Open Season On Dwight Howard to Lakers Rumors
Let the rumoring begin!
This morning marked the first day in which NBA teams were permitted to get into the business of talking contracts with free agents. Not that we needed an official date to start talking about potential trades and signings though. It’s just nice that we’re no longer in the world of hoops fiction as rumors soon could become reality.
One of the bigger rumblings prior to the NBA lockout was the notion of Dwight Howard becoming the latest in a long line of big men to relocate to Los Angeles. Today offered a few clues giving way to some soon-to-be wild speculation.
To begin, the Lake Show would obviously have to offer the Orlando Magic a package worthy of parting ways with the face of their franchise. Adrian Wojnarowksi states that the Lakers have already placed a couple of courtesy calls to Orlando and New Orleans to gauge the price necessary to acquire Howard and Chris Paul.
According to Woj, Pau Gasol is likely off the table but Andrew Bynum is very much in the mix. That harkens back to last week’s rumor of Jim Buss no longer being attached to Bynum and that he’s willing to listen to trade offerings. Perhaps pure coincidence but Bynum deleted his Twitter account today. Mark Medina wonders if it had anything to do with Bynum being bombarded with trade rumor tweets.
Another rumor making the rounds is that Bynum is looking for an expanded role under his new head coach Mike Brown. That seems a little unlikely given a certain #24 still being in prime position to drop 25+ a night and a hopefully refreshed and rededicated Gasol still in Lakerland.
Going to Orlando would definitely give young Bynum his chance to spread those wings and possibly grow into the franchise big man he sees himself as.
As for Howard, there are no real secrets in his desire to both win and to do so in a bigger market. We all know how it went the last time a franchise big came to L.A. from Orlando. Could lightening strike twice?
While we’re still in the infant stages of the process things are going to pick up and in a hurry. With a small window of time allotted to get rosters in order, teams into camp and a Christmas date looming to start the season you can expect plenty of happenings in the coming days.