No Trade: Dwight Howard staying with Rockets past the trade deadline

Howard Beck:

Biggest loser: Houston - they made a lot of noise in the last week or so about wanting to move Dwight. He was incredibly available. I was hearing rumblings they would trade him for just about anything, just to clear out the air. Harden & Dwight haven't gotten along. Dwight is not real happy. He's a free agent. There wasn't interest in acquiring Dwight. Moving into his 30s & injury history, it made it difficult to move him. They're saddled with him for another couple of months.

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Sam Amick & Jeff Zillgitt

Sam: 3 weeks ago, it was how we want Dwight part of our future, potential for Howard-Harden-Durant trio was in the cards. Then this pivoted quickly. Dwight was available and they were aggressively shopping him. That high price leads to him not being moved.

Jeff: Dwight wants to be a FA. Unless there is a S&T, it doesn't behoove Dwight to do a S&T. He's not getting the 5th year or raises. Houston is going to lose him for nothing either way. You'd think at a certain point today they'd try to get something for him, even if a couple of 2nd round picks. That beats what you'll get for him this summer. I still think Dwight can be a good player for a team in the right situation. If he's not asked to be the 1st/2nd guy, maybe he's the 3rd guy, ...the old Dwight we'll never see but current Dwight is still pretty good.

Sam: This is the Rockets deciding their roster is not championship caliber. Dwight's past reputation hurts him a lot in terms the way this got viewed publicly. He's not a great fit for the style the Rockets play. Harden dominates the heck out of the ball. You do hear stuff behind the scenes he gets frustrated but all in all, he didn't go to the press and complain about his role and seemed to take the high road. For the 2nd half, he'll go out and compete.

Jeff: That's gonna be the tricky point. What is the line that Dwight has to walk this summer to find right team & right money?

Sam: It's universally believed he'll push for the max deal, especially with Dan Fegan as his agent. I don't know if there's a rude awakening on that front or if someone will cut that check. Roughly 19 of 30 teams will have $29M in cap space. That's a ton of money. That's having a ripple effect here.

Jeff: Even if not max, maybe near max, it'll still be good money. It'll look like he had what max money used to look like. That's good for someone Dwight's age & injury history.

Sam: I hope for Dwight's sake, these numbers will be huge regardless, but he needs to focus on where can I win game and be a healthy fit? It seems unlikely it's in Houston but who knows.

 

So, we won't pay Dwight, we won't pay DMo, we won't pay Parsons.

Yeah, uh, well, I guess we can win with rookies and cast offs then.

DD

 

Dwight does take the high road to be honest, and I hope that everybody talking about how Dwight and James get along great finally wakes up. Its not natural for one player to sacrifice a lot of his talent----while it doesn't translate to better results and the team can barely make the playoffs---and still be happy with his sacrifice. It would tick anybody off.

 

Go to bed, DD. You seem stressed.

 

I am PISSED OFF....

I have been a fan since 1972, and never have I felt the front office and organization was as clueless to building a winner as I do now.

They are NOT committed to winning - you don't get there by flipping you get there by developing, gaining chemistry and selectively adding.

This is sickening to me.....a realization that the Rockets are truly a cheap assed team with no intention of ever doing the right thing.

Morey is toast, he used to be able to get great trades, now he is being bent over like a $2 w**** on payday.

DD

 

I just don't understand this sacrifice Dwight and Harden have to make. There are enough possessions for everyone to be happy. These Ninjas are stubborn af.

 

Dwight Howard Stays in Houston

This is really a tragedy for the Houston fans as well as the organization. It looks as if we're not going to get anything for him when he opts out of his contract this summer. Lord help us!!

 

*DEEP BREATH*

breeeeeaaaathe.

 

I agree with DD but with this they will clear a lot of space this summer for a quick rebuild

 

DD wants to pay Howard 20+ mil per season? That's a poisonous contract that will hinder our flexibility for years. We are not winning with Dwight. Just cut our losses and rebuild with cap space and a 26 year old Harden.

 

I can't wait till Sam Dekker shows everyone he's on Adam Morrisons level.

 

In that case Morey should have traded Dwight even for a first rounder.
He didn't.
Instead he traded DMO. Kept Brewer and Jones and Lawson.
To save money and get a low first he can sell to naive fans as " unlimited potential" opportunity.
And dwight will leave for nothing.

Good job.

 

I really don't understand why they didn't trade Dwight.
He's got 1 foot out the door as it is and there's very little chance you can bring him back, he's said he's looking for the max. Getting anything back for him even a 2nd rounder is better than nothing at all.

They should have dumped Dwight and sat Trevor and James the remainder of the year. Keep their 1st rounder for the Lawson trade and use the cap room and 2 1sts plus 2nds to retool fast. Instead they are going to **** around and probably get in as the 8th seed now, lose their draft pick and get demolished by SAS or GSW.

Bravo Morey bravo

 

Lol bent over like a 2 dollar w**** on pay day

DD, most people outside of Rocket homers/Dmo lovers believe that the Rockets got great value for Dmo.

Rockets went all out this summer but you have a short memory apparently. We kept the team together, we paid Bev, Brew and KJ, we brought the same crew back. We took a chance on Lawson and gave up a 1st, we offered Smith a bigger contract that he signed for, we hard capped our selves so we could sign Harrell, we traded back for Smith too.

But what happened when Morey gave up his flexibility to keep the crew together? What team do we have right now? How much are we going to win with our current roster? uit fooling your self.

This roster gave up this season, the only chance to save the Rockets is through FA this year and everybody knows it. Don't get your feeling hurt because Morey wants to keep enough cap room to sign REAL difference makers.

We got good value for Dmo, its time to move along.

 

Should be fun watching which superstar can sabotage the other the most the rest of the season. Yay.

 

Same feeling...

I even want to smash my computer!!!

 

Most of those people don't watch the Rockets.
You know very well that for non fans there are often big misconceptions about how good a player is since they probably only watch him for at best 4 games in RS.

You can be a simple fan who doesn't love the soil that Dmo's foot steps on and think this trade is crap and the value is very bad.
A 17-22 pick? In a very bad draft?

 

Morey always keep flexibility in this trade.

And look at what a pathetic team he built for many years.

I lost my confidence on Morey.

 

I am committing seppuku

 

Woj says this "partnership" is over.

Are the Rockets done with Dwight Howard? Will there be a realistic effort to keep him?

Personally, professionally those two are not co-existing right now. Unless there is a detente between Harden & Howard over the last two months of the season, they can't bring those two back together. That'll be something they have to work through. It may be past the point of no return. Houston has to figure out is there a sign and trade possible this summer? One thing about the Rockets front office, they don't want to bring back bad contracts. They weren't gonna take back long term money. They'll take their chances of going back into free agency, still having James Harden to sell and build around.