Lessons from the Dwight-mare: How NBA teams handle their star’s departure

In December of 2011, shortly after the NBA’s lockout ended, the inevitable announcement came. After leading the Magic to the 2009 NBA Finals and to the franchise’s highest moment, the team had struggled to repeat that success, and star Dwight Howard could become a free agent.

The Magic, still somewhat scarred from the 1996 departure of Shaquille O’Neal in free agency, were determined not to let Howard walk in free agency without recouping something in return. Once the lockout ended, they pressed him for a decision. Perhaps the (forced) time away from the organization had him looking at greener pastures, but Howard felt comfortable enough to make his decision.

Shortly before training camp began in that shortened season, Howard told the media he had asked the team to trade him. And it was no secret his desired destinations were the Nets, Lakers and Mavericks.

The process seems like a familiar one now. Star comes to the end of his contract, begins thinking about the landscape and his wants and desires and leverages his team to get to a place they would rather play. It is both a selfless and selfish move. It is selfless in that it gives a team the chance to recoup some value — a last gift for sometimes seven or eight years of service and growth. It is selfish in that it is a financial move to allow a player to retain his Bird Rights and the salary bonuses that come with it, and reducing the trade value for his current team.

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Stars using this leverage to create favorable outcomes for them outside of free agency has happened many, many times in the NBA. Since Howard did it in 2011-12, Kevin Love has forced his way out, getting a trade to the Cavaliers from the Timberwolves. And now, Paul George has asked for his walking papers from the Pacers, informing them he does not intend to re-sign as a free agent in summer 2018.

The Magic floundered with the pressure of dealing a superstar. Some of it might have been the Magic’s reticence to pull a trigger on a deal or Howard’s indecision about actually leaving. He did not hold firm to his original trade request, waiving his early termination option at that year’s trade deadline and committing to the team for at least another year. Orlando traded him the following summer.

The Magic’s mistake in 2012 was to play off Howard’s unsettled desires and try to hold onto the hope they could keep their star player. It created a public relations fiasco and embarrassment for the organization that it still has not recovered from. Starting their rebuild in December of 2011 likely would have netted better assets and created the cap space to kickstart the team while it still had a good reputation. Delaying the inevitable made things worse for the franchise.

The Pacers are not going to follow that path. Not in the slightest. They learned the lessons of the Dwight-mare and saw the benefit the Timberwolves got from moving quickly after Love asked out. Once the trade cat is out of the bag, there is no putting it back in. Like a car, a player loses value as the pressure to make a deal increase.

And so the clock is ticking for the Pacers now, and general manager Kevin Pritchard appears to be taking a methodical, mechanical approach to dealing his star player. He is not going to sit and wait and let free agency play out before trading George. He is not going to bring George to training camp, hoping George’s previous professions of loyalty will have him change his mind. There will be no waiting to the last second, hoping to find the best deal.

Pritchard and the Pacers are going to move fast and get this over with so they can move on with their future and rebuilding their franchise. That is what is best for the team and organization. It stings to move on from a franchise player. It is the hardest decision an organization has to make. But when the player makes that decision first, it should be relatively easy. Then it just becomes about fielding offers and taking the best package they can get. It is up to the other teams to determine how much they are willing to give up.

It is never a good situation for the team trading away its star. Value is already decreasing with the knowledge the star wants out. The team has already lost some leverage. Then there are the questions each team has to ask for how much they are willing to pay for a rental. But that is the situation the Pacers find themselves in.

That is the situation future teams will always find themselves in facing unrestricted free agency for their stars. And when a player wants out, they are gone. That was the lesson of the Dwight-mare and the mistake the Magic made. They held on too long and lost all leverage and value in Howard. They got stuck with a bad deal — Nikola Vucevic, Maurice Harkless, Al Harrington, the draft pick that became Elfrid Payton (trading Dario Saric to get him), pick No. 33 in this year’s draft, a first round pick so heavily protected they would never get it (they traded it back to Philadelphia for Elfrid Payton) and a second round pick they sent to the Raptors to hire Jeff Weltman as president of basketball operations.

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George told the Pacers he wanted out. He is gone. Indiana knows this. And the team is moving quickly to put this behind them and move on. For that, they deserve some praise.