Once the free agency period officially opens after midnight Eastern on July 1, the most coveted player on the market will be with one of the teams he is strongly considering signing a max contract with for the next four years.
That meeting has been set, and the team that will get the first crack at making its sales pitch to Dwight Howard is the Houston Rockets.
According to multiple reports, a group from the Rockets will have dinner with Howard Sunday night in Los Angeles, after which the official presentation will be made.
CSN Houston has confirmed some of the details as to who will be in attendance.
Rockets owner Leslie Alexander is also expected to be in attendance, as is James Harden, reports Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle.
Howard is expected to meet with at least four teams other than the Lakers during free agency -- the Rockets, Mavericks, Warriors, and Hawks.
ESPN’s Chris Broussard reports that Dallas will meet with Howard on Tuesday (with Mark Cuban and Dirk Nowitzki representing), while Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports that the Warriors will also meet with Howard in Los Angeles next week.
The Golden State contingent will include owner Joe Lacob, GM Bob Myers and head coach Mark Jackson, but unless they plan on convincing Dwight to sign with the Warriors for far, far less than the max contract he can command, the meeting will be for show more than anything else.
Even if Howard were to ultimately decide on the Warriors, the Lakers would have to be convinced to sign and trade him for that make any sense for him financially. And for a variety of reasons, that’s not going to happen.
As a reminder, Howard will leave an extra contract year and around $30 million on the table if he decides to leave the Lakers. Houston and Dallas are considered the frontrunners for where Howard would end up should he ultimately make that decision.