Article: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8872264/lakers ASSUMING DWIGHT SIGNS LONG TERM. Big risk would be him not ever getting back to form rather than him not resigning. Also Dwight being a diva is an obvious risk (cancer possibilities). Let me say my first reaction was HELL NO. Then I started thinking. Dwight has been iffy, which can be put on 3 things: Injury, Pressure and Kobe Bryant. No way to know which is doing the most damage, but it is definitely 1 or more of those things. Dwight though in 2009 led a pretty bad Magic team to the finals, you combine him and Harden and you have a monsterous team. Essentially this trade would be upgrading Asik to Dwight at the cost of Parsons/Jones (both I think Morey can replace fairly easy, finding these types of players is his specialty). A 2009 Dwight + Harden will lead the Rockets to a title in my opinion, as annoying as Dwight has been, the sheer athletic talent is hard to deny + you give him the Rocket's staff who have been known to help big men, he could become a force. SO WOULD YOU DO IT?
That makes it too easy, everyone says yes then. The Lakers will want Parsons, they have Nash they don't need Lin.
Have you seen Nash play? And they don't really have a back up PG (Blake being injured constantly). They have lots of problems. I imagine they would need Parsons in the trade but Lin might be appeasing to them in some regards.
I think it's the team's overall fault more so than Nash's play. Nash's play requires spacing. Dwight and Pau together clog the lanes horribly, which makes Nash look worse. Replace Dwight with Parsons and the Lakers will look a lot better, I think.
Here's one for the age's. Super complex trade, but hell it sure works for everyone. http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ahs46cu (See trade machine details for role players getting moved for roster spots, & salary purposes) Houston roster- C: Howard, Smith, Zeller PF: Patterson, Morris, D-Mo, Jones, White, SF: Parsons SG: Harden, Anderson PG: Lin, Beverly, Douglas, D. Morris Lakers Roster- C: Gortat, Sacre PF: Frye, Hill, Beasley, Clark SF: World Peace, Defino, Johnson, Ebanks SG: Kobe, Meeks PG: Nash, Blake, Duhon Suns Roster- C: Asik, Aldrich, O'neal PF: Gasol, Scola, Jamison, Morris SF: Dudley SG: Brown, Tucker PG: Dragic, Marshall, Telfair, Garrett ................................................................................................. Only team that doesn't have a clear upgrade is the Lakers, but they get a glut of great depth, and a replacement center who has flourished with Nash before in the past. I think this is definitely a "Who says No" trade scenario where everyone wins... assuming LA is thinking of moving Howard. However, if they are all-in on D'Antoni, this is a D'Antoni dream offense. You have shooters everywhere, and a really nice P&R big in the middle, and alot of these players know his system very well. For Phoenix, Gasol and Asik together make them very interesting next year, especially if they can make another move in the offseason to bring in a quality wing player. Dont see why at this point they wouldn't get excited about this deal. For Houston, its a no-brainer. Asik would have been relegated to a bench player a good majority of the game, and you needed to move a big salary to make this deal anyways. You make this deal, and you still get to keep your other core young players in tact as well. Solid A+ trade for Morey assuming Howard re-signs. Oh, and yes I am 100% sure Howard re-signs in Houston after this deal.
Anybody who would say no to having Dwight in Houston are ridiculous. If you can get Howard at a remotely reasonable price, you do it 1000 times out of 1000.
Pau and Dwight for Gortat, trash contracts (Beasley and Frye), and expirings? Am I missing something?
http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=8872411&s=espn Tom Penn had a great break down of the Lakers' cap situation on ESPNRadio today. If the Lakers keep their current roster they would owe $85 million in luxury tax. They have to get rid of Pau or Dwight, and Dwight could leave this summer.
I think it's more likely that we'd keep one of Delfino or Parsons if making a deal for Howard. Most likely Delfino since they'd want Parsons? We could send Asik/ Patterson/ Parsons/ Douglas for Howard.
Honestly, I don't see any deal being done without those 2 included. Unless your replacing Asik with Lin.
Laker's problem is having two top 10 big men who can't play together. I doubt trading both anywhere in their line of thinking. For much worse players in return on top of it. They could probably get more than that for Howard alone.
Lakers give the most and get the least. Rockets give the least and get the most. In a David Stern world this would never happen. Also Lakers will look to move Pau OR Dwight because they are blocking each other, to move both doesn't really make sense for them.
