The Nets Will Only Go As Far As Brook Lopez Allows Them To

Some may think it's Deron Williams, others Joe Johnson. But the truth is that Brook Lopez is the true key to the Nets' success as a team.

The Nets front office spent much of this offseason trying to trade for Dwight Howard, someone who had never been on the Nets and probably never will be. General Manager Billy King made it very clear throughout last season and the summer that his team was in full pursuit of the Orlando Magic center, and at some points came ridiculously close to actually pulling a deal off. However, regardless of the close calls that occurred in the entire Dwightmare scenario, no trade was ever made. We know how that story ended up: Brook Lopez was extended, the Nets solidified their starting lineup with Joe Johnson, and Howard was dealt to the Lakers in a four-team trade that didn't give the Magic much value in return.

Heading into a new state, city, arena, and identity, the Nets had to rebound quickly from their failed pursuit of Howard in order to get ready for beginning of the NBA season a few months away. One player--even though he was the key part of the Nets' potential return for Howard--was nearly completely neglected by the team's front office and fans. That would, of course, be Brook Lopez. The entire summer, and much of last season, Lopez had to hear his name swirled in trade talks with the Magic, leaving him without much confidence in the franchise that was still signing his paychecks. At least I know I wouldn't have any faith in a team basically admitting that I wasn't good enough for them as they attempted to trade me for someone to directly fill my spot on the team.

Ironically, as much as Brook was talked about off-court in the trade discussions, his on-court abilities were forgotten. He may be an awful rebounder and shaky defender for a man of his size, but Brook is certainly a dynamite scorer who is almost impossible for any other defender to stop when the Stanford grad is at the top of his game. Sure, people agreed that he was important to the Nets but these same people also seemed to undervalue his importance to the success of this team. Basically all contending teams have a really good center (at the least, power forward), and Brook is that guy for the Nets.

Deron Williams and Joe Johnson: A Match Made in Heaven

The two guys in the middle; pretty important to the future of the Brooklyn Nets

February 23rd, 2011 and July 11, 2012. Those are two dates that will live on in Brooklyn Nets history forever. The former, in 2011, was of course when the Nets traded Derrick Favors, Devin Harris, two 1st-round picks, and cash considerations to the Utah Jazz for one of the top point guards in the entire NBA: Deron Williams. Prior to the trade going through, the Nets were heavily rumored to be going after, and nearly trading for, Carmelo Anthony from the Denver Nuggets until he was dealt to the Knicks on the 21st of February.

The latter, occurring just last month, was when the Nets emptied their roster by dealing Johan Petro (thank God), Anthony Morrow, Jordan Williams, Jordan Farmar, DeShawn Stevenson, a 2013 1st-round pick, and a 2017 2nd-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks for their All-Star shooting guard, Joe Johnson. Similarly to the D-Will trade, this deal went largely under the radar until it went through as JJ was not widely reported to have been on the Nets' offseason wishlist.

Appropriately so, a crazed and long-loyal Nets fan like myself was going mildly nuts after hearing of each of these blockbuster deals. In 2011, with the Deron deal, I was on vacation in the Caribbean with my family when my dad gets an email on his phone from the Nets' organization. When I read the headline announcing that my favorite NBA team had traded for a star, specifically one of the best points guards in the NBA, I flipped out.

No, I didn't care that we essentially gave up three 1st-round picks (including Favors, selected in the draft preceding that season) for D-Will, I only cared that the Nets had finally gotten the franchise point guard that we had been searching for since trading Jason Kidd to the Mavericks a few years prior. I immediately dropped my regrets about missing out on Carmelo and didn't even care he went to the most-hated basketball team in my mind, the Knicks.

Barclays Center Represents More Than Arena for Nets, Represents Clean Slate for Franchise

The Atlantic Yards complex where the Barclays Center is located; far cry from Izod Center and Prudential Center of old

Since their ABA beginnings as a franchise, and through their entrance into the NBA, the Nets have been given a label as a troubled team that didn't win many games, had plenty of players get into serious trouble with the law, that never won many games, and certainly didn't have much of a fan base. And all of that futility was manifested in the several sub-par arenas that the franchise has played in since it's inception in 1967 as the ABA's New Jersey Americans.

That Americans team played its home games at the Teaneck Armory after the team's planned home arena, the 69th Regiment Armory in Manhattan, was forced to invalidate the Americans' deal with the team three months before the start of the season.

The franchise's owners had to scramble to find a new home in the Tri-State area and that frantically-chosen home base served as the kickstarter to an organization that just seemed to not get things right from Day One roughly until now, when the Nets are on the doorstep of their first season in their brand-new, billion-dollar home in one of the most popular boroughs of the biggest and most influential cities in the world.

However, the Barclays Center is not just a basketball arena for the Nets to play their home games at. Rather, it is much more. It represents the franchise rising up from its incredibly ugly shadow known as the Meadowlands and inner-city Newark--where they spent their seasons at since 1981--into the upper-tier of the league, at least in a reputation-like light.

Latest in Absurd Trade Rumors: Stephen A. Smith Says D-12 to the Knicks?

Dude looks like he would make up a trade rumor

Notoriously biased ESPNNewYork.com writer Stephen A. Smith, who has shown an incredible anti-Nets sentiment since joining ESPNNewYork (remember this article?, how's that D-Will to the Knicks thing working out for you Stephen A.?), has concocted an incredibly absurd trade scenario in which the Knicks trade Amare Stoudamire and Tyson Chandler to the Magic for Dwight Howard. To try and give his report some semblance of validity, Smith says that "his sources" inform him that the Magic have inquired to Knicks' management about this possible trade idea.

First off, this trade makes little to no sense as of right for the Magic as Amare hasn't even been playing well as of late (only one 20-point game in his last 6 overall games, all Knicks losses). For that matter, Chandler has only scored in double-figures in 2 of his last 7 games.Why would the Magic trade their franchise player for an over-priced, over-rated, injury-prone power forward and a complementary defensive center who are making nearly $30 million combined this season? I thought that GM Otis Smith was trying to save the Magic organization money/cap space while also building the team for the future. Building a team around a fading scorer with terrible knees and a light-scoring rebounder doesn't seem like the best move for a GM trying to keep his job.

Ok, I'm done ranting now. I just wanted to say how ridiculous I think this trade possibility would be for the Magic as it makes no sense from multiple angles. Regardless, I seriously can't believe how biased Chris Broussard and Stephen A. Smith are as writers and yet they are still employed by the Worldwide Leader in Sports, also known as ESPN.