Trade rumors are a wonderful thing, you never know how close anything actually is to the truth, and it’s always fun trying to figure out which team, or agent, is leaking the rumors. The latest rumor has the Nuggets offering the Brooklyn Nets Javale McGee, J.J. Hickson, and a first round pick (either the Memphis pick or the Oklahoma City pick – both received from Cleveland in the Timofey Mozgov trade), in exchange for Brook Lopez, 26 years-old, according to ESPN’s Marc Stein.
Nuggets, I’m told, offered one of two picks recently scored from Cavs in Mozgov deal in addition to Hickson/McGee for Lopez. Nets declined
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) February 2, 2015
From Nets Daily on the draft picks:
As noted by Adrian Wojnarowski, protections on the Memphis pick are Nos. 1-5 and 15-30 in 2015; 1-5 and 15-30 in '16; 1-5 in '17 and 1-5 in 2018; unprotected in 2019. The protections on the OKC pick are Nos. 1-18 in 2015; 1-15 in '16; 1-15 in 2017. After 2017, it becomes two seconds.
McGee is owed part of his $11.2 million salary this season, and $12 million in the final year of his deal next season. Hickson is on the cap for $5.3M this season, and $5.6M next. Lopez is on the books for $15.7M this season and has a player option for $16.7M next season.
It's understandable that Denver would not want to give away the house for Lopez, as he could walk away this off-season, if he so chooses. Without long-term security, the Nuggets would be wise not to gamble much for the oft-injured big man. Lopez missed large chunks of the 2011-12 and 2013-14 with foot and ankle injuries, but has bounced back nicely this season, as he's appeared in 36 of the team's 46 games.
Lopez is averaging 15.3 points and 6.2 rebounds this season, including 15.9 points and 6.9 rebounds in January.
Update:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Just an FYI: Denver and Brooklyn haven't spoken in a week on a Brook Lopez deal, league sources tell Yahoo.</p>— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/WojYahooNBA/status/562312095392620544">February 2, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Adrian Wojnarowski, for no real reason – other to respond to Marc Stein's Tweets, comes out with that Woj bomb today. No secret that Woj has had almost every major scoop from the Nets and the Nuggets recently, so that Tweet should be the most accurate one of the bunch. Stein hasn't had much right in regards to the Nuggets, so there's that…
