Dwight Howard Rumors: Trade to Rockets Would Transform Also-Ran into Contender

After three consecutive seasons of missing the NBA playoffs the Houston Rockets appear to have had enough. The team's front office is busily gathering together assets that they hope will net them a player who would make a big impact for the club.

For the past couple of years the Houston Rockets have been stuck in the quagmire that goes with being a middling team in the NBA. Not good enough to get to the playoffs, but also not bad enough to get a high lottery pick that would allow the Rockets to add an impact player in the NBA draft.

That leaves either free agency or a trade as Houston's best options at adding that big piece to the puzzle. The Rockets look to be assembling a package that they can use to entice the Orlando Magic into dealing All-Star center Dwight Howard.

According to Chad Ford and Marc Stein of ESPN, the Rockets recently dealt small forward Chase Budinger to the Minnesota Timberwolves for the rights to the 18th pick in the upcoming 2012 NBA draft, a deal that now gives Houston the 14th, 16th, and 18th picks in the draft's first round.

However, as Ford and Stein also point out, the Rockets may not be done wheeling and dealing in an effort to assemble a Godfather offer for Howard, and the team may be looking to use some of those picks to bump even further into the first round.

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Although sources stressed that no deal is imminent, the Rockets have had substantive discussions about sending their other two first-round picks (Nos. 14 and 16) to the Sacramento Kings for the No. 5 pick. The Rockets also have been exploring moving point guard Kyle Lowry to a team in the top 10 to acquire another pick.

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Assuming for a moment that Rockets general manager Daryl Morey is somehow able to pull this all off (which would be no small feat), two top 10 draft picks would be awfully enticing to the Magic.

That begs the question, with Howard set to hit free agency after the 2013 season, how appealing are the Rockets to Howard? Getting the big man to ink a long-term extension would be a vital part of this whole master scheme.

The two teams that have been mentioned over and over again as the likeliest landing spots for Howard are the Los Angeles Lakers and the Brooklyn Nets, but there are stumbling blocks with both.

The Lakers would almost certainly have to deal 24-year-old big man Andrew Bynum to acquire Howard, and there's some dissension in La-La Land as to whether that's the best course of action for the team.

With the Nets, it's a bizarro-world catch-22. Howard wants to come to the Big Apple, but the Nets have little to offer in way of trade assets. Also, a trade for Howard may be the only shot the Nets have at keeping point guard Deron Williams, but if Williams bolts then Howard's interest in Brooklyn may well bolt with him.

That leaves Houston, which can offer Howard a few things including an array of solid if unspectacular complimentary players and the nation's 10th largest media market. Granted, that market may not be as big as Los Angeles or New York, but the spotlight isn't nearly as bright either.

You don't have to worry about every single thing you do, every bad game you have and being plastered all over the back of The Post in living color in Houston.

In fact, the Rockets might even be able to offer Howard one more thing he really wants. The Rockets are fairly flush with cap space, and if the team were to be able to swing a trade for Howard it's possible that Houston could have room left over to make a push at Williams, especially if both players are willing to take a bit less money in order to play together.

I'll grant you, this entire article is like a long string of dominoes, and every one of them has to fall just right for this to work.

However, when your favorite team hasn't made the playoffs since 2009 you'll take hope where you can get it, and this flurry of activity at least shows Rockets' faithful that the team is serious about getting better.

Adding Dwight Howard would be a huge step in that direction, and would transform the Houston Rockets from a Western Conference afterthought to a legitimate playoff contender.

Add Howard and Williams? Well, lets not get too carried away. Yet.

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