Dwight Howard reportedly strongly considering Houston and Dallas

[pearljammer10]

Houston would be ridiculous with Howard. Howard would also have McHale as a coach, which can't hurt his post game.

Houston would be pretty ridiculous is right. A line up of:

Lin
Harden
Parsons
Asik
Howard

Is pretty stellar. Interior defense is absurd, harden gets to be the go to scorer and offensive option, parsons is great from 3, asik can hustle on the offensive boards an Howard might gain a bit of offensive insight from mchale.

[moiso]

I'd ask the Rockets for Donatas Motiejunas, Terrence Jones, and a 1st round pick for Pierce. Motiejunas has the talent to be a very good scorer as a stretch 4/5. Doc would play him 40 minutes a night.

Jeeez!!! Rockets get the steal of the decade

steal of the decade for basically a salary dump? Really? We get what is in essence 3 1st round picks for a player who's going to get cut either by us or the rockets. What do you expect to get for Pierce? They aren't trading for him to keep him on the roster. His name may as well be Shavlik Randolph or DJ White at this point. It's the contract they are trading for.

So they can reroute Pierce to the Lakers for DH?

So they can cut him before June 30th and clear enough cap space to sign Howard.

Would that even work? Pierce keeps 5 million on the books even if he's waived. Those contracts don't add up to $1 do they?

I think the Rockets need to move Asik or Lin, or a bigger haul of the mid-1st assets they've gotten together to make it worthwhile.

If they were to deal us Asik for Pierce what prospects would you want to make it worthwhile?

I might do that straight up if the salaries matched.  I really like Asik.

[WeMadeIt17]

If i were Houston I would then move Asik for maybe future picks and a good 6th man. They would be really good adding Dwight with Harden, and the shooter they have on that team.

[ItStaysYang]

Interesting.

For some reason, I don't see him going to Houston. I think the Rockets are pretty set and if anything, they would need Josh Smith more than DH to play the 4 with Asik at the 5 and Harden at the 3.

Houston is anything BUT set. Morey made the team in a way that would allow him to get Dwight for a duo with Harden. With Harden+Howard, Houston is a contender. (I like the all "h"s)

Also, reportedly, Morey has quietly asked around to assess the trade value of Asik and Lin.  That's a no-brainer, since they are the only big contracts other than Harden on the roster, so at least one might have to be included in a trade, depending on how their cap situation shakes out and what other transactions they might do.

Any deal that Howard is part of, Morey can afford to give up everything. Why else has he compiled so many young assets? Youngest team in the league, and full of good talent. DMo, Lin, Asik, Robinson, Parsons, Beverley, Brooks, Jones, Smith, Garcia... everyone's up for trade.

Edited. Please don't attack other posters personally. Either contribute to the conversation or stay out.

- Kiorrik

[ManUp]

I would never say another bad word about Dwight if he left the Lakers. They'd be headed for a tough rebuild with little to no assets with out him. Sounds great to me

[Kiorrik]

I think Dwight Howard makes the Rockets a contender.

Yup. Howard and Harden together would be nasty. Plus unlike D'Antoni and Van Gundy, I think Kevin McHale would be a coach that Dwight would look up to and listen to.

I think McHale is the x-factor here

Could we land Lin somehow with these player movements happening? Pretty solid backup PG :] (unless he makes ridiculous money ofc. I don't know his contract atm. He did get his payday, didn't he?)

[bfrombleacher]

I think Dwight Howard makes the Rockets a contender.

Yup. Howard and Harden together would be nasty. Plus unlike D'Antoni and Van Gundy, I think Kevin McHale would be a coach that Dwight would look up to and listen to.

I think McHale is the x-factor here

Could we land Lin somehow with these player movements happening? Pretty solid backup PG :] (unless he makes ridiculous money ofc. I don't know his contract atm. He did get his payday, didn't he?)

I believe he makes ridiculous money.

[Kiorrik]

I think Dwight Howard makes the Rockets a contender.

Yup. Howard and Harden together would be nasty. Plus unlike D'Antoni and Van Gundy, I think Kevin McHale would be a coach that Dwight would look up to and listen to.

I think McHale is the x-factor here

Could we land Lin somehow with these player movements happening? Pretty solid backup PG :] (unless he makes ridiculous money ofc. I don't know his contract atm. He did get his payday, didn't he?)

I believe he makes ridiculous money.

Pity that.

[Moranis]

With this information I see Dallas and Houston moving to the top of the list of trading for Pierce (then releasing him to clear money).

Sure. But how? They'd have to trade for Pierce before June 30, which means they need to send salary back to Boston.

Who does Houston send? Dallas we've already discussed (Marion would need to exercise his option early, somehow, for starters).

With Dallas you make a valid point.Tp

For Houston they were $6 MM under the cap. Which means they only need to send $6 MM back to us. So Thomas Robinson Delfino and a pick would work. Greg Smith, Chandler Parsons, Terrence Jones or Royce White could all be added if that wasn't enough value for Pierce.

PS-I'm not sure if you can trade someone with only a team option for next year. Delfino has a 3 MM team option for next year. Would Houston need to pick up that option to move him?

Howard wants to play with Asik.  He won't be traded.  I don't think they would trade Lin either and clearly wouldn't move Harden.  anyone else would obviously be fair game.

Where did you hear this?

it was in one of the articles on it.  maybe ESPN or CNNSI.

[Onslaught]

I would never say another bad word about Dwight if he left the Lakers. They'd be headed for a tough rebuild with little to no assets with out him. Sounds great to me

And yet somehow they would pull something off in a year or two and be back on top again.

[SHAQATTACK]

Most of Laker faithful are blowing it all off as hype that he could sign elsewhere.....but a few posts I've seen are hoping he actually leaves , so the Lakers can start fresh with new system, coach , and non -Kobe era.

[indeedproceed]

POI, Marion's cutoff date to exercise his ETO is also 6/30, so that shouldn't be a hurdle.

[Chris]

I might have posted this idea elsewhere before, I forget, but I think if Howard does want to go to Houston, there is a scenario where the C's could get in on that deal in a way that could help them gain some interesting assets going forward.

Something along the lines of:

Houston gets: Howard

Boston gets: Asik, Robinson, Artest

LA gets: KG, Pierce

Why Houston does it is simple. 

Why the Lakers do it, is to basically make one run this year with an incredibly old, but actually intriguingly well fit core of Nash/Kobe/Pierce/KG/Gasol, before blowing it up to lure Lebron next summer. 

Why the C's do it, is to get a very talented and productive young center, who is signed for a reasonable contract in Asik, and a talented young PF who is coming off a disappointing rookie year, but still has a ton of talent, and was a slow starter in college as well, and could just need time to transition to the NBA game.  And, they would just immediately buy out Artest.

Its not the most thrilling trade in the world, but it would at least provide the framework that could at least be interesting. 

[BleedGreen1989]

I might have posted this idea elsewhere before, I forget, but I think if Howard does want to go to Houston, there is a scenario where the C's could get in on that deal in a way that could help them gain some interesting assets going forward.

Something along the lines of:

Houston gets: Howard

Boston gets: Asik, Robinson, Artest

LA gets: KG, Pierce

Why Houston does it is simple. 

Why the Lakers do it, is to basically make one run this year with an incredibly old, but actually intriguingly well fit core of Nash/Kobe/Pierce/KG/Gasol, before blowing it up to lure Lebron next summer. 

Why the C's do it, is to get a very talented and productive young center, who is signed for a reasonable contract in Asik, and a talented young PF who is coming off a disappointing rookie year, but still has a ton of talent, and was a slow starter in college as well, and could just need time to transition to the NBA game.  And, they would just immediately buy out Artest.

Its not the most thrilling trade in the world, but it would at least provide the framework that could at least be interesting.

I think Houston would need to give up more than just Asik+Robinson to land Dwight. Likely at least a 1st rounder

[Chris]

I might have posted this idea elsewhere before, I forget, but I think if Howard does want to go to Houston, there is a scenario where the C's could get in on that deal in a way that could help them gain some interesting assets going forward.

Something along the lines of:

Houston gets: Howard

Boston gets: Asik, Robinson, Artest

LA gets: KG, Pierce

Why Houston does it is simple. 

Why the Lakers do it, is to basically make one run this year with an incredibly old, but actually intriguingly well fit core of Nash/Kobe/Pierce/KG/Gasol, before blowing it up to lure Lebron next summer. 

Why the C's do it, is to get a very talented and productive young center, who is signed for a reasonable contract in Asik, and a talented young PF who is coming off a disappointing rookie year, but still has a ton of talent, and was a slow starter in college as well, and could just need time to transition to the NBA game.  And, they would just immediately buy out Artest.

Its not the most thrilling trade in the world, but it would at least provide the framework that could at least be interesting.

I think Houston would need to give up more than just Asik+Robinson to land Dwight. Likely at least a 1st rounder

Yeah, there would be room for sweeteners and other adjustments.  But I think the framework would be something like that.

But let's also remember, the Lakers don't have much leverage here.  Howard can just walk for nothing.  If the Lakers can turn him into two Hall of Famers to help Kobe's potential swan song season, then thats not a terrible haul.