Dwight Howard’s trade value has hit rock bottom

If the Atlanta Hawks are looking to trade Dwight Howard this summer, they better keep their expectations pretty low. They aren’t getting much.

Is shedding Dwight Howard addition by subtraction? That’s the question the Atlanta Hawks may need to be asking themselves. After getting ousted in the first round of the playoffs by the Washington Wizards, the Hawks could be looking to tinker with their roster.

Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN had an interesting report via twitter. After polling eight NBA executives, Arnovitz has stated that the Hawks likely won’t receive much in a potential Dwight Howard trade.

A center that can’t shoot looks less and less attractive, when he has no post-game to speak of and the athleticism that made him an elite defender is declining. It’s no coincidence that the Houston Rockets won 14 more games this season by letting Howard walk via free agency this past summer. The move to sign Howard over retaining Al Horford hasn’t worked out the way Atlanta envisioned.

That isn’t to say Howard didn’t have a good season either. During the 2016-17 regular season, Dwight averaged 13.5 points and 12.7 rebounds per game while shooting 63.3 percent from the floor. However, he was much less effective during the Hawks brief playoff run. In six games this postseason, Howard averaged just eight points per game shooting 50.0 percent from the field.

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The question is what NBA team would be willing to roll the dice on Dwight Howard? Let’s not forget that he also has a bit of a diva personality that doesn’t fit with every organization. With the salary cap set to be around $101 million next season, any team acquiring Howard would have to sacrifice roughly 20 percent of the team’s cap space to do so. Howard, 31, will earn $23.5 million next season in the second year of a three-year deal. Howard has spent time with the Magic, Lakers, and Rockets prior to signing with the Hawks.