Houston Rockets: Dwight If You Do, Dwight If You Don’t
By Bryson Jones
Midway through the season the Houston Rockets find themselves in an unfamiliar spot. The team is 27-28, 9th seed in the Western Conference, and to add insult to injury they are now actively shopping center Dwight Howard.
Since signing with the team in 2013, Dwight has been nothing but a professional for the Rockets and a good role model in the community for Houston. He’s been fun.
To put simply, this has been by far the most disappointing Rockets season I have ever witnessed. Coming into the 2015-2016 season the Rockets were expected to be one of the top tier teams, not only in the West, but in the NBA. They retained much of their talent and added a point guard in Ty Lawson who was brought in to help take pressure off of James Harden in the backcourt.
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My man Dwight Howard was assumed to be healthy for majority of the season and everyone expected for Harden to play like Harden (he has held up his end of the bargain). However, the team fired former head coach Kevin McHale eleven games into the season, and opted to go with a younger “more fiery” coach in JB Bickerstaff.
Since the firing, the Rockets have not gotten back to playing the brand of basketball fans have grown accustomed to in Houston. This has just proved that something on a larger scale is wrong with this team.
The predicament that Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey finds himself in is… DAMNED IF YOU DO, DAMNED IF YOU DON’T. If Rockets opt to trade Dwight Howard, you are for the most part forfeiting this current season and will either be looking to stockpile draft picks or get player on expiring deals. If the Rockets can not find a deal in time, and opt to keep Howard after the deadline, then there is a whole other scenario you have to worry about going into the offseason.
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I doubt Dwight would re-sign with the Rockets and he’ll likely opt out. The current state of his career, Dwight will likely be looking for his last max contract before he calls it quits. Averaging career lows since his rookie season, the Rockets likely will not offer him the max, which means you lose Dwight for nothing.
Daryl Morey often finds ways to turn negatives into positives, but this Dwight Howard situation is a bit of a new one for him. It will be interesting to see how he handles it as the deadline approaches.
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