5 free agency destinations for Pau Gasol

3. Houston Rockets

It’s time to own up to the fact that Dwight Howard’s marriage with the Houston Rockets just isn’t working, and hasn’t worked for some time actually. When Howard arrived on the scene fresh off a debilitating stint in Tinseltown alongside Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash, the expectation was that he would be a monster on defense and a force on offense, just like he was in Orlando – and he would be a great complement to the scoring machine known as James Harden.

The two play well enough together, but have never been the kind of league-wrecking tandem Daryl Morey must have dreamt they would be when he shelled out big bucks to lure Howard to Houston in the first place. And now, if recent reports are to be believed, Howard is very interested in relocating to New York this summer and teaming up with Carmelo Anthony on the Knicks.

If he does, good riddance. Morey and the Rockets as a franchise would be better served replacing him with Pau Gasol anyway – it’s a move that almost happened several years ago before then-commissioner David Stern vetoed the trade that would have shipped Gasol from the Lakers to the Rockets. Obviously this time around there’d be no opposition to a deal that puts the Spaniard in a Rockets uniform, so Houston makes sense as a possible destination.

Next: 2. Atlanta Hawks