Dwight Howard Signs With Houston Rockets

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Dwight Howard Signs With Rockets For 4-Years/$44M, Leaving Lakers Behind.

Ending arguably the craziest NBA week we’ve seen in some time; Dwight Howard has finally agreed to sign with the Houston Rockets, ending the indecision of 2013.

One year removed from the biggest NBA trade of the decade, which landed Dwight Howard in Los Angeles, D12 has decided to leave behind the purple and gold to take his talents down to Houston. Upon arriving, Dwight was all smiles in Hollywood and glad to be out of Orlando, playing for what we thought was a contender at the time.

Injuries from Steve Nash, Pau Gasol, Kobe Bryant, and dealing with a strained back plagued the Lakers from reaching full potential the entire season. Under intense pressure to follow in the footsteps in Laker legends such as George Mikan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain and the original Superman, Shaquille O’Neal; Dwight finished the season with career lows for points and rebounds in nearly 6-years.

Obviously not being the primary go-to-guy in Los Angeles got under his skin (deferring to Kobe), but the Mike Brown firing and hiring on Mike D’antoni were also contributing factors into him making his decision. Being blunt, D’antoni will never win anything in the NBA, so we’re not sure why the Lakers organization would hire him to cater to a deteriorated Steve Nash at the back-end of his career.

It will be bad for Lakers fans to sit through a few seasons with the possibility of missing the playoffs, in Kobe’s final two or three years with their current constructed team. We do have to commend the Buss family for not backing down to Dwight in their meetings this week, due to their history of being bigger than one single player. Earlier today, reports came following Howard’s announcement, that he privately asked for the re-hiring of Phil Jackson, but the Buss family hired good ‘ol Mikey. The Lakers are expecting to look forward to next year’s free agency class centered on LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Rudy Gay.

Dwight now joins another star at Houston with James Harden; but unlike his tenure with the Lakers, he’ll be playing for a former big, in Coach Kevin McHale. Speaking of which, while Dwight left the money and fame in L.A. ($30 million to be exact); he still has legendary Rocket bigs to follow in the likes of Elvin Hayes, Moses Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Yao Ming.

Yao, and more in particular Hakeem, are retired Rockets and will be more than willing to work with Dwight for the hometown discount; something that wasn’t seen in LaLa-land. While this may not be the best financial decision leaving behind $30M and a movie career, he’s made the best basketball decision in this free agency, possibly furthering his career to a future title. Things just never worked out for Dwight and the Lakers, due to back surgery, but also a shoulder injury mid-season affecting his play the throughout year as well.

With the death of Dr. Buss, the team has fallen apart (starting with management not being fully committed to rehiring Phil Jackson, but also on the court, with the players never in sync with a newly appointed “coach”). It was just too much for D12 to deal with all the drama in Los Angeles, ultimately helping his decision to leave Los Angeles.

In Houston, the Rockets are positioned to be a top 4 seed in the Western conference now that it has an even balance of seeds 2-8, outside of the Oklahoma City Thunder being the favorites. Houston is expected to land Josh Smith in a trade with the Hawks for Omer Asik; but have also been rumored to be in pursuit of Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo, with Boston officially clearing out every player from their 2008 championship team.

While both Francisco Garcia and Carlos Delfino were lost in free agency, plus a Thomas Robinson trade; Houston will be looking to add shooting to surround Dwight. Already having James Harden and Chandler Parsons on the perimeter is a good start, but they’re still two pieces away from being a serious title contender.

Now free agency can finally conclude before start of the NFL pre-season!

 
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