Is Brook Lopez still on the market? How long can this go on?

Dwight Howard is having a horrid season, but he's starting in the All-Star game. Brook Lopez is having a terrific season but wasn't voted or selected to the All-Star game. Dwight Howard has a bad back and shoulder., but he's leading the league in rebounding. Brook Lopez is relatively healthy, but he's averaging half the rebounds Howard is.

Now with Howard whining about his experience in L.A., the Lakers are reportedly considering trading him at the deadline, now less than a month away. So, despite comments, public and private, about the Lopez, the speculation has begun again, as if they ever stopped: Brook Lopez and pieces for Dwight Howard.

Saturday, Howard Beck and Chris Broussard, following Kevin Pelton, believe the Nets will have to consider dealing Lopez for Howard. (Ten days ago, Ian O'Connor quoted a source who sounded a lot like a Nets executive this way,, "It's not as cut and dried as it was last year, when the feeling was go ahead and pretty much gut the team for Dwight, give up a bunch of draft picks and players and take back bad contracts." He didn't say they wouldn't entertain offers.)

Beck doesn't quote anyone in his story on Dwightmare IV Saturday but suggests, "They will also, most certainly, do everything possible to extract Howard from Los Angeles if the Lakers conclude he is no longer worth the trouble."

Broussard, on the other hand, tells Alan Hahn on ESPN Radio that he's been "told" that "at end of the day the Nets would do it", trade Lopez. In part, he says, it's about basketball, but it's also about Mikhail Prokhorov's desire to dominate the New York market.

"At the end of they day they would do," said Broussard three times. "They (presumably Nets insiders) say Prokhorov would do it. He's a better player than Brook. Beyond that, it's the star power. and Prokfhorov likes that. You bring Dwight Howard to Brooklyn, I think youve really got competition (with the Knicks)."

Bottom line for Broussard though is that the Lakers keep Howard and see what they can do in the off-season.

• Lopez Having Fine Season but Nets May Still Covet Howard - Howard Beck - New York Times
• Should the Lakers trade Dwight Howard? - Kevin Pelton - ESPN Insider
• Center of attention: Nets' Brook Lopez emerging after season of injuries and trade rumors - Colin Stephenson - Star-Ledger