Hey everyone, I wanted to introduce myself, first off. I'm Houston born and raised and love the Clutchfans forum. The members here are incredibly insightful and on point about the topics discussed. Without hopefully coming across as a self-promoter, I wanted to post a bit of an article I wrote last week for SLAM Magazine Online about Dwight Howard's prospects in the Western Conference. (Yes, I include the Rockets in the mix. How could I not?) Hope you check it out and like it. I will provide a link if you want to see the rest but don't want to flood the thread. (In the future, if it's best to just post it all in here, let me know. Don't want to take people away from the site.) Thanks. “Go West, young man, and grow up with the country.” -John B. L. Soule- History, as they say, repeats itself. In the NBA, we are currently experiencing basketball’s equivalent of reverse Manifest Destiny, where generals in the East are gathering together and forming elite battalions in order to take what they deem to be rightfully theirs, the Larry O’Brien Trophy. It’s why Dwight Howard, who is alone on the island in Orlando, must heed the advice of history makers before him. What General Howard needs to realize is that there is no more Magic in Orlando. One superstar can’t win on his own. Jordan, Bird, Magic, Kobe, Duncan, and Wade all know this. LeBron DEFINITELY knows this, as we came to see with his “Decision.” The only star in the last twenty years to have won a title without an elite player beside him was Hakeem Olajuwon with the Houston Rockets, and he was able to do so because he had a freakish amount of role players to help with Sam Cassell, Mario Elie, Vernon Maxwell, and Robert Horry being a few who stepped up. The Magic’s supporting cast is not quite as good at coming through in the clutch as the ’94 Rockets were, in case you haven’t noticed. Here's the rest of the article.
Nice article. My thoughts are: A) I've seen virtually no one in the media take into account probable effects of the incoming CBA: 1) If there is a hard cap, if it is set at $75M or lower and an Allan Houston rule is brought back for transition purposes, the Lakers are going to be cut off at the knees. Kobe-Pau-Bynum combined are due almost $60M next year. I can't fathom how they could adjust that $93M payroll to a hard cap and still have the means to chase Howard. 2) Stern has made more of a point about killing defections a la Bosh and James....but I have to believe he's just as troubled by the recent Melo Drama and the current chatter about Howard. Small markets are leading this CBA front, and they want an end to these situations. Not sure what might be done about it, but it's conceivable Stern may look to make a move to squash the possibility of Howard forcing his way out. B) Ric Bucher's been saying that Howard's wish list (which as we've seen carries most of the weight) is: Knicks, Nets, Lakers, Mavs. That he wants to play next to a fellow All-NBAer, and that his ideal situation is for the Magic to rope in Paul or Williams. In fact he may not be very high on the Lakers at all, given Kobe's age and historical disinclination to share the glory. To me, that probably cuts out the Rockets (no star) and Spurs (age). I think the mention of the Blazers and Thunder is pretty interesting. I think he'd love playing with Durant. Not sure how the Blazers could swing an acceptable trade for Howard and still keep Aldridge, though. Thunder don't have many blue chip trade prospects if they keep both Durant and Westbrook, but maybe Westbrook would have to go no matter what - a hard cap would make it impossible to sign him to a big deal down the line. Westbrook, Harden, Perkins, and picks would be a steep price....but I think both teams might consider it.
