THURSDAY, 8:31am: Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer classifies the Bobcats' interest in Howard as no more than "exploratory" at the moment.
WEDNESDAY, 6:18pm: It's a little surprising that Josh Howard remains on the free agent market this late in the offseason, considering the 32-year-old former All-Star started three out of four playoff games for the Jazz this spring. Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports hears that Howard, a native of Winston-Salem, N.C., has been working out with the Bobcats this week, and is also drawing interest from the Knicks and Bulls (Twitter link).
Aside from the draft, the Bobcats have done little to upgrade the roster that compiled the league's all-time worst winning percentage last season, with Ramon Sessions as the team's only veteran signee. They have about $2MM in cap room available, so Howard's salary could fit into that space. The Knicks would only be able to offer the veteran's minimum, which for Howard, a nine-year vet, would be about $1.229MM. The Bulls seem the unlikeliest team of the three to land Howard, since the team is under a hard cap this year and doesn't even have room to add anyone at the minimum. They'd have to swing a trade to free up the space to bring Howard aboard.
Injuries have plagued Howard after the Mavs traded him to the Wizards midway through the 2009/10 season. He's played in only 65 regular season games since, and averaged 8.7 points and 3.7 rebounds in 23.0 minutes per game last season, with a 10.5 PER. Those numbers are well off his career highs of 19.9 PPG, 7.0 RPG and 36.3 MPG, all established in 2007/08.