There hasn’t been an NBA superstar this indecisive, since, well “The Decision”. I mean seriously, Howard probably has to give his advisors a call when he opens his cabinent every morning. Does he go with the consistent winner in Frosted Flakes or roll the dice and give the potential laden Count Chocula a chance? Only to decide he’s going to stick with the same oatmeal he’s been eating for the next year until he can make up his mind.
Since Dwight has such a hard time making a decision we can decide which is the best for him. At the very end it looked like Howard was down to three legitimate options, the Lakers, Rockets and Warriors. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each team:
Warriors
The Warriors had not been seen as a viable option for most of the race. They proved they could clear cap space when they dumped the contracts of Richard Jefferson and Andris Biedrins on the Utah Jazz, also sending Brandon Rush and 2015 and 2017 first round picks for compensation. With this move, Golden State shaved over $24 million in salary bringing their cap number down to $46 million, mere manuevering away from landing Howard. The dedication the Warriors showed to clear cap room was impressive, but the roster they could surround the star center with is even more lustrous.
Last year, Golden State fans were no longer alone in believing that Stephen Curry was one of the best players in the NBA. Almost everyone who watches college basketball knew that Curry would be one of the most elite three point shooters in the world. What many doubted was whether the Davidson standout could do more than light it up behind the arc. With a weak supporting cast, Curry was forced to do his best superstar impersonation and take the majority of the shots. In his first two years, Steph quickly displayed that he belonged in the league by adding playmaking ability and some rebounding to his well-known shooting prowess. An injury riddled 2011-12 season had NBA fans again forgetting about the Golden State Warriors. That until Stephen reminded everyone in the country of his superior shooting ability by exploding in the playoffs (at least everyone that stayed up for those late night west coast games). And for those who did, they saw a budding star with the ability to run the show in Golden State.
Outside of a potential superstar in Curry, the Warriors also have several other intriguing pieces. Joining Curry in the backcourt is second year shooting guard Klay Thompson. Thompson, who is a great shooter in his own right, happens to be next to perhaps the only guy in the league who can overshadow his 3pt shooting ability. While attempting the third most 3pt shots he managed a very solid 40.1% from beyond the arc. Being overlooked should come as no surprise to Thompson. Playing at a subpar program at Washington State and without Curry-esque March Madness heroics, he was drafted 11th overall in the 2011 NBA draft despite hitting 43.6% of his 3pt attempts as the number 1 option on a weak college team. Klay has a very good chance at making an all-star team or two if he can learn to expand his mid-range game.
Joining these two sharpshooters is one time Knickerbocker, and all-star, David Lee. Lee was known in New York for his scoring, rebounding and defense, or lack thereof. Throughout his career, Lee has been very underrated, despite making two all-star teams. His first all-star appearance was perceived as a handout for being the best player in a few years to don a Knicks jersey. And while Lee is a subpar defender, it is not due to a lack of trying. His hustle is the reason for his very good rebounding (11.7 rpg) at an undersized 6’9″. He is also a crafty offensive player who can score in the post with his unique combination of quickness and post moves, as well as hit the midrange jump shot.
Golden State is the absolute perfect fit for Dwight Howard. The Warriors have two of the top 4 or 5 three point shooters in the NBA. And we aren’t talking about Steve Novak. Curry and Thompson had the first and third most 3pt attempts in the NBA, at 600 and 526 respectively. They were also two of the most efficient shooters in the league. In the top ten of 3PA, they were the only two who shot 40% or higher. As we saw in Orlando, Howard plays his best basketball offensively when the floor is spread. It gives him more room to operate in the post and he is actually a willing passer when he trusts his shooters. In addition, his potential counterpart in Lee occupies the elbow and high-post, ensuring sole ownership of the low-post to Howard. On the defensive end, Howard would be able to cover Lee’s defensive deficiencies with weak side help.
Projected 2013-14 Lineup w/ Howard:
PG: Stephen Curry
SG: Klay Thompson
SF: Harrison Barnes
PF: David Lee
C: Dwight Howard
Rockets
If you told me last year that the Houston Rockets would pry Dwight Howard away from a Lakers team that had three future hall of famers, I would have laughed in your face. This, of course, would have been before Steve Nash broke his leg, Kobe Bryant ruptured his achilles tendon and Mike D’Antoni decided to stick one of the best post players in the NBA at the three point line. Oh yeah, and before the part where the Thunder made one of the worst trades of all time, trading one of the best and most exciting 23 year olds in the league to the Rockets for luxury tax relief and draft picks. More on that train wreck of a trade later.
Before last season, I wasn’t sold on Rockets’ general manager Daryl Morey. Cap-wise, his strategy actually made sense (unlike most NBA GMs). He was trying to acquire young talent while keeping cap room in the 2013 offseason to attract one or two max contracts. Morey’s savvy strategy is usually the best approach to take in any situation. However, I doubted his ability to draw top talent such as Dwight Howard and Chris Paul away from teams like the Lakers and Mavericks, who had bigger markets and bigger stars.
This was all before he was able to land one of the most prized players in the NBA. At the time, Harden was 22 years old, fresh off a sixth man of the year performance. In 2011, he averaged 16.8 PPG, 3.7 APG and 4.1 RPG all while playing third fiddle to the athletically gifted combination of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. At the time the OKC Thunder had 3 of the best 20 players in the NBA, all age 22 and under. Literally every NBA GM has had a wet dream of the very situation Sam Presti found himself in. And for whatever reason, the Thunder decided to break that up, giving Morey a very early Christmas present. Although Harden did fall into Morey’s lap, he did put them in the financial position to be able to absorb Harden’s soon to be max contract (and a future max contract to come).
Like Curry, Harden’s coming out party was most definitely this past year. Even with addition of Harden, the Rockets weren’t supposed as much as sniff the playoffs. However, Harden took his game to a new level showing the league that he too could score with the likes of Westbrook and Durant after all. Making his unselfishness in OKC that much more impressive. Harden was really everything the Rockets needed, and more. Statistically he one of the best all-around performers with 25.9 PPG, 5.8 APG and 4.9 RPG. Not to mention, he has the most intense beard since Kimbo Slice. But seriously, “The Beard” arrived as a legitimate superstar who can do everything on the basketball court.
Joining Harden are a ragtag cast of sidekicks. First there is Chandler Parsons, a typical do-it-all college player who few thought would translate into the pros. I mean, even the Rockets passed him up in the first round. Parsons ended up showing everyone that he could in fact do-it-all in the NBA to the tune of 15.5 PPG, 5.3 RPG and 3.5 APG. Then there is Omer Asik, a mere backup in Chicago just a year ago. Another guy who proved he was ready, Asik did a very solid job anchoring Houston’s interior averaging a double-double for the year. Last but not least we have Jeremy Lin, yes that Jeremy Lin. The guy who literally trademarked the word ‘Linsanity’. This guy was the most popular athlete on the planet for two months, and now he’s a mere shadow in Houston. It must be because he didn’t come to play this year, right? Wrong. In fact, Lin was actually able to duplicate his success from last season, only over a full 82 games this time. I’m sorry, but I have to post his year-over-year stats just to show how identical they were. Crazy how much difference the New York spotlight can have on a player’s coverage. Bottom line, Lin can play.
| Season | Age | Tm | Lg | Pos | G | GS | MP | FG | FGA | FG% | 3P | 3PA | 3P% | FT | FTA | FT% | ORB | DRB | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PF | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-12 | 23 | NYK | NBA | PG | 35 | 25 | 26.9 | 4.9 | 10.9 | .446 | 0.7 | 2.1 | .320 | 4.2 | 5.2 | .798 | 0.5 | 2.5 | 3.1 | 6.2 | 1.6 | 0.3 | 3.6 | 2.2 | 14.6 |
| 2012-13 | 24 | HOU | NBA | PG | 82 | 82 | 32.2 | 4.8 | 10.9 | .441 | 1.1 | 3.1 | .339 | 2.6 | 3.4 | .785 | 0.4 | 2.6 | 3.0 | 6.1 | 1.6 | 0.4 | 2.9 | 2.5 | 13.4 |
By coming to Houston, Howard would be joining a freshly minted superstar in James Harden. And at a mere 23, Harden is one of a handful of superstars who we can honestly say still has his best years ahead of him. His unique game allows him to be both the leading scorer and to control the pace of the game. All this means that the best player on the team will be running pick-and-rolls with Howard, making them the most lethal tandem in the NBA. Harden will have the option to drive, pull-up for the shot or dump it into Howard for the easy two. All of which, he’s proven he is more than capable of doing. Joining them will be the super-role players who have already shown they will do everything it takes to win. While there are reports Morey wants to trade Asik once Howard is on board, I actually like the two of them together. Having the two seven footers together will give the Rockets the best rebounding frontcourt in the NBA. Parsons is that all-around guy who will mold his game to whatever needs to be done. And lastly, I like Lin to provide that scoring energy boost when Harden is off the floor. I have him projected in the starting lineup, but don’t be surprised to see him come off the bench as the sixth man.
2013/2014 Projected Lineup
PG: Jeremy Lin
SG: James Harden
SF: Chandler Parsons
PF: Omer Asik
C: Dwight Howard
Lakers
And that brings us to the Lakers. It is not often, if ever, that the Lakers play second fiddle to anyone. The Lakers and Celtics are widely known to NBA fans as the two most elite franchise in NBA history. There are basically to basketball, what the Red Sox and Yankees are to baseball. Except more epic. The Lakers and Celtics are in separate conferences which allows them to play each other for the world championship, not just the pennant or division or whatever. Not only are the two teams in separate conferences, they are in different sides of the United States in every sense of the world. There is the obvious, they are geographically on opposite coasts, have different climates and cultures.
Los Angeles is a warm, carefree environment where celebrities gather to show off their glamour in dramatic fashion. If you have any doubts about that, just put on one show of Keeping Up With the Kardashians and you’ll get the point. It’s a show about three sisters and a brother, who are famous for no other reason than that they are stupid, wealthy and happen to be on TV. On the other side of the spectrum is Boston. Boston is a basically a small town trapped in a city. Instead of attention craved celebrities you have blue collar, everyday people working their asses off to make a living. And instead of a warm and dry climate they have the sometimes brutal New England winters. The simultaneous success and polarity of the two cities make it one of the most storied rivalries in all of sports.
Basically, all of this makes the Lakers one of the most desirable NBA destinations. Their storied franchise history and envious warm and dry climate are nearly irresistible. I mean if you were Dwight Howard, how hard would it be to say no to that? Chamberlain, Abdul-Jabbar, Shaq, Dwight. Mitch Kupchak should be able to walk into the meeting show that one slide, drop the clicker, walk out of the door and meeting over. Oh yeah, and they also have this guard you may know of. His name is Kobe Bryant, yeah he’s pretty good. However, the usually invincible Lakers are feeling a bit unstable right now.
For one, Kupchak chose a bad time to make a very risky move, that didn’t pay off. In the middle of November, Kupchak decided to cut ties with Mike Brown after a disappointing 1-4 start. For those of you that can’t tell, that was sarcasm. Yeah 1-4 is a disappointing, but you can’t tell anything in just five games in the NBA. Especially for a team that was just thrown together overnight. The only way you can follow up a firing like that is to rehire a coach with 11 rings who just coached your team to five championships in the past twelve years….except he didn’t.
Kupchak chose to take a chance in this crucial moment and hire seven seconds or less specialist, Mike D’Antoni. The same guy who played Amar’e Stoudemire at center in both Phoenix and New York, and refused to tailor his system to superstar Carmelo Anthony. And Kupchak thought he could take two post players in Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol and make it work. In classic D’Antoni fashion, he took that white guy in the post (everyone knows white guys can only shoot threes) and put him on the three point line where he belongs. Except Pau Gasol might have just won two championships and made four all-star games as one of the best post players in the NBA. I think after this year, everyone knows what really happened in New York.
In addition to Kupchak’s ill-timed roll of the dice, the Lakers also suffered some untimely injuries. Right before the playoffs began, Kobe Bryant ruptured his achilles. Which is devastating for many reasons. First and foremost, Howard wasn’t able to experience Bryant at his most intense level on the playoff stage. Second, Bryant is 35 which would make coming back from this brutal injury an uphill battle. Although if anyone is up for the challenge, its certainly the Black Mamba. And finally, in combination with reason two, his status for 2013-14 and the rest of his career is largely unknown. As if losing Kobe wasn’t enough, Steve Nash also ended up going down (again) during the playoffs. Although he was suffering lesser leg and hip injuries, at 39, the once ageless Nash is showing concerns of his own. Combine the uncertainty of two of the Lakers best players with the fact that D’Antoni has no idea what to do with one, let alone two post players. Now you can see why returning to the Lakers is actually the worst option.
Wrap-Up
As we all know, Howard chose to leave the historic Lakers and join the Houston Rockets. While I do think the Warriors were the best fit for Howard, the Rockets certainly have the best player with the brightest upside of any of the three teams. While some may berate Howard for running away from yet another situation I commend him. When he held Orlando hostage it was because he was afraid of the public backlash he would get from leaving. By leaving the Lakers, he proved to me he was no longer concerned with the public eye, but wanted to make the smartest decision for him. With Harden and Howard, the Rockets now become instant contenders in the West and will certainly be one of the most entertaining story lines in the NBA next year. And at 23 and 27 the star duo will be a force for years to come. For once Dwight Howard made a decision. And it was a good one.