2012 NBA Free Agency: 4 Teams That Still Have Huge Holes to Fill

Every NBA team dreams of having a complete roster, but not too many can actually accomplish that goal. More often than not, teams are left with missing pieces in their quest for the Larry O'Brien trophy. 

These four teams in particular have huge holes that they have been unable to fill during free agency thus far. 

Don't worry, Dwight Howard isn't the only focus here as he's only mentioned a few times!

Read on to find out which four teams still have a lot of work left to do. 

Brooklyn Nets

Hole: Forwards

The Brooklyn Nets have done a marvelous job of adding stars to the roster, even if they've been unable to land the biggest one, both physically and metaphorically. 

Even without Dwight Howard holding down the fort at center, the Nets still have recently re-signed big man Brook Lopez providing a nice scoring punch. 

However, there's still a problem at the forward positions. Gerald Wallace can capably man either small forward or power forward, but he can't play both of them at the same time. 

There aren't any other intriguing options at the 3 and the players comfortable playing power forward are limited or inexperienced. 

Bosnian import Mirza Teletovic could be good down the road, but the adjustment from knocking down threes in Europe to going up against NBA defenses is one that will take some time to overcome. Reggie Evans was the other addition at power forward, and he's more of a rebounding specialist than anything else. 

The addition of one solid veteran power forward—maybe someone like Antawn Jamison if he's willing to take a pay cut and hop aboard for the veteran's minimum—would do wonders for this team's ability to succeed immediately. 

Brooklyn could roll with a lineup of Deron Williams, MarShon Brooks, Joe Johnson, Wallace and Lopez, but it would be too undersized and struggle on the glass.

Houston Rockets

Hole: Point Guard

In GM Daryl Morey's mind, everything this summer has been about landing Dwight Howard and convincing him to sign an extension to stay with the Houston Rockets. 

However, his mindset has left him with a few holes on the roster if he doesn't land D12, especially at point guard. 

The Rockets traded starting—and disgruntled—point guard Kyle Lowry to the Toronto Raptors and then let Goran Dragic escape to the Phoenix Suns. 

While Houston has managed to get Jeremy Lin to sign an offer sheet, there's not much chance that he lands with the team; the New York Knicks would be crazy to not match the offer for their breakout point guard. 

Right now there are a lot of intriguing forwards and no one to get the ball to them. Maybe Morey can bring up Zoran Dragic from the Summer League roster and hope no one notices the difference?

Minnesota Timberwolves

Hole: Shooting Guard

The one hole left on the Minnesota Timberwolves' roster can be found quite easily. 

It's obviously not at point guard, where Ricky Rubio runs the show when healthy and is backed up by the more-than-capable trio of Luke Ridnour, J.J. Barea and new acquisition Alexey Shved. 

Clearly small forward will be fine between Chase Budinger—who the Wolves traded their first-round draft pick for—and last year's No. 2 pick, Derrick Williams. 

Power forward is the strongest position on the roster with Kevin Love, the best player at his position in the world. 

Nikola Pekovic holds down the fort at center and will continue to improve. He should have won Most Improved Player last year instead of Ryan Anderson, seeing as Anderson's level of play went slightly down while his minutes went way up. 

That leaves shooting guard. 

Wesley Johnson clearly isn't the answer for Minnesota here and Brandon Roy, who the Wolves recently brought out of retirement on a two-year deal, shouldn't be playing more than 20 minutes per game at this point. 

The Wolves signed restricted free-agent swingman Nicolas Batum to an offer sheet, but the Blazers are expected to match.

Signing someone like Courtney Lee could remedy this problem, but that is far from a sure thing at this point. 

Orlando Magic

Hole: Trading Partner

The biggest goal for the Orlando Magic this season was either to figure out how to convince Dwight Howard to stay long term or to trade him away for a decent package. 

So far, neither objective has been accomplished. Howard is still on the Magic's roster and he's just as upset with the organization as ever. 

Additionally, the Magic committed to moving on from the Superman era by trading Ryan Anderson to the New Orleans Hornets for Gustavo Ayon. This move almost guarantees that the Magic are going into rebuilding mode. 

It's now highly unlikely that the Magic advance past the first round of the playoffs, if they even make it that far in the first place. 

Finding a trading partner for the big man is still the goal for the organization, or else they risk letting him walk for absolutely nothing next summer.