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HOWARD TRADE TALKS END!

By Net Income
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Conflicting reports Wednesday about who ended trade talks for Dwight Howard, but this appears certain: they're over. Initial reports out of Orlando had the Magic informing Howard they had suspended trade talks. Then reports out of New York suggested the Nets ended them, frustrated by the lack of resolution after two weeks of negotiations.

This will likely mean the Nets will move quickly to sign Brook Lopez to a maximum contract of $75 million over five years. Billy King flew to Los Angeles Wednesday to meet with Lopez and his agent. Signing Lopez would end any chance for renewed talks between the two sides until January 15, the first day Lopez could be traded.

"They had 14 days to do something & didn't. We just had to move on," Ian O'Connor quoted a Nets official as saying. Fred Kerber said a Nets official told him, "He [Howard] had the chance in March.” Ric Bucher said the Nets moved on after the Magic rejected their latest offer, a two-team trade that would have sent Lopez, Kris Humphries and multiple picks to Orlando. Similarly, Bucher quoted a Nets official as saying, "We've moved on. It just got to a point where we couldn't keep going back and forth with Orlando."

From the beginning of the process, some inside the Nets feared the Magic was stringing them along in hopes of getting a better offer from another team. Rob Hennigan, Magic GM, denied that the talks have ended but admitted, they are in a "stationary position."

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