Nets center Brook Lopez will be sidelined for the next two months or so with a stress fracture in his foot. But the impact of this injury could hurt the franchise for far longer.
Lopez has a stress fracture in the fifth metatarsal in his right foot. He'll have surgery on December 23 and, if all goes to plan, should be ready to play some time in February. His absence until then will hurt the Nets' record, certainly, but the team was almost certainly headed for the 2012 draft lottery even with a healthy center.
What the injury really hurts is Lopez-as-trade-bait. A foot injury like this one will raise the reddest of red flags with any team thinking of acquiring Lopez this season - think Yao Ming. The one big advantage the Nets held over the Lakers in the quest for Dwight Howard was the fact that Lopez, to this point in his career, had been far more durable than Andrew Bynum. Some may disagree, but I suspect general manager Billy King's chances of acquiring Howard decreased significantly with today's announcement.
And what if the Nets are unable to land Howard? It seems just as reasonable to suspect that Deron Williams will be a lot less amenable to a long-term deal if he spends this season watching potential assists bounce off the hands of Shelden Williams and Johan Petro. Williams could walk as a free agent or - worse - demand a trade in March.
In that scenario, both Williams and Howard could land with a team like Dallas... leaving the Nets to open their shiny new Brooklyn arena with a couple of lottery picks and very little proven talent.
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