Heh... you must not hate them that much. I haven't really thought of Howard as a possibility before. For one, who goes, Boozer or Noah? My head says Noah is the guy to trade, but my heart says Boozer. But I don't see how you can have all three of those guys. Another thing is that even next year, if you look at the Magic, they're much deeper in the financial hole than, say, the Nuggets are this year. If the Nuggets trade Melo, they're well under the cap next year. If they let go of Howard, they're still stuck with Arenas, Hedo, Duhon (2 yrs past the point of Howard's departure as you conjecture in Feb 2011), Nelson, Reddick, Bass, and Q Richardson (1 year beyond Howard's departure). That's just freaking brutal, and it leads me to think they'd either ride Howard out till the bitter end and let him leave via FA, or they'd ask for good players back (in which case I'd build a Bulls offer around Boozer). Maybe they're hoping the league contracts them... I dunno.
If one of Noah and Boozer had to go, I think your head should say Noah because your heart says Noah. The Bulls didn't only sign him because he's a good basketball player. Noah remains the second biggest draw and face of the franchise. In Noah's case, his value to the organization is uniquely linked to his personality. I think all three of Boozer, Noah and Howard could play together, if the Bulls made a commitment to Boozer that they would not trade him when he signed. There's room for 32 minutes each for three front court players and they all three of Noah, Howard and Boozer play very differently. (On the flip side, this may be the brothers Paxson's moment for revenge.) It wouldn't be the smartest decision to keep all of them but the Bulls could follow the Heat plan and use exceptions to build out their roster. As per Orlando, I'm not sure how they handle this situation. The organization has a well-deserved reputation for being a player-friendly franchise. Do they let Howard leave if he asks, like Memphis let Gasol go? Or does Howard have to shit where he eats like Carmelo?
You don't honestly think Nene is going to turn down roughly $5-7 mil a year to play for the Heat, do you? Or Chandler? Landry is a possibility, but he's a PF. KMart is old and slow and hurt and another PF. They still need a good C and a good PG. And how am I saying that. The bulls have $40 mil guaranteed in 2013-2014. Throw in $14-15 mil for Rose's max extension and it is still only ~$55 mil. The bulls are much more likely to suitably fill in their hole at SG for the MLE than Miami is to fill both PG and C. Jason Richardson or Arron Affalo are both guys who could be had for the MLE. And Taj has already missed games, and Brewer was hurt to start the year, and Korver has gone through a prolonged slump. And Miami still hasn't figured out how use Wade and LBJ at the same time effectively, at least against good teams. Sure they crush Cleveland every time they play, but they looked horrible down the stretch against NY. And NY isn't a good defensive team.
Sorry, but for this trade to have any basis in reality, Noah has to be included. Then it's got about a 1% chance. I am pretty sure Orlando would rather lose Howard to a Western conference team they'll never face than an Eastern conference team that could knock them out of the playoffs in the first round every year for the next 5. They'll at least get Bynum in a sign-and-trade from the lakers.
Bosh missed the Knicks game and LeBron played out of position at PF and wasn't comfortable playing there. You can never have enough bigs, eh?
So far, Howard has looked really good in the regular season and then he gets punked in the post season.
I agree you can never have enough bigs. But Miami has one MLE, are they going to use it on a backup PF, or a starting PG or C? Granted, the best they might be able to get is a backup PF. But they sure as hell aren't getting a borderline all-star C for the MLE.
Boston landed Shaq who's been outstanding for the vet minimum. Miami is going to be able to piece together a team, one way or antoher.
You make it sound easy. Shaq wasn't outstanding with LeBron in Cleveland, or in Phoenix. LeBron is not a system player, nor is DWade. They need people who will mesh well with their style of play. They haven't even meshed that well with each other. Not saying it's impossible, but give Bullshooter a break.
Garnett has missed 9 games and Perkins has played in just 5. Missing their top 2 bigs, the team still has a 37-11 record. One of the more amazing things about the NBA this season, IMO.
Agreed about the Celtics. And the fact that they got Shaq to play a team game is a credit to Doc Rivers and the culture that Thibodeau helped establish.
I don't see how the hell you could justify that statement. And there is 0% chance Bulls get Howard. Noah, scraps and 1st rounders ain't going to cut it.
I see...you're one of those guys who are easily impressed with 19-point, 14-rebound, 3-block playoff stat lines.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/magic/2010-05-03-dwight-howard-cover_N.htm Saddled with foul trouble against the Bobcats, he never played more than 29 minutes in a game, fouled out twice and accrued 22 fouls in four outings. Howard averaged 9.8 points and 9.3 rebounds, down from 18.3 points and an NBA-best 13.2 rebounds in the regular season.
In series after series the past 3 seasons, the announcers ragged on Howard for his lack of a polished post game. That opponents took advantage of it. That he was getting his points because of his sheer size and strength. It was pretty clear watching him try to make moves in the paint that he isn't a back to the basket kind of C in the mold of the greats like Hakeem or Shaq or Kareem and the others. The team not being able to get easy points in the paint from him meant no floor spacing benefit and the rest of the players' production suffered for it. Until this season, Orlando has had a lot of really young and talented athletic players. You'd think they would mop the floor with even the Celtics. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090524191930AAXDj8a Did this year's playoffs exposed dwight howard's weaknesses?
Howard's post game is much improved this year from what I've seen. Still can't shoot FTs worth a dang...except against us.
He's clearly got all the physical tools to be one of the all time greats. Looking at Shaq's numbers with the championship Lakers gives an idea of what we should expect from Howard. Shaq put up near 30 PPG, grabbed 13 RPG, dished near 4 assists per games, with 3 blocks per game on near 60% shooting. PJax said at the time that Shaq was one of the best passing big men (out of the post) he'd ever seen. Howard's rebounding, blocked shot numbers, and FG% are about the same. I compare the two not because I'm a big fan of Shaq, but because Shaq had a similar body size and amount of athleticism and they both played for Orlando (and were ~50% FT shooters). The 2nd of the 3peat Lakers teams lost one game in the whole playoffs.
They won that series and the next one and took Boston to 6 games. He averaged 18/11 for the playoffs last year so his stats for the 2nd and 3rd round of the playoffs must have been better than his regular season stats. Who got "punked"?
