Howard bolts L.A. to sign with Houston Rockets
Published on Friday, 7/6/13, at 1:05 a.m. Eastern.
By Brian Edwards
Nobody should me surprised. When Dwight Howard announced his intentions to sign with the Houston Rockets over the Los Angeles Lakers via twitter late Friday night, it simply brought an end to a sorry episode.
After the way the 2012-2013 season went down for the Lakers, what on earth would make Howard want to return to that situation?
Money? Sure, Howard could have made a lot more greenbacks in L.A., but cash doesn’t buy happiness.
Bottom Line: Kobe Bryant is an insufferable chafe. He is an asshole of the highest degree.
I couldn’t spend five minutes around Bryant. Five years? Not a chance.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not implying the Lakers are huge losers in this scenario. They just look ridiculous for not realizing this was how things were going to play out.
And I’m not saying Houston is a big winner, either. The jury is still out on Howard, who has all the physical tools to dominate every night.
But he doesn’t dominate on a nightly basis. He doesn’t have a go-to move when he catches the ball on the blocks. If he can’t dominate with his size, he can be contained. If he has a nasty streak, we haven’t seen it.
The Rockets are giving Howard a max contract, but are they getting a max player? Until he leads them to a championship, it’s a fair question that doesn’t have a definitive answer.
There are reports that Houston is also trying to acquire Josh Smith, perhaps in a sign-and-trade deal involving Omer Asik. However, the chances of that happening were greatly diminished when the Hawks signed Paul Millsap to a two-year, $19 million contract late Friday night.
Atlanta also inked DeMarre Carroll for two years and $5 million.
In other NBA news, Golden St. signed Andre Iguodala to a four-year, $48 million contract. In order to clear cap space to ink Iguodala, the Warriors shipped their first-round picks in 2014 and 2017, in addition to Richard Jefferson, Andris Biedrins and Brandon Rush, to the Utah Jazz.
Also, Al Jefferson has signed with the Charlotte Bobcats for three years and $40.5 million, while O.J Mayo is headed to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Houston saw its future odds to win the 2014 NBA title reduced to 12/1, behind only the Heat (+260), Thunder (8/1), Bulls (10/1) and Spurs (10/1). The Lakers are now 65/1 longshots at Sportsbook.ag.
