The more stories I read about Dwight and the more quotes he gives make me want him less and less. It's sad that the players have this much control nowadays. He's backing Orlando into a corner much like Lebron did with Cleveland, so they are forced to make horrible trades in order to try and win it all to keep them happy.
If these guys would let the management slowly build the core of the team (like Durant in OKC), then they would have an exciting team for years to come. Granted Smith is certainly no Presti and has often times looked more like Isaiah.
The thing is, Orlando and Cleveland both had plenty of time to build a legit team around their star. In fact both teams made the NBA finals and then decided to tinker with the lineup they had rather than making smart long term basketball decisions. Neither team made it back to the finals after the tinkering began and both blew lottery picks right the drafts after they landed their star. Cleveland took Luke Jackson in 2004 and didn't have the lottery pick in 2005 from a 1997 trade. Orlando took Fran Vasquez (who never played in the NBA) in 2005 and then did ok with JJ Redick in 2006. Cleveland also had that debacle with Boozer after James' rookie year.
If you were James and Howard and you witnessed terrible move after terrible move, what would you do? How many years do you have to give a franchise before you realize they don't know what they are doing and look to move on to brighter pastures? Now at least Orlando brought in a new basketball man before Howard's contract is up. Perhaps this new guy will show Howard he knows what he is doing and convince him that things are different now, but he has a lot of work to do.
You can't let James off the hook for what went on in Cleveland. He didn't want them to build a winner around him, he was always in "win now" mode and kept pressing for immediate help.
All great players want to win and win now, it isn't James' fault the Cavs totally blew it. They made awful move after awful move. Their drafts were terrible. Free agent signings were even worse and the trades were terrible. You can be in win now mode and not totally blow it.
To add to this, it's not the players fault because they have little leverage to demand anything in the first place (during the non-contract years).
Dwight has leverage now because he's in a contract year, Carmelo had leverage because he was in a contract year, etc. But what excuse did the GM have for terrible moves before the contract year? A player with 2-3 years left on his contract is demanding a trade? He can sulk, but you can make him play out his contract too. None of these mega stars are going to sit out or sulk too much, because their image is worth too much.
So let Dwight and LeBron demand help in non-contract years all they want. You only really have to make them happy during that contract year. Sure Dwight was probably happy in 2007 when the Magic signed Rashard Lewis, he was probably happy in 2009 when they traded for Vince Carter, but I'd bet he'd be happier now if they didn't make those moves and instead waited using cap room and trading young assets to sign or trade for Chris Paul or Deron or Carmelo or maybe one a couple of the many minor stars (Gerald Wallace, Stephen Jackson, Zach Randolph, Lamar Odom, etc.) that have been traded since.
Remember when Kobe wanted the Lakers to trade Andrew Bynum for Jason Kidd in '07? I really think about 90% of GM's would have made that trade to appease their star and win now (and I think this is what happened with a lot of the Magic and Cavs moves over the past few years). Hey a proven All-Star for an unproven 2nd year player and I make my franchise player happy too? Done! (Although, I wish that trade did happen because I doubt the Kobe/Kidd tandem would have 2 rings). Your the GM, you need to a have vision for the future, not just the current season. Your star will quickly forget how unhappy he was before if you're winning and the future looks bright in his contract year.
