Knicks Rumors: Why Dwight Howard Is Not an Option for New York

With the trade deadline just a week and a half away, the biggest mystery in the NBA is what team will Dwight Howard be on when that deadline passes?

It is rumored that Howard still wants out of Orlando, but it is unclear which teams he would be willing to sign an extension with. At first, it was believed his wish list of teams to get traded to only included three teams—the Nets, Lakers and Mavericks—with the Nets as his top choice of the three. There have been many conflicting stories about this list released in the past couple of weeks though, so it is impossible to know exactly what Howard is thinking unless you hear it from him personally.

Regardless of what his list says, I’m sure the other 26 teams in the league, especially the New York Knicks, will be exploring potential trades for the man they call "Superman." According to the New York Post from February 26, one Eastern Conference GM even had this to say about the possibility of Howard coming to the Big Apple:

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I’m positive the Knicks have called just in case Dwight changes up. I’m sure they’ve offered a combination of everybody, excluding Jeremy Lin, of course. Otis deserves a lot of credit for not putting it out on the street which teams have offered what.

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I really hope this isn’t true about the Knicks offering a combination of everybody, minus Lin, for Howard. Yes, Dwight Howard is the best center in the NBA and probably will be for the next five seasons, but the Knicks already have a pretty good center in Tyson Chandler and shouldn’t sacrifice all of their young talent once again in another deadline trade.

In order for the Knicks to acquire Howard, you must assume they will need to trade the Magic either Carmelo Anthony or Amar’e Stoudemire, Tyson Chandler, Landry Fields or Iman Shumpert or a first-round draft pick, plus take on the remainder of Hedo Turkoglu’s awful contract.

A trade like this would just cripple the Knicks for so many reasons. They would be once again in a terrible cap situation, with Hedo Turkoglu eating up over $23 million over the next two seasons. On top of that, the Knicks would also be giving up their young, talented players, while already not having a first-round pick in next year’s draft to replace them.

A trade like this would also put a lot more pressure on the shoulders of the Knicks’ new star guard, Jeremy Lin. This could potentially become a problem since he already looks fatigued from the massive role he needed to play when 'Melo and STAT were both out.

As good as Dwight Howard is, getting him to New York right now is just not realistic and shouldn’t happen this season.