As the world awaits the outcome of the "Dwightmare" that is the Dwight Howard free agency rumors, all signs seem to be suggesting that Howard's time with the Los Angeles Lakers is all but done.
Previous reports indicated that Howard was intrigued by the idea of playing for either the Dallas Mavericks or Houston Rockets due to the pieces they currently already have on their roster.
Howard's likely thinking about the future and signing with the Lakers will surely ensure another difficult season for Howard in the future. In the summer of 2014, while other stars will become free agents, the Lakers would only have Howard and Steve Nash under contract and will likely be in the process of rebuilding for the 2014-15 season.
The Mavericks have recently formulated a plan to rid themselves of their No. 13 pick in this year's NBA Draft with the hopes of luring Howard from the Lakers.
The best case scenario for the Mavericks is that they'll land Howard for next season and have him playing alongside Dirk Nowitzki, Vince Carter and Shawn Marion as the team's core for the season. They would have only the $2.5-million exception plus veteran-minimum contracts left with which to build the rest of the roster, although they do plan on making a strong run at retaining Brandan Wright.
As for the Rockets, they plan to offer a sign-and-trade to the Lakers which will ship Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin to Los Angeles in exchange for Howard.
The Rockets will have the cap space to sign Howard outright after the expected shedding of Thomas Robinson's contract, but sources say that the Rockets will certainly attempt to convince the Lakers to take in return Asik and Lin in a sign-and-trade deal for Howard, thus theoretically keeping alive the possibility that Houston could preserve its cap space to pursue Chris Paul and possibly pair Howard with Paul.
With either team Howard is sure to be the recipient of plenty of benefits, being that either Texas team at this point would save him a substantial amount of cash by paying no state income tax, which early estimates are suggesting could reach $10 million over four years.
Still, when dealing with Howard, who knows what could happen.
Howard was recently spotted at a Beverly Hills restaurant Tuesday night during the NBA Finals Game 6 between the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat.
According to TMZ, Howard wasn't interested in the game and when asked why he wasn't watching, he was very clear with his reasoning.
"I'm not watching ... I'm not playing so ain't no need to be [watching]."
He added, "I don't want to see nobody win a championship."
Related Articles:
