The Houston Rockets have put themselves in the fray for the service of former All-Star center Brook Lopez, who has been placed by the Brooklyn Nets on the trading block.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reported the Rockets have also made an inquiry on the availability of the 26-year old Lopez. The Oklahoma City Thunder and the Los Angeles Lakers are intrigued of the possibility of adding the former Stanford big man, who has been on and off the trading block this season.
The Nets have been trying to get rid of their big-contract players, Deron Williams and Joe Johnson are the others, but Lopez is the one drawing the most interest because of he's age and is due to receive the least paycheck, although it stands roughly at $15MM in each of the next two seasons (considering Lopez exercises his player's option for the 2015-16 season).
The Rockets' interest in Lopez is quite surprising because of the fact that they already have one of the best centers in the game in Dwight Howard. However, Houston doesn't have a legit backup at that particular position; more so general manager Daryl Morey might be brewing up a plan to form a twin-tower combo of Howard-Lopez in its frontline.
Despite pulling off a series of transactions the past few weeks, the Rockets still possess enough assets to work out another trade. Aside from multiple second-round picks, Houston has also several expiring contracts (Kostas Papanikolaou and Alexey Shved) and young talented players (Terrence Jones & Donatas Motiejunas) to use as its trade baits for Lopez.
Then again, the ball is in the Nets' court whether they are willing to part ways with Lopez. NBA insiders, including Wojnarowski, reported the Nets were in talk with the Thunder for a potential swap involving Lopez and Kendrick Perkins, before it was called off on Friday.
According to sources, the Nets front-office did not receive any interesting trade offer that is why they decided to hold on the deal for Lopez, who is just coming off a big game after dropping 26 points on 8-for-14 shooting against the Washington Wizards on Friday.
Lopez is averaging 15 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in 26 minutes per contest for the Nets this season.
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