Lakers unlikely to sign and trade Dwight Howard to the Clippers, Rockets, or anyone else

When the reports started flying of a possible deal that would net the Clippers Kevin Garnett and head coach Doc Rivers from the Celtics, Dwight Howard’s name got thrown in the mix at some point as someone that L.A.'s historically junior team would then like to pursue.

Talks have stalled between the Celtics and Clippers for now, but the report that the Clips have weighed offering Blake Griffin and Eric Bledsoe to the Lakers in a sign-and-trade package for Howard had plenty of people wondering where the Lakers stand on potential scenarios involving Dwight should he decide he wants out of the Forum blue and gold as a free agent after July 1.

Marc Stein and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com have put together a handy list of updates, some of which we’ll discuss.

Yet the Lakers also, according to sources, have not completely ruled out the idea of a sign-and-trade if they come to find next month that Howard is determined to leave. Sources say they are indeed leaning against sign-and-trade scenarios because they’d rather bank the resultant cap space from Howard’s departure for the summer of 2014. But sources say they’ve adopted a keep-all-options-open approach. So they’ll at least listen to just about anything.

Of course the Lakers will listen, but they’re highly unlikely to do anything to help Howard go somewhere else. And, especially publicly, L.A. isn’t going to put it out there that this is a course of action that they’d be fine with, because all that would do would give Howard even more choices of where to play next season somewhere other than for the Lakers.

Now, if there’s a ridiculous package on the table involving young star players who are clearly franchise cornerstones, then it becomes slightly more tempting. But it’s unclear if Griffin (and certainly Bledsoe, who’s become a bit overrated showing flashes in short stints off the bench in L.A.'s monster media market) is exactly that, and again, the Lakers want to re-sign Howard, so they’re going to shut down these conversations at a very early stage until and unless a truly amazing offer presents itself.

There’s also the unlikely prospect of the Lakers doing anything to help their Staples Center co-tenants, for a variety of reasons. But apparently, a deal with the Clippers isn’t completely out of the question.

One source with knowledge of the Lakers’ thinking said Saturday that any suggestion they could not philosophically allow themselves to make a major trade with the Clippers was “overblown.”

This goes back to that “listening” thing. You can’t ever say never, but the Lakers are the team with the banners in the building, and they’re definitely not looking to do anything that could result in a red, white and blue one being hung on the wall for the very first time.

This next one’s my personal favorite.

[S]ources say that the Rockets will certainly attempt to convince the Lakers to take in return Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin in a sign-and-trade deal for Howard, thus theoretically keeping alive the possibility that Houston could preserve its cap space to pursue Chris Paul and possibly pair Howard with Paul.

LOL, as the kids say.

Look, the Rockets are a team that has a history of acquiring assets that on the surface seem appealing before trading them away. But the Lakers aren’t a trial-and-error, experimental organization. As long as they have Kobe Bryant on the roster, it won’t be about dealing for players who might be a fit, eventually, or in the right situation. It’s about certainty and winning championships in Los Angeles, so the Lakers will not be taking on salary of borderline players when the end result could be the creation of a superteam in Houston that would be firmly in the Lakers’ way on the road to a title.

If Dwight Howard chooses to leave the Lakers, the team is most likely to let him do so without getting anything in return. They’d rather shed the salary (and the associated luxury tax penalties) and get right financially by creating salary cap space for 2014 to pursue someone who actually wants to play for one of the league’s most storied franchises.

The Lakers aren’t going to help Howard go play somewhere else, and they aren’t going to help another team build a legitimate contender. As always, the Lakers will do things their way, and it’s pretty difficult to argue against their long-term success and championship-level results.