[Good Read] James Harden-Dwight Howard Combo Would Put Entire NBA on Notice

Harden's already shown he's capable of changing his game to fit with star teammates.

 

The fact of the matter is Dwight is getting ready to sign with someone, either the Lakers or another team for at least 4 seasons or more. So, he's going to have to coexist. This is his moment. He'll make his decision and he'll live with the results. Whoever he signs with he knows he's stuck. Because the reality is he won't be able to screw a team to trade him. The worse he screws up the less appeal he has to other teams. Besides that if he signs with LA and then 7 months or so later regrets and tries to get a trade done the NBA is going to disallow it. That's attempting to circumvent.

So Dwight knows he's stuck for a few years with this decision. He's gonna pick his team and then he's gonna play. That's it. He'll have to coexist with the other players and the coaches and the front office. Because if he doesn't, he has no chance to win, and he lowers his trade value and makes it impossible to move him. Or worse yet, he performs like crap and gets traded to Toronto or Milwaukee or some other NBA Siberian team.

Dwight cannot be given a no-trade clause.

That's huge when you consider the question of whether or not he is going to really play and mesh. When Dwight makes his decision to sign it's going to be with the understanding of who the coach is, who the front office is, what players are on the team, and what the system is. The more unknowns there are in that formula the greater the likelihood he won't sign with that team.

The unknowns with the Lakers are obvious. First of all, endure a season of mediocrity with no chance to win a ring. Then after that, he gets to play with an old Kobe and he gets to wait and see if the Lakers can sign somebody else. He's also got a coach who has a system that the old players can't play. That's why Dwight wanted out of Orlando in the first place. He had no superstars to play with and the roster was loaded with mediocre players. Dwight was wanting to be traded to a winning situation in Brooklyn with DWIll before he was forced to write off his opt out at the trade deadline last season.

Here's the knows in Houston:

1. He's already got a young superstar perimeter guy on a fixed contract to play with.

2. If he signs here, he can compete for a championship next year even if nothing else happens.

3. He's surrounded by young, talented guys. He'd actually be the old man on the team.

4. And this is the kicker......once he signs, there will be other superstars (KLove, CP3, DWill, etc.) who will be looking at the team in Houston and trying to figure out how to become the 3rd big piece. Those guys will recognize the opportunity and 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 of them will be trying to figure out how to get a trade done to get them to Houston to play with James and Dwight. Dwight doesn't have that in LA. He's stuck with an old Kobe and trying to recruit somebody to play with him in 2014/15.

I think Dwight and Fegans know that Lebron ain't com'n to LA in 2014. And if Lebron is staying in Miami, then Wade and Bosh are staying unless they don't in it this year and one of them gets traded this off season. (Not likely).

How are any of these guys going to play for a ring? Well, they're gonna have to build it in the West to face Miami in the Finals. And OKC ain't gonna take on a 3rd superstar. Clippers have screwed the pooch overpaying for Deandre. Warriors have no cap room and their trade assets aren't as desirable as ours are. San Antonio is old. Dirk is almost done. Nobody there for the future to grow with. It remains to be seen what the Hornets do, it'll be 2-3 years before we'll know if they got a great base. Minny?? Rubio and Love hold some potential intrigue as does Portland with Aldridge and Damian. Are either of those combos better than Harden/Dwight???? Are any of those combos with Dwight better than James, Dwight, and another superstar like Paul, Love, DWill???

If Dwight signs here it will be because he wants to win. We won't have to worry about him fitting in. We'll have to worry about his health but not him fitting in.

 

Good post.

My argument on the money side of things is that if Howard has an ounce of faith in himself and his ability to play basketball, he'll believe that when his contract is up at age 31 he will still have one more big contract coming to close out his career. So truthfully, he's not missing out on $30M. Obviously, injuries can derail a career faster than you can say Yaoza, but it isn't as likely as in a sport like football for example. If he cares about the basketball side of things, he will leave LA. Houston would probably be the best available option with the cap room to sign him, and he and Harden would fit like a glove.

The wild card in all of this is Kobe. If the Kobe-Dwight drama is really as bad as the media has led us to believe, then how can Dwight possibly remain in LA? Kobe isn't going anywhere. Lakers fans would go nuts if ownership let Kobe go, so they are tied to him until he's ready to retire. With the money they also gave to Steve Nash, the chances of them signing another big time player to pair with Dwight within the next 2-3 years is fairly slim. Sure, they'd have the amnesty available to them, but I just don't see them ever using it on Kobe.

We'll see what happens. I'm excited to see how it plays out.

 

I forgot to also so in my post above that with the difference in the tax rates between California and Texas, the living expenses, and the millionaire tax, the amount Dwight is missing out on drops to significantly less than the $30M reported. I bet if anything it might be a difference of $10-15M at most and if he does remain healthy, he won't be missing out on any money with the contract he'll receive at the end of his contract with us.

The money is WAY overplayed in these situations, IMO. But like I said, we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

 

Just do the opposite of whatever Bleacher Report ever says, then you'll have a winning team in no time.

 

You're right about the situation in Houston but in LA Kobe is still pretty good for a while. They still have Nash, MWP and Gasol. If they could get some chemistry going they aren't bad.

After these old guys, they could always recruit stars because it's the Lakers, they do get preferential treatments and players like to play there.

But you're right, it must suck for Dwight to contemplate playing two to three more years with Kobe da Dick.