As the Houston Rockets’ dispiriting season continues, Dwight Howard’s camp seems to be leaking more and more signals that he wishes to opt out of the last year of his contract and enter free agency this offseason. The Rockets saw this coming, and reportedly were close to trading him to the Milwaukee Bucks before the deadline, to which Dwight responded by insisting that he loves Milwaukee. Now, in an ESPN story on the New York Knicks’ upcoming, pivotal offseason (aren’t they all in New York?), Dwight is reportedly sending another message: He’d be interested in heading to New York this summer.
Howard’s free agency promises to be a fascinating one. He clearly wants to be paid a maximum salary, but it remains to be seen if anyone wants to give it to him (Someone will — Ed.). With the salary cap exploding this year and more increases anticipated for next year, a maximum deal is a gigantic chunk of change for a 30-year-old center with a history of back issues and a knee that’s had to be drained multiple times in each of the last two seasons. With this conflict, it’s no surprise Dwight is trying to drum up as much interest around the league as possible in the hopes that a bidding war gets him that max deal.
Once again, the real question is what exactly Dwight wants. Perhaps, if a team with true hopes at title contention — whatever that means in the age of Steph Curry’s Warriors and Kawhi Leonard’s Spurs — really wants him, he’d be willing to take a pay cut. But there’s a real question on whether he can find a possible suitor like that outside of Houston, where GM Daryl Morey is faced with the equally tough question of whether he wants Dwight around at all. It feels like so long ago that the Rockets met the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals and actually won a game, but it happened.
Dwight surprised everyone when he opted in to the final year of his contract with the Orlando Magic when the situation had clearly gone south, but it turned out to merely extend the sour mood, and he wound up getting traded to Los Angeles. He could opt in again, but if he does strike out on his own, he won’t get a max contract from the Knicks unless they somehow make a trade to dump more salary. The questions of how he’ll fit in the Triangle will come, but a Porzingis-Howard front line sounds like an absolute menace on defense. Again, it all depends on the curious whims of Dwight Howard.
(Via ESPN)
