Houston Rockets not looking to help out Los Angeles Lakers; want Dwight Howard all for themselves – NBA Report
Ever since the Brooklyn Nets pulled out of the Dwight Howard trade discussion and re-signed their centre Brook Lopez to a four year deal, a three team deal involving Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets and the Orlando Magic had
emerged as the potential solution to the now infamous trade saga.
According to the proposed deal, the All- Star centre would have landed in Hollywood and all Rockets would have got in return for their strong picks was the Lakers current centre Andrew Bynum.
That deal did look little odd for the Rockets as the Lakers were actually the side gaining the most and according to recent reports, Houston have now decided to cut Lakers completely off the equation.
The Rockets have decided to use their amnesty clause on Argentinean forward Luis Scola and by clearing his 21 million dollars from their books; they now have the ability to absorb the contracts of Hedo Turkoglu
and Jason Richardson in any trade for Howard.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports has reported the same;
“In one more significant step in the Houston Rockets’ relentless pursuit of Orlando Magic star Dwight Howard, the Rockets will use the amnesty provision on forward Luis Scola to clear further salary cap space, league sources told
Yahoo! Sports.”
Luis Scola’s exit has effectively knocked the Lakers out of the Howard race, and the Rockets have now become the front runners. Given that Howard has nixed recent Magic efforts to make him stay back, the only competition Houston
has at the moment comes from the Atlanta Hawks.
The Hawks have an interesting pitch involving point guard Jeff Teague and centre Al-Horford, but given that Magic General Manager Rob Hennigan is more intent on clearing the cap space and start re-building with younger options,
the Rockets hold an edge.
The only problem for them is that even if they succeed in landing the best centre in the league, there is no guarantee that he will sign an extension next year, when his contract expires. Given Howard’s poor record in coming up
straight with what he wants, they can be in for turmoil next season.
For now though, the Rockets have apparently managed to outsmart the Lakers and rest of the competitors suiting to land the ‘Superman’, and have created a possibility that has the potential to make them genuine title contenders.
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