Bold Move: Dwight Howard, Josh Smith. Kevin Martin and Kyle Lowry?

Everyone is waiting for the summer of 2012, to sign and trade for Dwight Howard, but, I think the only real way we sign Howard is if he doesn't agree to a sign and trade this summer.

Orlando has no chance of re-signing Dwight according to his latest comments. He wants a championship team, but they lost in the first round, are riddled with bad contracts and have no 1st round pick this year. Basically, there’s no chance of turning that mess around in one year and they know it.

So they may decide to do the smart thing and cut their losses. They’d be forced to trade him unsigned and take pennies on the dollar. Even pennies on the dollar would force us to take Turkoglu’s contract and give up a bevy of picks and young players, though. Orlando would only lose Howard, which is inevitable, but they’d clear a horrible contract and have a decent haul of potential to start their rebuild. The tough part would be selling the move to their fans.

For salary purposes, we’d have to wait until after July 1st (for Scola’s BYC to expire) and turn the Battier TPE into a $7M player with an expiring contract (so we could use the $7M in a trade without the normal TPE limitations), but we could then match Howard and Turkoglu’s salaries without trading Martin or Lowry.

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That’s $16M in cap room, a solid vet, lots of young talent, a possible lottery pick and another first round pick for a guy that is walking away for nothing in 12 months anyway. I think Orlando has to take that, but if they want more we could throw in their choice of Chase Budinger, Goran Dragic, Sergio Lull, Terrence Williams, and/or Jordan Hill.


We’d be left with (if they took the original deal):

Lowry/Dragic
Martin/Lee
Bud/T-Will
Patterson/Chuck
Howard/Hill/Yao?

and Lull and whoever we get at 38 this year.


We'd then have Howard for one year (maybe two if he picks up his 2012 option due to a hard cap). In this year we'd have to prove to him that Houston is the place for him to re-sign in 2012 (or 2013).


Trading for Josh Smith would then probably fall into place after the Howard deal. He’d pressure the Hawks, the situation would come to a head and they’d eventually fold and trade him to us cheaply (maybe T-Will, Hill, Lull and the Knicks 2012 pick).


This would be the ultimate bold move. We’d literally be left with nothing if Howard didn’t re-sign, but with (a) a championship caliber team (b) a coach players, especially big men, seem to love (c) a great FO (d) Olajuwon tutoring year-round (e) his buddies J. Smith and C. Lee on the team and some Houston Fortune 100 ad deals he'd be crazy not to stay.

Then again, if he walks we're back to where we're at now.

Thoughts?

 

Your displeasure has been noted.

 

Did you read the first part? This is actually a very good deal for Orlando considering their current situation. Our trade could obviously be topped by numerous other teams, but who besides the Lakers rents Dwight Howard for a year banking on the fact that he won't leave them at the alter?

 

Typo that's the 23rd this year.

 

That'd be an excellent deal, but that's contingent on a sign and trade. Hopefully Dwight wants to keep his 2012 options open until 2012.

Basically, I want to rent him for a year and try and get the inside track on the 2012 free-for-all (if you didn't already get my point).

 

No doubt they could do that, but would LA or NJ put themselves out for rejection like that?

If we wait for 2012 to move, the big-city lights are going to shine right through us. We have to gain an advantage before that somehow.

 

No way the Wolves, Jazz, Bucks, Grizzlies, etc. trade that much when they KNOW they'll be rejected.

The Lakers, Knicks, Nets may make the same play, but hopefully their arrogance leads them to bet on getting him for free as a free agent. I mean do the Lakers give up Pau and Odom without Dwight committing for more than a year?

 

TLR

1. This scenario is contingent on Dwight Howard firmly refusing to sign an extension before 2012 (which is in line with his recent statements).

2. We trade a huge portion of our assets to Orlando for a one year RENTAL and hopes of re-signing him in 2012.