He makes about 5M this year and has a player option for another 5M next year.
He's still putting up 13/9 in about 25 minutes a game, and even with all the drama that's going on in Washington, you have to give Howard credit for staying out of trouble and just doing his thing on the court this season.
But here's the thing, Horford (as much as I love him) has been extremely underwhelming so far, and Baynes has been okay for a rotational big but that's about it. And I don't think people realize how screwed we are if one of the two go down to injury for a decent amount of time. As much as we'd all love to see Robert Williams get playing time and to "get his feet wet" on the court... I don't think we realistically can expect him to be an impactful big for us, at least this season.
Anthony Davis is 100% not coming here this season (Rose Rule), and I'm not sure if there's really another center out there who could really help us via trade or in the buyout market. Meanwhile, Howard could be an underrated get.
I'm also real sick of us giving up rebounds in critical possessions LATE in the game (like we saw in the Hornets game too). I think Howard could help us in that regard, or at least be a much better help than Horford/Baynes currently.
And if Horford doesn't like it, then Ainge and the coaches should tell him he needs to do better on the court himself, period. It could be a low-risk and attainable acquisition for us (given his salary and contract situation too), and frankly although I'm not panicking, we ARE reaching that point where we might have to think outside the box a bit and maybe even look for help outside the organization.
Washington is having a fire sale, and obviously as we're seeing in the threads to the right, folks are making the case for Beal or Porter, but I'd argue Howard is the guy who makes sense given our needs and trade price/contract situation.
Sure, we absolutely can help ourselves out by shooting better, playing smarter as a team and easing Hayward into the starting lineup (in an ideal situation), but I do think we need help at the center position and our depth there is a lot thinner than most people realize.
SIDE NOTE: Howard does have a trade restriction so he can't be traded until after 12/15