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After the Joe Johnson trade, a follow up deal for Dwight Howard would be exceptionally tricky. Brook Lopez would have to be involved and would be BYC. Known as Base Year Compensation, it has been mainly done away with under the new CBA, but is still intact on S&T’s from teams that will be over the cap when sign and trading their Bird Rights free agents to deals that are at least 20% greater in salary then the last year of their old contract. The player’s outgoing salary winds up counting as only 50% of the first year of the contract as his incoming salary for salary matching purposes, while still having full value to the receiving team. So say Lopez is resigned on a deal starting at $11 million. He would count as $11 million for Orlando in incoming salary, but would only count as $5.5 million for the Nets.

A trade right now for Dwight Howard is easiest done as a 3 or 4 team deal involving a team under the cap.

But if it were a straight up deal, Kris Humphries in a sign and trade and/or Gerald Wallace in the same fashion would need to be instituted in a complicated multi player deal.

In short, if the Brooklyn Nets are to still trade for Dwight Howard, chances are this isn’t happening until sometime during the season.

Although it would be fantastic for the Nets to be able to put all this behind them now, this might be the best case for all parties.

The Nets get to see how Dwight is coming along on his back surgery rehab. The Magic see Brook Lopez back in action on a good team.

The Magic are able to continue working on perspective deals and can possibly find a better return on a rental, but likely will either be able to find a third team to give them the assets they pine for in exchange for any of the Nets assets, headlined by Brook Lopez on a large contract, who they are widely reported to have little interest in rostering. This could very well work in Brooklyn’s favor as well, when the realization is finally discovered, or at least accepted, that if they want any type of solid value for their franchise center, they are going to have to deal with Brooklyn in some shape or form, as long as Howard keeps to his demands.

To sum things up, the Dwightmare isn’t nearly over for the Brooklyn Nets or their fans. Many lost hours of sleep and unproductive stretches at work seem destined to remain on the horizon.
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