Before he agreed to a deal with the Sixers on Friday night, Dwight Howard posted a message on his Twitter account indicating that he would be re-signing with the Lakers.
“I’m staying right where I belong,” Howard wrote. “Laker nation I love y’all. Purple and gold never gets old.”
A few minutes later, the tweet had been deleted, and a little later in the evening, Howard was set to join the 76ers. So what happened?
According to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, sources within the Lakers’ organization are adamant that they never put a formal offer on the table for Howard and that they discussed a “deal concept.” Howard, on the other hand, believe that if he agreed to the “deal concept,” the two sides had a deal.
As Haynes writes, Lakers management told Howard’s agent they had to consult with team ownership and get approval before making an official offer. The veteran center waited for almost an hour without hearing back, sources tell Haynes. Ultimately, the communication breakdown resulted in Howard preparing to head east for the 2020/21 season.
Here are a few more free agency notes and rumors from around the Western Conference:
- The Trail Blazers haven’t ruled out the possibility of re-signing Carmelo Anthony, even after lining up deals to acquire Robert Covington and Derrick Jones, tweets David Aldridge of The Athletic.
- The Rockets touched base with DeMarcus Cousins‘ camp today, a source told Kelly Iko of The Athletic (Twitter link). Iko’s report came before the team reached a deal with Christian Wood, so it’s not clear whether or not signing Cousins remains an option for Houston.
- Now that the Lakers aren’t an option for Tristan Thompson, the Clippers could emerge as a real possibility, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, who notes (via Twitter) that it’d be a chance for Thompson to reunite with Tyronn Lue.
- The Lakers and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope remain interested in getting a deal done, but will have to reach a compromise on salary, tweets Brad Turner of The Los Angeles Times. Caldwell-Pope is seeking a raise, while the Lakers won’t have a ton of wiggle room below their hard cap.
- The Celtics gave Enes Kanter a choice of being traded to either the Grizzlies or Trail Blazers in the deal that was completed earlier today, and Kanter chose Portland, a source tells Jared Weiss of The Athletic (Twitter link).
- Count the Timberwolves among the teams with interest in free agent big man Paul Millsap, according to Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News (Twitter link).
Cousins to the Mavs could be a huge steal and real possibility. Cuban is a great owner and I’m sure he’s in communications.
Cousins is DONE!
A steal ? Lmao. The last thing cuban wants is another injury prone big man.
Taking money without providing anything in return is kind of the definition of a steal.
That’s funny: Cuban being a great owner. Ask the women who used to work in his organization that.
Vlade and Carl are gone. Come on home big cuz.
It’s tough to know what to expect from Cousins.
Are you sure it’s not just obvious he will play less than 10 games and go on IR ?
I’m not sure he will just go down with a random injury before the preseason starts and miss the entire season again.
Maybe or maybe not, that would be the saddest news for the league this season.
Having said that at least DMC is one of the best centers to ever play the game, so at least he is a legend, no need to do anymore, when healthy he was easily a top 5 player in the league & an MVP candidate… that good, right?
Go on IR? Is he going to join the NFL?
Now that Harrell is gone. Be smart to bring in Thompson. Don’t overpay, he is not worth more than Woods. Clippers better show they are serious.
I can only think of one team that’s improved.. what are the knicks even doing?