CORPUS CHRISTI — Having watched every game that the Los Angeles Lakers have played this season, I can tell you right now that unless the team makes a major trade involving Pau Gasol that nets them a few athletic pieces that can shoot, they will not come close to winning a title this season. The defense is horrid and the offensive continuity isn't anywhere close to where it should be halfway through the season. Injuries and a coaching change have contributed to their shortcomings, but for the most part, this is a team that just doesn't fit.
Giving up on a team that many thought would be the best squad in the Western Conference is obviously not a decision that you make overnight, but if the Lakers have not made significant progress in the playoff race by the all-star break, there's a chance that general manager Mitch Kupchak puts Dwight Howard, a player he slaved all off-season to get, on the market. Such a decision would cause riots in Lakerland, but it just may be the best thing for the future of the team.
I know, I know, he was acquired to be the future of the franchise, but that doesn't mean Howard has the same intentions. If he wants to, Howard can leave Los Angeles in dust this off-season and sign with any team with max cap space. The leverage the Lakers have is the ability to offer Howard up to $20 million more than any other team because they own his Bird Rights. That said, Howard clearly isn't loving his time in Los Angeles and his relationship with Kobe Bryant seems strained to say the least (Kobe says he texts Dwight at 3 AM with recommended reading materials), which means the Lakers may be better off trading Howard now instead of risking losing him for nothing in the off-season.
It may be a stretch, but I think there's a good chance that the Lakers reach this decision point before the trade deadline and I think that trading Howard would be a smart move if the right opportunity presented itself. Los Angeles has not gotten the Superman that led Orlando to the NBA Finals a few years ago and he isn't even the discussion for the Defensive Player of the Year award for the first time of his career. His back injury is clearly still bothering him and he is no longer in the category of a LeBron James or Kevin Durant when it comes to overall value. There's a possibility that Howard will never regain his Orlando form but Los Angeles can still get a lot of value for him by selling his struggles this season as team related.
In the event that the Lakers do start fielding offers for Howard, I think the all three Texas teams should be the first ones on the dial to Kupchak. Here's the how and the why:
Houston Rockets
You can pretty much count the Rockets in for any negotiation involving a superstar player. That is just the way Daryl Morey operates. Morey has been in the hunt for Howard before and even though he has fewer assets now than he did when he tried to pry Superman from Orlando, he still may be able to get the job done because of how poorly Howard has recovered from back surgery. The issue, as discussed in my other article about potential trade targets for the Rockets, is that the majority of their players are on tiny contracts, which means they have to be packaged in Sams' like quantities in order to match salaries with a superstar. Realistically, we aren't going to see an 8-for-1 deal, which is basically what it would take for the Rockets to get Howard without trading one of their top three players.
That leaves trading either Jeremy Lin or Omer Asik as the only viable option, whether it is in a straight up deal or a three-team trade. Even though it would make him a back-up for Nash, a deal solely with the Lakers would probably include Lin over Asik since D'Antoni and Lin are BFFs. A Rockets/Lakers trade would probably look something like this: Lin, Carlos Delfino, Patrick Patterson, Chandler Parsons and Cole Aldrich (cap filler) plus a draft pick if necessary for Dwight Howard and Darius Morris. The problem with this deal for Houston is that it leaves them thin at the forward spots. They'd probably end up with a starting lineup of Douglas, James Anderson, James Harden, Marcus Morris and Howard with Asik, Patrick Beverley, Morris, Terrence Jones, Greg Smith and Donatas Motiejunas coming off the bench. That's not great, but you've got the Harden/Howard foundation in place, which is the important part. Houston could also dip into the D-League to get someone like Chris Douglas-Roberts to help fill their forward void.
Houston can also look for a three-team deal, which may make more sense for the Lakers since they probably don't want Lin because of his contract. I brought in the Raptors and came out with this deal: Jose Calderon, Linas Kleiza, Delfino, Patterson and Parsons to the Lakers, Morris and Howard to the Rockets and Lin to the Raptors. You can supercharge this trade and throw in Gasol going to Toronto with Andrea Bargnani going to the Lakers, but that could happen without the Rockets losing or gaining any pieces.
For Houston, the tough part about trading for Howard is sacrificing intriguing prospect Chandler Parsons, who is the only current NBA player that Kobe follows on Twitter. While Delfino and Patterson are nice players, they are acceptable casualties in the battle for star power in today's NBA. And since I never thought that the Harden/Lin combo would work, unloading his salary is a plus for the Rockets from my perspective. Some may say that this deal wouldn't intrigue the Lakers because they aren't getting a star back, but that is exactly the kind of mentality that has them in the position they are in. Los Angeles needs to start building an actual team with depth and role players and I think the deal mentioned above would give them adequate depth with players that actually fit with D'Antoni's style. A team like the Sacramento Kings/Seattle Supersonics could woo the Lakers with an offer involving DeMarcus Cousins, but if the star offers don't come, these are the kind of deals the Lakers will be looking at.
iiight
