[CBS Sports] Howard no lock for Lakers; interested in Rockets

What people need to remember this isn't the Jerry Buss Lakers.

That they hired D'Antoni over Jackson, when Phil wanted the job, tells you all you need to know. Not only did they not hire Jackson, they threw him under the bus as well.

If I was Howard I wouldn't want to play for D'Antoni either.

However, I just don't see Howard telling Kobe and the Lakers he's leaving. Howard to me is also more about attention than winning. Where else is he going to get more attention than in L.A.?

I also think that deep down, as much as Howard wants to be THE man, he knows he's not the man at crunch time. When you can't make free throws with the game on the line in the last two minutes, how can you be the main man?

Kobe was thinking about retiring before his injury.
The Lakers are old, breaking down, and even if they were all healthy, they're not good enough to make a deep run in the playoffs. They also don't have any assets to trade to upgrade the team.

I think Howard sees all of this, but does he have the guts to walk away from the history of L.A. to actually go to a place where he improves his chances of winning a title? To me I just don't see him doing this, but I guess we'll find out come July.

 

That was a cpl weeks ago.

One of the more odd things, is that Dwight wants Jim Buss/D'antoni out and Jeanie/Phil in, that's almost the perfect "convenient excuse". Just think about what it's asking

That's indication that he wants the owner to sack himself and hand it over to someone else.

And the chances of that is....

 

I'm already lukewarm on Howard and hearing him grousing again doesn't make it better. It seems likely that he's as likely to complain about how he's used as a Rocket as he is as a Laker -- because the problem is probably his expectations, not D'Antoni.

It'll be funny if after a season of Howard slowly deciding that he should move to Houston to have Morey swing a big trade on opening day for someone no one ever suspected and left Howard out in the cold.

 

Ok so I was going to post the comment on twitter where Rudolph talked about Dwights main priority is winning. But there was just too many tweets.... but that goes against what most here think.
If thats true you can bet (barring any big moves from LA) He will be a rocket. Said he actually lost endorsement money when he went to LA.

He also sates in the interview that Howard loves the PNR, and isnt against it. He just wants to include post ups, and the PNR not "Only" be the High PNR...which in his opinion was even higher then normal cause nash lost a step. (needed more room to make a move)

He gushed over the idea of Harden and Howards PNR game together. Also, gushed over the idea of Mchale coaching him and teaching him a few post moves. Rudolph favorited my tweet where I said:

Jarrod N Rudolph favorited your Tweets
14hJRudolphSports @ericpincus absolutely! Harden top 5 in PNR with asik (butter fingers) pnr w/ dh12 ... SCARY!


Basically already knows all of the selling points we want to make. So you can guarantee that Cyberx scoop was correct, and there has been conversations. Harden has got his ear...He knew about the sales tax, the PNR useage, our ability to add even more talent...etc ...etc

In short:
Trust Doc Rocket and Cyberx they have been alluding to this since last year.

 

Well the someone else is his sister who Dr Buss should have left in charge anyway....

 

The perfect system for Dwight is PnR right into a low block post-up. I think he would be unstoppable. Watched him this last season go into the low block and get ignored by Kobe all the time. (Don't understand that about Kobe. Great player. Why not throw the ball to Dwight when he is 4 foot away from the rim with a defender on his back?)

In Houston I think Dwight gets to the rim almost at will on the pick and roll and if they overplay it either Harden burns them at the rim or Dwight gets that little rolling hook going.

If the Lakers lose Dwight they can only blame themselves for not integrating him properly. Free throw misses or not, he's not a bad enough free throw shooter to justify going away from him. And he's too good of a finisher deep, even if his post game is severely lacking. And as we saw in the Orlando game, I think he shot like 37 free throws, he'll get in a rhythm and hit them at an efficient enough rate to make the strategy useless. If a big guy hits free throws at a 60% clip when he is intentionally being fouled, it's a loser strategy for the opponent. The combination of foul count and the scoring efficiency of 60% makes it not worth while. On top of that, you put him on our team and Harden is the one taking those drives down at the end and getting on the line. They'll be throwing the ball up for the flush and the And 1 to Dwight or the opponent will have to foul him before he catches.

Personally I think the Lakers screwed up big time and I think it's gonna bite them on the fanny. You can't expect Dwight Howard to be your Omer Asik, just the guy doing all the dirty work on the defensive end and using him as a garbage man offensively. For all his shortcomings, Dwight is much better than that.

 

Jeanie doesn't know jack **** about basketball, she really doesn't, great at business and marketing though.

The inevitable conclusion of that is that the Lakers would have become by de facto Phil Jackson acting as owner.

So I can understand why Jerry didn't want that, Mitch doesn't want that, Jim doesn't want that, and though they may not know it, Lakers fans don't want that (His whole zen thing might work great for coaching, but attachment is not suited to the front office).

 

You mean Harden and Beverly don't you...? If we get Harden it's possibly only a matter of time before Asik and Lin are moved.

Harden, Asik, Lin, and Howard would count around $54 million of the cap. That's too damn much... Somebody (or some bodies) got to go...

 

I dont think Lin is going ANYWHERE...morey is smart and knows his potential.

8 mil for a starting PG is not bad.

 

First off I don't know her so I can't claim what she knows are doesn't know...

And I would take a chance on Phil running my organization (if I had one) any day... Why da hell not... He probably wouldn't do any worst than McHale did in Minnesota. So like I said _ Dr Buss left the wrong kid in charge because his boy is F'n up... Steve Nash is 75 years old and has 2 years left on his contract...Lol..

 

Lin is going to be a free agent in two years and if he keeps improving he's going to get PAID $$$ Rockets want be able to afford to keep him when he becomes a free agent. A team out there will offer him a Godfather contract like Morey did...

 

fixed

 

Fixed again...smh..

 

Everything about Lin, Asik, and Parsons next contract comes from what first happens this July 1st. If Howard signs with Houston it changes everything.... possibly for the better, and allows them to keep everyone even if it means going over the lux tax. The Rockets will hold the bird rights for all three players, and will have the ability to keep all of them long term if they wish.

However, if Howard does not sign in Houston, I wouldn't be too worried about the Rockets going over the lux tax in 2015 to re-sign Asik & Lin because most likely, their targets after Howard will come in trade. At that point if they are trying to trade for someone like Kevin Love, DMC, or LMA, I would think that they will be moving around contracts like Jeremy Lin to get the deals done anyways making this a moot point.

I guess we just have to wait and see what happens July 1st before we really can tell what is going to happen with Jeremy Lin, Parsons, and Omer Asik in free agency.

 

How much attention will the Lakers get though if they're not contending for a title every year? Nobody cared about the franchise back in the early 90's post-Magic and pre-Lake Show(the Van Exel/Eddie Jones team which was eventually joined by Shaq). And aside from some brilliant individual play by Kobe, were they getting any buzz between 2004-2008 before the Grizzlies handed them Pau Gasol?

Shoot, even this past year most of the headlines the Lakers got were about what was wrong with them or if they'd be able to sneak into the playoffs despite being picked by many to be the Western Conference champs before the season started. Is that what Dwight wants to endure for the next few years as the organization tries to rebuild?

 

not likely...morey is too smart to let him go.

Either we have howard and an elite team and go over the cap to keep him...or we trade him. Were not losing him.

We are one of the few teams that has an owner that will overpay to win.

 

How many times have you sat down and had a conversation with Jeanie about basketball to come to this conclusion? Strange you would make that claim when you have nothing to base that conclusion on.

BTW, her brother is looking more and more like he knows nothing about basketball. Hiring MDA or PJ, really?

 

sign howard... trade him for love...

 

Yah dont forget signing Howard is a no brainer for a million reasons...

you gotta understand if we sing him and we cant make it work with our team. You can trade him to nearly any team for nearly any player.

Like Howard for Griffin and Jordan or Howard for Love or Howard for DMC and Howard for... regardless of what you think about him as a player and a fit. If you can accquire him as a free agent. You freakin do it.