And If No Dwight Howard ... What?

There are a lot of road blocks between the Nets and Dwight Howard, like the Magic's seeming reluctance to deal him to Brooklyn; the degree of difficulty involved in getting Brook Lopez and Kris Humphries to agree to sign-and-trades (and the willingness of the Magic to pay them what they would want. Not to mention Howard's lack of a steel will.

Of course, last we checked (last week), Howard still wanted Brooklyn and only Brooklyn, and Dan Fegan, his agent, still has a reputation for getting his clients what they want. Moreover, the Nets seem hell-bent on making 2012 in Brooklyn look like 2008 in Boston and 2010 in Miami. By reworking, with his consent, their deal with Mirza Teletovic, they can go as deep into the luxury tax as Mikhail Prokhorov will permit.

And the Howard back-up plan could include Ersan Ilyasova, who like Howard wants to play in Brooklyn, or Humphries, who wants to play in Brooklyn, or Lopez, who wants to play in Brooklyn and/or other pieces like Gerald Green, who wants to play in Brooklyn. As Fred Kerber and Tim Bontemps point out, that's not a bad problem to have.

• Brooklyn Nets are still in talks with free agent Ersan Ilyasova - Fred Kerber - New York Post
• One 'mini' move a major help for Nets - Tim Bontemps - New York Post
• Dwight Howard soap opera has many role players who could push Superman to Brooklyn - Stefan Bondy - New York Daily News