9. Dwight Howard, Houston Rockets (Player Option)
Lakers fans are probably already cursing the name of Dwight Howard before anything’s been said about the big man. And quite frankly, that’s not an entirely unjustified reaction. The organization took a big risk and gave up assets to acquire Howard in the hopes that they could chase at least one more talent with Kobe on the roster. However, Dwight wasn’t cut out mentally (or physically) for those rigors and the experiment failed miserably and ended after just one season.
Quite similarly spectacular in failure was the Houston Rockets this past season as Dwight was the center for that team as well. Houston was expected to be a true contender in the Western Conference this past season, but they fizzled out in tremendous fashion as they barely won only a single game in the first round of the playoffs against the Warriors. Now he’s expected to opt out of the final year of his deal and test the open market.
Even still, Howard is going to be highly coveted in free agency this summer. Even if he’s on the decline and on the wrong side of 30 years old at this point, players of his size and athleticism are far from common and are still a valuable commodity in the NBA. However, don’t expect the Lakers to even halfway consider bringing him back to LA.
Next: No. 8 Wade