ORLANDO, Fla. — The Nets acquired their opening night center Wednesday.
It just wasn’t Dwight Howard.
After months of speculation surrounding Brook Lopez’s future, the 7-foot center signed a four-year, $61 million contract to remain with the team yesterday.
“Brook Lopez is one of the top young centers in the NBA,” Nets general manager Billy King said in a statement. “We have witnessed his growth as a player over the past four years, and are very pleased that he will remain in a Nets uniform as we begin our new era in Brooklyn.”
The move officially puts the Nets out of the running to acquire Howard until Jan. 15, and brings back the team’s longest-tenured player in Lopez. The 24-year-old has career averages of 17.4 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in 251 career games since he was selected by the Nets with the 10th overall pick in the 2008 draft.
Lopez is coming off a difficult 2011-12 season in which he played in just five games because of a broken foot and subsequent ankle injury, and also was forced to deal with the constant swirl of Howard rumors. But even in that limited duty, Lopez showed what he’s capable of when playing with Deron Williams, particularly with a 38-point explosion in Dallas on Feb. 28.
Now that Lopez has been locked up, he is one of the four core pieces — with Williams, Joe Johnson and Gerald Wallace — the Nets will build around for the next few seasons.
“I think that’s always been my mindset, that we’re going to move forward [with Lopez],” Nets coach Avery Johnson said before the signing became official. “One of the reasons I went and talked to Brook before free agency started at his basketball camp in New Jersey is because I believe in him and, until something changes, Brook Lopez is our center.
“Once we get that all resolved, I think it’s going to be good to have that behind us and start really getting ready for veterans’ camp in the fall.”
But Lopez’s re-signing does more than just ensure that he’ll be the team’s starting center when the Nets open Barclays Center in Brooklyn this fall. It also means the rest of the team’s offseason — which had been put on hold up because of the ongoing drama surrounding its pursuit of Howard — can now begin.
There’s still a decision to be made about Kris Humphries, who would have been included in any Howard trade for salary purposes. Humphries, who has started for the Nets at power forward for the past two seasons, averaging a double-double each year, hopes to land a multi-year deal.
The Nets also had hoped to re-sign Gerald Green, but the Post’s Peter Vecsey tweeted last night Green had reached a deal with the Pacers. They could also execute a sign-and-trade using some of their other unsigned free agents to bring in a higher-priced player to bolster their bench.
But Lopez’s re-signing also means promising young guard MarShon Brooks will almost certainly be on the roster when the season begins, instead of being a piece in any trade for Howard. Brooks, who is here playing on the Nets’ summer league team, said he was happy to have the ever-present speculation surrounding him end.
“Yeah, I’m happy. I like playing for Brooklyn,” he said. “This is my team. It’s all I know. Honestly, I’m just happy it’s over with. I’m tired of watching SportsCenter and seeing my name with a different team every day. I wouldn’t say it was bothering me, but it was getting old.”