It might be enough, but I can guarantee you it won't be the best available offer. Most teams, competitive or not, would gut their core to get Dwight Howard. Our core is not that strong.
You'd have to sign-and-trade Yao, and those contracts have to be at least 3 years long. Do you think Orlando wants a 3-year contract with a broken foot? The deal would be infinitely more appealing if Yao is not associated with it.
i posted this in the dish thread on dwight as well, but here's my 2 cents. regarding dwight howard and the magic, here are a few assumptions i am comfortable making: 1. dwight will not resign with them in 2012, 2011 will be his last year in ORL 2. the magic will trade dwight during the 2011-2012 season 3. stan van gundy will be fired 4. dwight definitely seeks to join a contender 5. dwight is certainly intrigued by the knicks' and lakers' talents 6. dwight wants to be the best player on which ever team he goes to 7. though it is unlikely to be a deciding factor in dwight's decision making, his very close relationship with stan van gundy must not be overlooked 8. the magic front office is crippled by the $34mil left on hedo turkoglu's contract over the next 3 years (gilbert arenas' contract is also an albatross, too big it'd be hard to move it) 9. jason richardson's expiring provides some relief, they won't resign him 10. dwight respects yao and wishes his offensive attack was anywhere close to yao's arsenal the magic are inevitably heading into rebuilding mode. they would want to gain young players with upside, cap relief, draft picks, and a solid 20ppg go to guy to make the rebuilding years easier on the eyes with a few wins here and there. if dwight howard is the rockets' main target, and i'm not saying he should be, but if he is, hiring stan van gundy certainly wouldn't hurt our chances, and it certainly wouldn't make us frontrunners, but it certainly makes us an interesting option for dwight. i think this is the best the rockets can do with what they have: hire stan van gundy hire an assistant coach with a proven record of improving elite big men resign yao to a vet's minimum resign chuck hayes get commitments from carroll dawson and hakeem to contribute to dwight's development if he joins the rockets DRAFT DAY: trade the 23rd pick, the high 2nd rd pick from LAC, MEM 2013 1st rd pick (lottery protected, but looks like the grizz won't be in the lottery for awhile), and cash for a TOP 7 2011 pick (teams will look to trade out of this weak draft). use that pick to draft a player generally perceived to be a potential franchise player (think derrick favors). this player would preferably be a C or SG, but any position works really. let's call him player X. draft jordan hamilton at 14 and keep him. some time in december/january, as the trade deadline approaches and after the NBA sees the potential player X has, offer orlando the following trade: ORL receives: (approx 25mil) player X luis scola chase budinger OR courtney lee (lee makes it a better offer, but i'd rather keep him) jordan hill hasheem thabeet OR brad miller (whichever ORL prefers) NYK 2012 1st rd pick (this pick looks better now after the sweep, and inherently NOT trading dwight to NYK keeps it better) HOU 2014 1st rd pick HOU receives: (approx 27mil) dwight howard hedo turkoglu magic post-trade roster: nelson - arenas player X - redick - budinger/lee budinger/lee - q rich scola - bass - hill anderson - thabeet/miller - hill rockets post-trade roster: lowry - dragic martin - lee/budinger - twill turkoglu - hamilton - twill hayes - patterson howard - miller/thabeet considering we'd take turkoglu's huge contract off their hands, and considering the package offered includes 1 proven core player, 1 promising franchise player, 3 young upside players, and 2 1st rd draft picks, i feel orlando simply has to say yes to this deal. i doubt there would be better offers out there. this one does it all. for the rockets, they get the franchise player AND defensive center they wanted, in the form of the giant one superman player, and hedo turkoglu (the SF upgrade so many rockets fans want to see) provides much needed playoff experience to this roster. he is a spot up shooter who, when not creating his own shot, would work perfectly with lowry. hamilton would ease in behind turkoglu without being forced into the starting lineup. plus, with miller backing up dwight, turkoglu and miller can keep a structure for the adelman offense to live on even without adelman. OH AND WE DONT HAVE TO GIVE UP MARTIN. yay. the only really difficult part of this plan is trading up into the top5/top7 of this year's draft. other than that, i believe this is a completely realistic and workable plan. this is the team i want to see.
i feel that those pieces would be more than enough to entice orlando. taking back hedo (arenas maybe, but once again his contract is so hard to move) is a huge plus as well.
Sure we can get Dwight Howard. Then we will go get Kobe. Then LeBron. And why not Dwayne Wade while we're at it?
No, I want Howard+Nelson for Yao, none else. Oh, wait, Yao is not under the contract w/ the Rockets. dumb thread
