Time to trade Mason Plumlee?

Steve Lichtenstein of WFAN offers a proposal likely to be highly unpopular with Nets fans --and the front office: Sell high and trade Mason Plumlee.  The proposal has particular relevance Monday as the Kings come to Brooklyn. Brooklyn and Sacramento have been engaged in trade talks for weeks, with the Kings reportedly refusing to budge off a demand that the 24-year-old center be included ... and the Nets being just as adamant that won't trade him.

Lichtenstein thinks Plumlee should not be seen as "untouchable," that if you want to move and really rebuild, you have to be willing to give up something.

"You see," Lichtenstein writes, "these teams don’t want the Nets’ brittle, overpriced and underachieving anvils. Not without the Nets sweetening the pot to include their younger assets.

"Like Plumlee."

He also suggests that Plumlee has a number of flaws that alone should eliminate the "untouchable" label.

This recent stretch may be Plumlee’s ceiling. For all the talk of Plumlee’s youth, he is 24 years old, not 21. Lopez, a seven-year veteran, is less than two years older.

And the limitations in Plumlee’s game may be just who he is. For all the heavy training Plumlee did in the offseason with the U.S. Men’s National Team to prepare for the FIBA World Cup, he is still far from Hakeem Olajuwon.

Any shot further than a few inches from the rim remains a challenge for Plumlee. His career shooting percentage from beyond three feet is 36.8 percent, per basketball-reference.com.

Lichtenstein's argument is likely to fall on deaf ears in East Rutherford, where the Nets front offices remain. Plumlee, after all, is a fan favorite at a time when most of his teammates are not very popular.

• Sell High — Nets’ Mason Plumlee Is Not Untouchable - Steve Lichtenstein - WFAN