It’s not been confirmed by Howard himself, but it is where all signs have been pointing for days — Dwight Howard has selected the Houston Rockets as his next team, something first reported by Sam Amick of the USA Today.
This has now been confirmed by other sources including David Aldridge of NBA.com, Ken Berger of CBSSports and others. Howard’s agent Dan Fegan has said the choice has not been finalized and would not be until later tonight or tomorrow, but that sounds like him trying to get out in front of the story. It sounds like the choice is make it’s just a matter of finalizing the contract, which is not yet done.
Howard has been personally calling teams to let them know of his choice, according to multiple reports, which started with Dallas and now has included every team. This had been a five team race for Howard: The Rockets, Lakers, Mavericks, Warriors and Hawks.
The question remains if the Rockets will do a sign-and-trade with the Lakers for players such as Omer Asik and/or Jeremy Lin. Frankly, the better move for the Lakers is to do a sign and trade where they net a massive trade exception to use later. Either way, the Rockets have a little salary cap room to still clear out to offer Howard a max deal. The Rockets also have been talking to the Hawks about an Asik deal that would free up more cap room and bring back Josh Smith to pair with Howard in a great defensive front line (that would have interesting offensive challenges), but would allow the Hawks to move Al Horford to his more natural four spot.
The Rockets had been the frontrunner because if this was really a basketball decision for Howard it put him closest to a title — paired with the playmaking of James Harden and good role players such as Chandler Parsons, the Rockets instantly enter the contenders conversation. That is a busy conversation in the West with the Oklahoma City Thunder getting Russell Westbrook back, the Clippers loaded and ready to go with a new coach and better role players like J.J. Redick, and of course discount the Spurs at your own peril.
But with Howard, the Rockets are in that conversation. That is huge for them.