Last offseason the Houston Rockets loaded up to make a run at trading for Dwight Howard, even though everyone in the world knew he was headed to Los Angeles. A year later, the Rockets are again preparing to make a run at Howard and according to Adrian Wojnarowski, Houston is planning on parting ways with Thomas Robinson in order to clear space.
Y! Sources: In pursuit of free agent Dwight Howard, the Rockets plan to trade Thomas Robinson to clear cap space. http://t.co/bEV3mhOwAm
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 30, 2013
The Dwight Howard sweepstakes is back once again and this summer will likely be filled with a slew of teams jumping through hoops to try and acquire the big man’s services and lure him away from Los Angeles. After a failed season showed Hollywood Howard that the bright lights of Los Angeles may have been overly romanticized, he’s once again looking for the right place to continue his career.
One of those teams was a team that lost out on Howard last year but they’re making moves to ensure that doesn’t happen again. The flaw in the Rockets plan last year was they were offering draft picks to the Magic — and they weren’t the Lakers, which hurt their chances in the NBA’s eye.
But if they trade Robinson’s salary, the Rockets could then offer Howard somewhere just north of $20 million per season — which is exactly what they plan on doing.
Houston has a stunning supporting cast of players and it’s that fact that has Howard intrigued to entertain the notion of signing with Houston. The Rockets offering him $20 million per season will only help the cause.
Trading Robinson would mean the Rockets would be getting rid of a guy they haven’t even had for half a season. Houston traded for Robinson at the deadline this season but they clearly value Dwight Howard over the talent the former first round pick offers.
It was a joke to consider Dwight Howard actually ending up in Houston last offseason, but it’s no longer funny to Dallas and Golden State — the two teams thought to be in competition with the Rockets to acquire Howard. The Rockets have more than a fighting chance to acquire Howard and moving Robinson to clear up space only shows you how serious this possibility is becoming.