Today is Friday, which means decision day for Dwight Howard may finally be here. Or it may not be. Various reports this week have indicated Howard would like to announce his decision today, but at least as many reports have suggested an announcement may not come until later in the weekend. Considering how indecisive Howard has been in the past, resolution today is far from a sure thing, but we at least seem to be nearing the final stages of a saga that's been playing out for the last couple years.
The big Howard story yesterday had the Warriors exploring the possibility of clearing cap space to sign D12 outright. It certainly wouldn't be easy, and there's no guarantee the big man will choose the Warriors anyway, but here's the latest on Golden State's efforts, and the rest of today's Howard rumors:
- The Warriors, Lakers, and Rockets appear to be the three teams left standing for Howard, according to Sam Amick of USA Today, who says the events of the last 24 hours have sent "strong signs" to the Mavericks and Hawks that they're out of the running. Meanwhile, a source tells Amick that the Warriors have been given indications that the Rockets are the "strong favorite" to land Howard.
- Multiple teams involved in the race for Howard fear that the Rockets will be the winners, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
Earlier updates:
Will Dwight, Rondo, Ellis or Nash be traded? link to waiverwireblog.com…
We didn’t hurt our chances whatsoever. A fair trade would be Bynum for Howard straight up. They won’t get anything better.
Agree
Injury prone Bynum with character and work ethic issues? and no 1st round picks? No thanks.
Agreed your nuts if were trading the best center in the NBA for a straight up player and no draft picks. Think of the package New Orleans got for Chris Paul that’s exactly what the Magic should be looking for period.
They can look all they want but this late in the game they won’t get it. They blew it last season. They should have tried to trade him instead of changing his mind. Now that everyone in the world knows Dwight wants out, and worse case scenario is that he stays in purgatory for another season before hitting free agency, no team in their right mind will give away the farm for 1 season of SuperHam when they can just sign him next offseason.
The only thing DH has going for him is the new collective bargaining agreement.
Our GM isn’t a fool though like Otis Smith ;) hence why Dwight hasn’t been traded yet because Rob wants to get the right package whether its a 3 or 4 team deal he’s gonna make sure the Magic’s future going forward is the best it can be which means young talent , draft picks and cap space its as simple as that.
Character and work ethic issues? Are you sure this isn’t Dwight Howard?
The man who realistically got Stan Van and Otis Smith fired, the man who took hostage of a team, and “demanded” to be traded, BUT only to Brooklyn.
But sure Magic fans, take Brooklyn’s trade, I’m sure Brook Lopez is going to be a dominant Center in the league for years to come.
Truth is, If the Magic are really looking for someone who is as close to Dwight’s equal as possible, that man is Andrew Bynum. This past year we saw Bynum emerge as the real deal, now I know he doesn’t bring the “Star Power” that Dwight brings, but if Dwight is #1, then Andrew is 1A.
He’s leaving no matter what, better get whatever you can in return for him, before this turns into a LBJ scenario, and your left with NOTHING.
Lakers still have their 2014 First Round Pick.
You can’t trade future back-to-back first-rounders though, so the Lakers wouldn’t be able to include that pick in a trade unless they acquired another 2013 or 2014 first-rounder.
— Luke
Are you sure that it’s not just trading back to back picks to the same team? Either way I think that should be allowed. This whole not trading back to back picks is stupid it stops team from being able to trade for super stars.
Its a great rule. It helps the smaller market teams
Agreed
Hadn’t heard of that rule before but its nice to know. Thanks wasn’t aware you couldn’t.
lakers have a draft pick in this century? how did that happen.
This is why i think Dallas is the underdog here, they have 1st rd picks, expiring and non guaranteed contracts and can take on a bad contract like Jrich or Turk
Bynum might just be the guy to feed off the “bad” he got in LA at such a young age. He seems to take Dwight to the cleaners every time they were matched against each other. Now, if the Magic got BOTH Gasol and Bynum for Howard, THAT would be the money shot! I don’t believe the Lakers, after getting Nash to speed things up, will trade for Howard, who slows any offense down to a slow crawl, throwing everyone’s rhythm off, turning it over, less than 50% at the free throw line, disappearing at the end of close games, getting into early foul trouble, and being the league’s #1 whiner, team divider, ego maniacal, phony and hypocrite. It’s ALL about him. And there ain’t much there to begin with. He’d put an end to “showtime” and turn it into “choke-time.” Klang, another missed free throw. Oh, the humanity! You read it here first! And I used to be his biggest fan!!
Howard should have a Bravo TV reality show based on his trade/free agency/trade theatrics , Thursdays at 8:00pm
Why would the Warriors give up so much in a sign and trade? That seems ridiculous considering their choices are nothing or whatever the Warriors would be willing to give up. I could see Bogut and a first round pick MAYBE, but Barnes, Curry or Thompson would just be stupid.
Well you have to consider the Lakers position in all this. Remember they don’t have to do a sign and trade if they don’t want to. Lets just look at your proposal of Bogut and a first round pick. Bogut is a very good center who is often injured and the pick will be a very low first rounder. If the Lakers would to accept a package of something like that they will pay Bogut’s salary and also the luxury tax penalty of around 2 dollars per dollar over the cap. The Lakers would essentially be paying something along the lines of 45 million or more for a sign and trade and in your scenario they will only receive a very late first rounder (mind that those are often sold by many teams every year for a couple of mill). See for the Lakers it wouldn’t be beneficial to make this trade without getting at the very least two of Barnes, Thompson or a COUPLE of first round picks. They would rather have Howard go to Dallas/Houston for free and enjoy the cap space next year that they will have than pay 45+ mill next year all for a late first round pick.
Sorry for the lengthy post…
That would be stupid to give up both those guys. Don’t do it.
If they can get out from under Bogut, Jefferson, and Biedrins, it wouldn’t be the worst thing to give up the lesser of Thompson or Barnes and a future (top 20 protected?) first.
I can’t imagine they’d be willing to give up both guys; I don’t know that Howard is worth that even without factoring salaries.