little deeper into what I said in the previous paragraph, that Deron Williams will leave the Nets if they don’t somehow acquire Howard, this news was leaked earlier today. This theory, of Williams wanting to playalongside Howard, has been batted around ever since the NBA trade deadline. But when Howard waived his early termination option, on the final day of the NB trading deadline, that theory was shelved for better ones like, where will Williams play next season, and will Howard demand a trade there?
If Williams does indeed leave the Nets then there are really only two options, based on the teams he is interestedin, for him, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Dallas Mavericks ( in that order). These two teams seems to beWilliams preferred destinations and, based on previous indications, the Lakers seem to be his first choice, while the Mavericks are a distant third. Williams loves the city of Los Angeles and would love to play for the Lakers. Williams would also like to play for the Mavs but does not see any long-term future their, or a chance for quick success, since owner Mark Cuban basically cleaned house in preparation for free-agency.
Looking, subjectively, at where Williams will wind up next season, it seems that the Lakers are the logical choice. The Nets do not have the sort of trade assets that the Magic want for Howard, (neither do the Mavs), but the Lakers do. If the Lakers were to trade for Howard, get rid of Pau Gasol’s contract, and somehow find a way to get rid of the huge contract of Hedo Turkoglu (who is nearly a lock to be included in any package for Howard), they would then have the cap room to sign Williams in free-agency.
The proposed deal almost seems to make too much sense so there is doubt among Lakers fans that it will not happen, and there are a few obstacles. The first obstacle, and the biggest one, to this theory is that we are still unsure if the Magic are going to trade Howard or if he even wants to play for the Lakers. The second obstacle would be trying to acquire Howard via trade and not having David Stern veto another Lakers trade (there is a small chance of this happening again but hey, you never know right?).
If the Lakers were able to convince Howard somehow to become a Laker, then there would be about a 99% chance that Williams would wind up in a Lakers uniform next season. For all the obstacles that the Lakers would need to overcome to complete this deal they do have one thing on their side, they are the Lakers, and somehow they always wind up back on top of the NBA world.
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