If Prokhorov met with Howard, Nets Future could be in Jeopardy

If Mikhail Prokhorov broke the rules and met with Dwight Howard, then it’s not just that Howard will never be a Net, even if that idea was something of a stretch to begin with.

If Prokhorov met with Orlando’s superstar big man in Miami the other night and the NBA has a watertight case of tampering against the Nets owner, then he probably just killed any chance of re-signing Deron Williams.

Short of burning down the Barclays Center, we can’t think of a worse thing Prokhorov could do when it comes to undermining his chances of getting Williams to agree to move to Brooklyn.

Williams is saying all the right things about staying long-term with the Nets. But if the team is penalized because its owner and GM brazenly flouted the rules by meeting with a player who currently is property of another team, then the Nets are looking at losing several No. 1 draft picks, at the very least.