Rumor: Dwight Howard prepared to sit out next season?

[Bombastic Jones]

I just want to know what Houston is thinking.  Why would they take multiple bad contracts and move their young assets for a great player, but one who 1) has shown he needs a strong supporting cast around him to win, 2) has a 99% chance of hitting the FA market next summer, and 3) appears to create A LOT of drama.

[esel1000]

I just want to know what Houston is thinking.  Why would they take multiple bad contracts and move their young assets for a great player, but one who 1) has shown he needs a strong supporting cast around him to win, 2) has a 99% chance of hitting the FA market next summer, and 3) appears to create A LOT of drama.

I don't think too many teams are gonna have the cap space to sign D12 next season anyway so his best bet would probably be to stay with the Rockets... They probably feel that McHale can get into his head as well haha

[Lord of Mikawa]

I just want to know what Houston is thinking.  Why would they take multiple bad contracts and move their young assets for a great player, but one who 1) has shown he needs a strong supporting cast around him to win, 2) has a 99% chance of hitting the FA market next summer, and 3) appears to create A LOT of drama.

I don't think too many teams are gonna have the cap space to sign D12 next season anyway so his best bet would probably be to stay with the Rockets... They probably feel that McHale can get into his head as well haha

I doubt McHale can contain him.

[manl_lui]

they should just trade him to a really crappy place for first round picks...

hell I'd trade him for Cousins and a pick. He'll hate it in Sac-Town, and you get a rising star and a pick.

[SHAQATTACK]

Howard is such a diva....   

nobudy but the Rockets seem to want to sink their franchise for a  1 year rental of Howard....   

Can't blame em

I hope he sits out ...too funny

[LooseCannon]

I just want to know what Houston is thinking.  Why would they take multiple bad contracts and move their young assets for a great player

It sounds like the Rockets are offering to either take back multiple bad contracts or give up a lot of young assets or an in-between package where you take back a bad contract and give up some young assets/picks, giving Orlando a lot of options. 

If you are Orlando, what do you prefer?

Assuming they can talk Howard into staying, if the Rockets take on some bad contracts, then they package them as trade ballast with the young assets they don't send to Orlando to bring back a big salary.  If they don't take on bad contracts, they will have cap space to lure a third player to join a Howard/Lin core.  If Lin plays well enough to be a third star, the Rockets could afford to bring in a max-contract guy because he will only be making a bit over $8m/year.

At the end of this, the Rockets will either have the opportunity to build a contender around Howard or they will have completely blown up the team and put themselves in position to draft a possible superstar in the lottery, but at least they won't be a mediocre team that is barely in or barely out of the playoffs.  For those who wanted Ainge to follow a "blow it up" plan with the Celtics, this should give you some idea of how much you need to wreck your team to get really bad.

[LarBrd33]

if Dwight hadn't been scared of his twitter following turning on him, he'd already be a Brooklyn Net.  Fact is, the public was starting to see through his garbage and started painting him as "the next LeBron"... Meanwhile, the Magic threatened to trade him to the highest bidder... so Dwight got spooked and opted in for his final year. 

Unfortunately for him... he just prolonged the same thing for another year... people still think he's a punk.

[indeedproceed]

But Houston?  If they take on all of Orlando's bad contracts as rumored, plus give up all their young players and draft picks, what is Howard left with?  A boat load of money, stuck on a roster with no realistic way to improve itself in the near future.  That sounds like a nightmare scenario if I was a star player.  He'd be better off staying in Orlando.

Allegedly Houston's offer is one bad contract, and one of their picks this past draft.

Although you'd have to think this also involves Patrick patterson and likely Chandler Parsons as well.

This is the report I was going on:

The Houston Rockets have reconstructed their trade proposal to the Orlando Magic for superstar center Dwight Howard, vowing to take back even more long-term salary from the Magic in hopes of convincing Orlando to consent to trade Howard directly to Houston, according to sources briefed on the trade talks.

Sources told ESPN.com the Rockets, after going ahead Friday with their plans to release starting power forward Luis Scola via the NBA's amnesty clause, are now able to absorb the contracts of Glen Davis, Jason Richardson and Chris Duhon -- in addition to offering Orlando various combinations of future first-round draft picks and players drafted in the first round by Houston last month -- to give the Magic an opportunity to wipe their payroll virtually clean for their post-Howard rebuilding effort.

General manager Daryl Morey is trying to construct a trade that will allow the Rockets to take back, in addition to Howard, multiple players from a group that includes Davis, Richardson, Duhon and Hedo Turkoglu. With Scola's three remaining seasons valued at roughly $21 million off the books, Houston will have increased flexibility to help the Magic shed salary. ...

Houston officials, though, have remained steadfast in their belief that, no matter what happens with Asik, no team in the running for Howard can offer a bigger menu of trade options to Orlando. Sources stressed that the Rockets are not prepared to trade all of the following assets just for Howard, but they're inviting the Magic to shed a significant amount of long-term salary while also likely shipping Kevin Martin, Patrick Patterson, Marcus Morris and Chandler Parsons to the Magic from their current roster to make the salary-cap math work.


The Rockets also have the draft rights to three players selected in last month's first round -- Jeremy Lamb, Royce White and Terrence Jones -- and, according to sources, are prepared to combine an asset or two from that group with future first-round picks they have stashed.

Houston, sources say, has also aggressively dangled a potential lottery pick acquired this week from Toronto in the Kyle Lowry deal.

If all of that is true, then the Houston roster is going to be very, very bad after any D12 trade.  Even if they retain a couple of their young pieces, there's no way that team makes the playoffs, meaning Dwight would be likely to bolt.

I was going from the David Aldridge report over the weekend, package was substantially less there.

[CelticAZ]

Whatever happened to a simple filing for a breech of contract?  Does the CBA preclude that?  It seems to me that the players contract must or should have a failure to perform clause.

I'm not a lawyer but boy Howard is sounding a lot like an egotistical, self-centered knucklehead.

[danglertx]

"Section 1.
General.
In addition to any other rights a Team or the NBA may have by contract (including but not limited to the rights set forth in paragraphs 9 and 16 of the Uniform Player Contract) or by law, when a player fails or refuses, without proper and reasonable cause or excuse, to render the services required by a Player Contract or this Agreement, or when a player is, for proper cause, suspended by his Team or the NBA in accordance with the terms of such Contract or this Agreement, the Current Base Compensation payable to the player for the year of the Contract during which such refusal or failure and/or suspension occurs may be reduced (or, in the case of a suspension, shall be reduced) by 1/110th of the player’s Base Compensation for each missed Exhibition, Regular Season or Playoff game."

Nowhere that I could find does the CBA state that a player may be denied a year's service under contract and fined.  It also doesn't state what amount, if any, would suffice to give a year's service under the CBA. 

I didn't take the time to go through the Uniform Player's Contract in detail but I do not believe your contract would carry over year after year.  All Orlando could do is fine/suspend him for cause.

[danglertx]

I've gone through the Uniform Player's Contract and a team's remedy for a player's refusal to render services is waivers and release.  Waiver amount to be set by NBA.  This does not preclude other legal remedies.  A player who refuses to render services is subject to discipline by the League.  I would assume this would be a lengthy suspension.

After further searching, that CBA is one of the worst written documents I've ever had to read, and another section says;

"Sec
tion 3. Withholding Services.
A player who withholds playing services called for by a Player Contract for more than thirty (30) days after the start of the last Season covered by his Player Contract shall be deemed not to have “complet[ed] his Player Contract by rendering the playing services called for thereunder.” Accordingly, such a player shall not be a Veteran Free Agent and shall not be entitled to negotiate or sign a Player Contract with any other professional basketball team unless and until the Team for which the player last played expressly agrees otherwise."

So, if Howard withheld services for more than 30days he would not be granted free agency.  How they would do the next season is unclear and poorly written.  For example, what if Howard held out for two months then completed the season.  What would his contract look like for the next season?  What if Orlando wouldn't agree to release him or sign him?  They should hire me.  They should hire me to rewrite and organize the entire CBA actually.