Twenty-four hours ago it looked like the Nets were moving on from Dwight Howard, but things change fast in free agency. I say change fast because a version of this deal wasn’t good enough for Orlando at last year’s trade deadline and even recently we heard the sides were far apart, but suddenly everything has changed?
Maybe. Chris Broussard of ESPN tweets that they are.
Would, could, but it’s not that simple.
Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated reports that the Magic want (and the Nets are good with) Hedo Turkoglu and the two years, $23 million left on his contract to be part of the trade. Which I would insist on if I were the Magic because if I’m Orlando and I’m rebuilding I don’t want that anchor of a deal on the books. But adding that contract into the mix complicates the deal immensely.
Already this is a far from simple deal. Both Humphries and Brooks are free agents who would have to agree to a sign-and-trades to the Magic, for example. You may... actually, you will have to overpay both of them to get them to go to Orlando.
To make the deal work a third team has to come in and take on Humphries in a sign-and-trade to keep him off the Magic’s books, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports and the NBC Sports Network. This could actually end up being a complex series of sign-and-trade deals with a lot of moving parts. It is not straight forward. A lot of things could blow it up.
And there are multiple reports this is not the only deal the Magic are currently working on involving Howard — CBSSports.com’s Ken Berger calls it a full court press with the Magic talking to the Lakers, Hawks, Mavericks, Rockets and pretty much anyone else interested. How serious those other talks are is unclear.
What is clear is that this may not happen quickly (certainly not as quickly as Howard and Nets fans hope). No deal could be consummated until July 11, so the Magic are not under any pressure to agree to terms right now.
If if it works, Nets GM Billy King will have pulled off a trade for the ages. The Nets would have D-Will at the point, Joe Johnson at the two, Gerald Wallace at the three and Howard in the paint. A few days ago that would have seemed impossible. And it’s going to cost Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov a lot of money — just that starting four plus Turkoglu would have the Nets $9 million into the luxury tax without anyone else on the roster. Of course, he can afford it. And he would certainly have a team that could open the new Barclays Center.
Howard saying he would only re-sign in Brooklyn certainly helped the two sides come come together and talk — teams like the Lakers and Clippers reportedly have interest in Howard but only if he agreed to stay with them. The number of trading partners the Magic had has fallen off and they don’t want him back when training camp opens.
So Howard may get his way, he may land in the New York marketplace, in a brand new building on a very competitive team.
Maybe. Things change fast in free agency.