After the Nets last week, it's hard to be optimistic about the Nets. The team can't win close games against mediocre teams, the franchise lost out on the second best player in the NBA at the last minute, its best player is according to pundits ready to leave and fan reaction to the latest trade remains toxic despite the key player's solid performances.

Enter Peter Vecsey with a load of optimism and details on last week's debacle. Vecsey writes that considering Dwight Howard's indecision, "the Nets lucked out when they didn’t get Carmelo Anthony and they lucked out again by not getting Howard."

Why? He writes the Nets had a Plan B: Gerald Wallace, and a longer term Plan C: re-signing Brook Lopez and Kris Humphries or going after Ersan Ilyasova, maybe even Ryan Anderson. As for Deron Williams, Vecsey thinks he's going nowhere other than Brooklyn, that he had a sense of Howard's "softening" in the final days. Of course, not everyone agrees.

Vecsey also says the deal Billy King and Otis Smith were working on included Lopez, MarShon Brooks, Mehmet Okur and two or three picks (one lottery un-protected) straight up for Howard. No Hedo Turkoglu, No Wallace in a three-way.

• Howard’s Magic trick doesn’t kill N.J. future - Peter Vecsey - New York Post
• Postups: With Howard in Orlando, Nets must rethink their options - Ken Berger - CBS Sports
  
• NBA - Three trades that should have been made - John Carroll - ESPN Insider