A report from RealGM's Jarrod Rudolph that Billy King continues to pursue his options for the Brooklyn Nets to acquire Dwight Howard has been denied by an unnamed source that spoke with Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.

Any trade the Nets may make for Howard would almost certainly include Brook Lopez, who has been having an All-Star caliber season. The Nets previously used Lopez in trade talks for Howard before ultimately agreeing to a max contract last offseason.

Rudolph reported that Nets general manager Billy King will not be as active in his pursuit of a trade for Howard as he was previously, but that he will continue to monitor the situation.

ESPN's Ian O'Connor reported last week that the Nets have lessened their desire to acquire Howard.

"It's not as cut and dried as it was last year," one NBA official familiar with the thinking of Nets management told O'Connor, "when the feeling was go ahead and pretty much gut the team for Dwight, give up a bunch of draft picks and players and take back bad contracts. That feeling isn't there anymore."