David Stern puts his weight behind the trading system in NBA – Sheds light on Dwight Howard issue
The Dwight Howard trade scenario was the opening question for NBA’s commissioner David Stern at All-Star weekend press conference on Saturday.
Howard will be a free agent by the end of this season and before the trade deadline expires on March 15th; his trade has become a dilemma for the Magic. In the past two months, there have been many theories as to where
the centre will eventually land and in short, he has become the most talked about player these days.
Howard has made it clear that he is interested in being traded and that can cost him upto 30 million dollars, but if the Magic do not trade him, he will become a free agent next summer and the franchise will be left without a star
for years. If Magic do trade him, under all possibilities, they are not going to get anything equal in return.
Such is the complexity for the system, the league is following, but David Stern supports it;
“Well, you have a choice,” he said. “We have a system that has a draft that basically tells a player where he’s going to play in this league when he’s drafted, and a further system that has a huge advantage to the team that has
him, so that our players could play for seven years in the team they didn’t choose. And we think that’s a system but not a prison. And the idea for the team is to manage to a certain place, make it as easy as possible to retain the player, or have the ability
to pay him considerably more, like $30 million more than any other team can pay him, or trade him and turn that into value.”
The pundits of the game have been associating him with different teams, but no one could say for sure that which team will induct him or whether he will stay at Orlando. One of the most anticipated name is Los Angeles Lakers as
Howard himself has shown his willingness to be in Lakers uniform by the end of trade deadline, but what Lakers can offer in return to Magic is a question that can’t be answered so far.
Howard had sent a trade request to the Magic front office at the start of the season and mentioned New Jersey Nets and Dallas Mavericks along with Lakers in his wish list. If Howard climbs aboard as a free agent, then there is
no catch for Orlando and if he is traded off the above mentioned teams can’t come up with a player who can be a substitute for Dwight.
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