Dwight Howard Aware That Houston Has Become More Attractive

I completely agree.

Dwight Howard is immature, unsophisticated, unfocused, and just flat out unstable. The ongoing Dwight Howard media circus is just embarrassing to watch and I really do wish that NBA sports media would focus on interesting and/or fresh subject matter.

An investment in Dwight Howard, the basketball player is ultimately an investment in Dwight Howard, the human being. Daryl Morey gets that. Look at Houston's core players. These guys are all well-grounded, hard-working professionals. You win with guys like that. I always say that you win with winners and you lose with losers, and I realize that this sounds cheesy, but damn it, it's the truth. And it's true in all industries, not just in sports. Character matters, and it matters a lot.

For these reasons, I believe that Daryl Morey has zero interest in acquiring Dwight Howard this summer and is ultimately focused on creating the best possible landing spot for Lebron James, who will be a free agent in the summer of 2014 and who will likely be skeptical about the chances of ongoing championship runs with a poorly managed Miami Heat organization that has zero good young assets (besides maybe Mario Chalmers) and zero hope of getting out of the salary cap/luxury tax hell that Pat Riley foolishly created for his employer by handing out bloated long term deals to various veteran mediocrities who were well past their prime (e.g., Mike Miller, Udonis Haslem).

Since the trick is to continue to stockpile desirable assets, and to try to win now, while simultaneously positioning for a run at Lebron in the summer of 2014, Houston may look to add a relatively expensive but very good veteran whose contract expires that summer. Shawn Marion is one name that jumps out to me but there are a few others. Dallas is clearly more interested in $9.3 mil in cap space than in paying Shawn Marion $9.3 mil in 2013-14, so Marion can likely be acquired very easily. Marcin Gortat's contract expires that summer (summer of 2014), as well, so there's another guy who makes sense. Other big name/big money guys whose contracts expire at the end of the 2013-14 season include: Luol Deng, Danny Granger, Andrei Kirilenko, Pau Gasol, Spencer Hawes.

Marion is probably the most easy-to-acquire name, in my opinion (i.e., Houston would have to give up less to get him than whatever they'd probably have to give up in order to get any of the other dudes listed). I think that Houston could get involved in a three-way deal, wherein Dallas acquires a big name guy (e.g., Eric Gordon), the mystery team (e.g., New Orleans) acquires Patrick Patterson, one or two Dallas draft picks, and one or two expiring contracts of current Mavericks players, and Houston acquires Marion. Something along those lines. Stay tuned; trade deadline is five and a half days away!

 

Yep... Just like Lamar Odom

 

Howard to Houston

Daryl Morey knows whats up, he couldnt speak about it on First take this morning

 

if Dwight is traded to Houston we instantly get better, plus he will sign the extension

 

Assuming he is healthy and assuming we don't have to gut our roster to make it happen. Of course neither of those are safe assumptions.

 

Got me

 

Asik/Jones/ and Motiejunas will land us Dwight

 

IMO Dwight isn't worth that much.

 

The most I'd give up for Howard would be Asik, Patterson, and Aldrich. Even then it would be risky because we wouldn't know if Howard would be healthy and how he's going to age since he is almost entirely reliant on his athleticism which is one of the first things to fade with age.

 

yes is he to the poster above me Aldrich is a scrub, and Dwight is a 3time DPOY

 

Of course Aldrich is a scrub, why would I give the Lakers anything good besides Asik? The Rockets could sign Howard as a FA and give up nothing. You'd be doing the Lakers a favor trading for him at all.

 

how would we get Josh Smith with both Asik's and Howard's contract on the books. We would have to trade Asik if we want Josh Smith as a free agent

 

Dwight's not gonna get traded anywhere before the deadline. If he gets traded, it will be in the offseason, after he's made known his intentions regarding where he wants to play. Happy to make a tip jar bet on that.

 

It would be really impressive if the Rox can keep Asik and get Superman.

Howard is still Dreamy... and I'm not talking about a Dwightmare

 

Well if you get Howard, you can't afford Smith, plus like I said, you'd have to trade Asik to get Howard in the first place so you wouldn't have both contracts. The Rockets would no longer have room for a max contract if they got Howard, another reason it would be so risky.

 

So you think he'll get traded as a FA? Bold prediction.

 

Sign and trade if at all. He could very well sign outright with a team in the offseason. But my money is on him resigning in LA because they can offer him the most money. Regardless, he ain't being dealt before the deadline. Just my opinion.

 

Happens all the time. Sign-and-trade. Little known fact, LeBron and Bosh were both actually TRADED to Miami.

 

No one would want to do a sign and trade when they could sign him outright. I think there is right around a 0% chance he stays in the dumpster fire that is LA when he has a chance to get out.

 

Not every team is allowed to do sign and trades anymore and those that are would have to give up more for him to make the money work, I don't see it happening and if it did, it certainly wouldn't be to come here.