Just hours after agreeing to a trade for Atlanta Hawks guard Joe Johnson and being counted out of the Dwight Howard sweepstakes and while waiting to hear if point guard Deron Williams will stay with the team, the Brooklyn Nets and Orlando Magic are discussing a deal for the All Star center.
In the proposed swap, the Nets would send Brook Lopez, Kris Humphries, MarShon Brooks and their first round picks in 2013, 2015 and 2017 to Orlando in return for Howard and the bloated contract of Hedo Turkoglu, according to ESPN's Chris Broussard.
Before the Johnson deal, the Nets could absorb both deals without matching contracts, but would now use the re-signed Lopez and Humphries (they can go over the cap to sign their own players) to make the trade work.
The reason the Nets can only offer first round picks every other season is because the league does not allow for a team to ship off picks for back-to-back drafts.
Pairing Howard with Williams and Johnson would immediate catapult Brooklyn to the top of the Eastern Conference along with the Miami Heat.