Orlando Magic & LA Lakers Pushing To Make Dwight Howard Trade Happen

Lakers making Dwight Howard push?

ESPN.com news services

The Los Angeles Lakers are making a renewed push to acquire All-Star center Dwight Howard and are meeting with Orlando Magic officials Tuesday, Yahoo! Sports reported.

Yahoo! Sports reports that the Lakers want a commitment from Howard that he will agree to a contract extension before they agree to a trade with the Magic.
The Lakers and Magic have been in talks over Howard for the past week or so, sources told ESPN The Magazine's Chris Broussard, but nothing is imminent.
Also, a source familiar with the Lakers' interest in Howard told ESPNLosAngeles.com's Dave McMenamin that the dialogue between Los Angeles and Orlando is "ongoing" but right now a trade would be "very tough to pull off."
Howard had demanded a trade to the Nets, but talks broke down between the Nets and Orlando last week. Magic GM Rob Hennigan called Howard last week to see if he would consider giving the GM's new regime a chance, but Howard rebuffed the overtures.

Howard has said he would agree to sign an extension with only one team, and sources have said that team is the Nets.

The Houston Rockets also made a new proposal to the Magic for Howard last weekend and are willing to take on long-term salary commitments from Orlando if they land Howard in Houston.


Last week, sources told ESPN.com that the Rockets and Lakers had discussed a multitude of trade scenarios with the Magic. In those talks, the Rockets were offering to serve both as the team that would acquire Howard in a direct trade between the clubs and also as a third team that would participate in a trade that lands Howard with the Lakers and brings All-Star center Andrew Bynum to Houston.

Sources have said that Hennigan might feel more comfortable taking back a package of youngsters, recent draftees and future first-round draft picks -- while shedding some long-term salary as well -- than taking on Bynum as Howard's replacement and facing a similar challenge in persuading him to commit to the franchise long-term like the Magic have dealt with for months with Howard.
Both Howard and Bynum will be in the final seasons of their current contracts.

Cavaliers in Dwight Howard talks

By Ric Bucher | ESPN The Magazine
Updated: July 18, 2012, 7:20 PM ET



The Cleveland Cavaliers may have inched ahead of the Houston Rockets as a facilitator in a potential trade that would send Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers, sources said Wednesday.

One source familiar with the talks, though, cautioned not to make too much of that shift just yet.

The Cavaliers would land Lakers center Andrew Bynum for a package of draft picks and veteran power forward Anderson Varejao, according to one league source. The Lakers would receive Howard for Bynum. Orlando would get Varejao and draft picks. The source said this was merely the framework of a deal being discussed.

Cavaliers general manager Chris Grant was in Las Vegas watching summer-league action but made an unplanned return to Cleveland, sources say, and is not expected to return. In the frenzy of anticipating if, when and where Howard might be dealt, such otherwise innocuous events have been enough to inspire massive speculation that a deal is near.
The Lakers have engaged both the Rockets and Cavaliers in their attempt to land Howard, sources say, because those two teams have both interest in acquiring Bynum, and have the requisite salary-cap room to accept larger player salaries than they send out in a deal.


The complicating point for any deal to be completed, sources say, is whether Bynum and Howard agree to extensions with their next team. Sources close to Howard say that as of now, after mistakenly depriving himself of free agency this summer by opting into the final year of his deal with the Magic, he has no intention of doing so again.

ESPNLosAngeles.com reported the Lakers remain committed to pursuing Howard even without assurances he'd sign a long-term extension with the club.
The Rockets have had Howard at the top of their wish list for months and have made moves to pursue him, from collecting first-round picks in the draft to using the amnesty clause on Luis Scola.

Agent: Howard won't sign extension

By Ric Bucher | ESPN The Magazine

Updated: July 20, 2012, 10:56 AM ET

The agent for Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard refuted reports that his client has decided he will sign an extension with the Los Angeles Lakers -- if traded to them.
"Dwight's position has remained unchanged since the end of this past season," said Dan Fegan of LaGardere Unlimited. "He fully intends to explore free agency at the end of next season, regardless of what team trades for him, including Brooklyn."

A source said the Nets never insisted Howard commit to an extension as a prerequisite for acquiring him, which Nets president Billy King confirmed in a text message.
Howard told the Magic, according to GM Rob Hennigan, he would like to be traded to the Brooklyn Nets above any other team. The Nets made concerted efforts to strike a deal for Howard earlier this month, but were forced to stop when the Charlotte Bobcats threatened to sign their restricted free agent center, Brook Lopez, to an offer sheet.
Lopez was expected to be a key part of any deal with the Magic and signing an offer sheet could have preempted including him in any deal, depending on the terms of the offer sheet. The Nets then signed Lopez to a four-year, $61 million deal.
Since then, the Lakers have become the primary suitor for Howard, recruiting both the Houston Rockets and Cleveland Cavaliers as potential third-team participants to deliver the salary relief, draft picks and young talent that Orlando is seeking in return for their All-Star center.
The longest Howard could sign an extension, according to ESPN Insider's Larry Coon, would be two years if he signed with Orlando and was traded, or three years if he signed after being traded.
If he waits until his current deal expires, Howard would be eligible to sign a new five-year deal for as much as $116.9 million.

It's getting to the point where I'm not sure if any team wants to deal with Howard's Drama...

so sick of this guy... It's just unreal. stfu and play basketball. If I was Orlando, I'd keep him and sit him at the end of the bench until the trade deadline has passed in '12-'13 and then play him the rest of the way.

Projecting a Howard-Bynum trade

How deal would affect 2012-13 win totals for Lakers, Cavaliers, Magic


By Bradford Doolittle | Basketball Prospectus
ESPN INSIDER

We've heard this song before: Dwight Howard might be on his way out of Orlando. The tenor of the speculation seems to shift by the hour, but, right now, we think we know this: The foundation of the proposed deal between the Lakers, Cavaliers and Magic would place Howard in Los Angeles and Bynum in Cleveland.


Obviously, if a trade actually goes through, there will be many more facets to this megadeal, perhaps even another team. The Magic will seize the chance to offload some of their bad payroll burden while stocking up on franchise-building assets for the future. We don't know what will become of others in possible limbo, such as Pau Gasol, Metta World Peace, Hedo Turkoglu, Jason Richardson, Glen Davis and Anderson Varejao. Nevertheless, it's worth looking at his potential move based just on the two big men because it shows just how seismic a shift will occur in the NBA the day Howard is finally dealt.


Here is a look at how each team would be affected.



Orlando Magic



Our projections had Orlando starting the free-agent period with a forecast of 47.7 wins. That's with Howard and Ryan Anderson still on hand, plus rookie Andrew Nicholson providing a boost. (The system really likes the recently drafted big from St. Bonaventure.) That projection actually nudged up to 49.6 wins when Ray Allen left the Celtics, putting the Magic second in the East.

<offer></offer>

Then Anderson left, and the Magic tumbled to fifth. As other teams have added pieces while Orlando tries to resolve its Howard dilemma, the numbers have gradually waned. Through yesterday's transactions, we have the Magic at 43.5 wins, seventh in the conference. By removing Howard from the equation and not replacing him with anyone, the Magic drop to 24.1 wins, better than only Charlotte in the league pecking order. Before removing any of the remaining veterans from its roster, Orlando already is positioned for a high lottery pick.



Cleveland Cavaliers



Cleveland gets the biggest boost in this scenario. We've had the Cavaliers between 34 and 37 wins for most of the offseason. Because we keep free agents attached to their most recent squads until they actually depart for another team, Antawn Jamison has been part of that projection. Once he agreed to a deal with the Lakers, the Cavs dropped to a 28.8 win projection, 14th in the East. That's where they stand at the moment.


Adding Bynum changes things in a profound way. Between his production and the redistribution of minutes, Cleveland jumps all the way to 40.5 wins and into a virtual three-way tie for the 7 to 9 seeds in the East with the Nets and Bucks. Four of Cleveland's top five performers likely would be first- or second-year players, with Kyrie Irving leading a group that would include Tyler Zeller, Dion Waiters and Tristan Thompson. Bynum would be the grand old man at 25. It's a good, young mix with lots of room to grow.


Unfortunately, as Bynum's agent David Lee pointed out last night, no one appears to have run this scenario by Bynum yet. Unlike the Rockets, who are banking their pursuit on their ability to persuade Howard to stay, or the Lakers, who are perhaps the league's ultimate destination franchise, it's imperative that Cleveland get some assurances. If the Cavs land Bynum, they can offer him more years and more dollars than any other team next summer. But how will a kid who grew up in New Jersey and has spend his subsequent life with the league's glamour franchise adjust to the Midwest? That's impossible to say, but a few pick-and-rolls with Irving might make life next to Lake Erie a lot more palatable.



Los Angeles Lakers



Speaking of that glamour franchise, the Lakers' situation is the most interesting of all. After all, it wasn't that long ago that I was writing about how it was Bynum, not Howard, who was the league's top center in the 2011-12 season. Howard is the bigger star, to be sure, but he's coming off of back surgery and seems to become increasingly distracted by the trappings of celebrity with each passing season. How will going to Los Angeles affect that?


That's another imponderable question. Less elusive is this: How much will Howard really add to the Lakers' bottom line? It's a matter not of dollars but wins. Last season aside, Bynum is arguably the second-best center in the NBA. He's also nearly two years younger and is a better offensive player, or at least he seems to have become that (last season may have been a fluke in that regard). In any event, it's fair to say that, at the very least, Bynum is the more skilled offensive player.


Howard is better on defense. His rebound rates are higher, and he's a more dominant post defender. He and Bynum are in a virtual dead heat in career block percentage, but, with Bynum's knee history and Howard's back, it's tough to say how that category is going to look in coming seasons. This is all to say that the difference between the two isn't as great as you might think, especially when you consider that the dollars are irrelevant. Both are headed for free agency, or an extension, and, if Roy Hibbert is worth max dollars, you can be sure both of these guys are going to get the same.


The Lakers' part in the Howard scenario is so interesting because you can argue that no team is in less need of the Orlando center. Nevertheless, when we plug Howard into the Lakers' rotation in place of Bynum, an amazing thing happens. The Lakers' forecast was at 42.9 wins at the outset of free agency, seventh in the West. The acquisition of Steve Nash left them at 49.4 wins through Tuesday, up to fourth. They had been as high as second. Then they added Jamison to the bench mix -- a move we hate in a subjective sense, but that signing boosted the Lakers to 52.7 wins and a third-place conference ranking.


When we swap Bynum for Howard, the Lakers jump to 60.0 projected wins and actually surpass the Thunder for the No. 1 forecast in the Western Conference. Only the Miami Heat (63.5 wins) project to be better. This is why the Lakers are going so hard after Howard.


Bynum versus Howard



Why does Howard project so much better than Bynum? Mostly because he has been better for longer and he has been healthier. Bynum had never cracked 2,000 minutes in a season until last season. Even with his back trouble last year, Howard played just 42 fewer minutes than Bynum last season. He has played more than 2,600 in every other season and has been over 3,000 on three occasions. Not only has Howard been better but he's been better for many more minutes, giving his forecast the degree of certainty you want in such a major investment. Any team that latches onto Bynum for the long term will have the kind of concerns the Knicks should have had when they signed Amare Stoudemire to a max deal a couple of years ago.


The upshot of this, of course, is that, just maybe, Bynum is hitting a career peak in which he will remain healthy and vibrant for the next half-decade. If he is able to stay on the court for 2,600 or more minutes, then the gap between him and Howard suddenly narrows. At 2,600 minutes, the Cavaliers' forecast improves to about 43 wins. Of course, putting Howard on the Cavs jumps them to 48 victories. You can see the difference.


The Lakers' forecast until now has carried with it concerns of on-court fit. How will a Kobe Bryant-Nash backcourt work? However, a Nash-Howard pairing carries no such caveat. Nash is one of the league's all-time great pick-and-roll playmakers, and Howard is the most devastating pick-and-roll finisher in the NBA. If you could run one play involving any two players in the league, you'd pick Howard setting a high screen for Nash. Bynum is more of a pure back-to-the-basket kind of center who has never been asked to run that much pick-and-roll. It doesn't mean he can't do it, but it's unlikely he would do it nearly as well as Howard.


So, although the Lakers seem to be well situated at center, it's easy to understand why they might be so doggedly in pursuit of Howard. It's also easy to understand why the Cavs would be willing to roll the dice on Bynum.

he will never be the #1 guy on a championship team. as a celtics fan, i can never once remember thinking 'how are they going to stop dwight howard' in any type of close game.

Seems a bit of a fuckin cry baby to me, could be wrong.