it's gonna be easy for conspiracy theorists to claim that Orlando got a flagrantly better deal and turned it down just to help the Lakers...

the fact is that that in hindsight it may have been a better deal...but the fact was that Orlando held out on that deal...partially to see if it would get better, but also partially because that is exactly where Dwight wanted to go...in their same conference to add to it..

and yes... they had reservations about being obligated to maxx out Lopez and over pay for Humphries to keep them...because if you don't keep them, you got nothing for Howard...

that ship sailed because Orlando had reservations about that deal..

this deal honestly became the only other deal they could get. Dwight was only gonna re-up with Brooklyn...and the only team that was in a position to trade for him without him agreeing to re-up before hand was the Lakers...

that left the Lakers as the only destination choice..

sure the reasoning may have been bad.......but in the end they had no choice....

if they take that deal and Lopez continues to get hurt and/or turns into just and average center that you're paying maxx money too.... that would have destroyed their franchise potentionally...

there was risk to the Nets deal....in hindsight it may have been better than the Laker deal..but it had risks.