Post-Trade Report Card: Grading the 4 Teams in the Dwight Howard Trade
The “Dwightmare” is finally over.
Despite collecting better offers for Dwight Howard from the Brooklyn Nets and Houston Rockets (we’ll get to this later in the slideshow), Orlando Magic general manager Rob Hennigan decided to ship the league’s best center to the Los Angeles Lakers in a four-team deal that netted the Magic approximately five cents on the dollar.
The Lakers, and obviously their fans, are thrilled that their starting lineup will now sport a gargantuan 33 All-Star appearances among five players.
The Oklahoma City Thunder still have to be the favorites in the Western Conference before they're unseated, but the Lakers are clear favorites to knock them off the pedestal.
There are winners, losers and teams who lie somewhere in between, so without any further delay, let’s get right to the post-trade report card.
Los Angeles Lakers Grade: A
1 of 4Lakers Trade: Andrew Bynum, Christian Eyenga, Josh McRoberts and a protected first-round pick
Lakers Receive: Dwight Howard, Chris Duhon and Earl Clark
The Los Angeles Lakers—as is often the case in trades (see: Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Pau Gasol, etc.)—come out of the dust cloud as huge winners in this deal.
Somehow, they managed to turn Andrew Bynum, Christian Eyenga, Josh McRoberts and a protected first-round pick into the NBA’s best center and three-time Defensive Player of the Year.
In a nutshell, the Lakers gave up the league’s injury-prone second-best center along with three significantly below-average role players for one of the game’s most dominant superstars.
When Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports originally broke the story of a possible four-team trade, he reported that the Lakers were going to give up both Bynum and Gasol.
Giving up two possible 20 and 10 guys for one 20 and 15 guy, in my opinion, would have been a bad move for the Lakers.
Instead, against all logical thought, the Lakers didn’t even have to give up Gasol and now have a vastly upgraded “core four” from what they would have had if this trade didn’t go through.
The only thing keeping the Lakers’ report card from being graded an A+ is the fact that D12 is coming off of back surgery.
As per the norm, everything seems to work out for the Lakers.
Denver Nuggets Grade: B
2 of 4Nuggets Trade: Aaron Afflalo, Al Harrington and a protected first-round pick
Nuggets Receive: Andre Iguodala
The Denver Nuggets, ranked 29th in the NBA last season in points allowed per game, instantly upgrade their pathetic defense by adding a guy who is arguably the league’s best perimeter defender.
Andre Iguodala fits in with the Nuggets’ up-tempo, athletic style of play and could immediately change the teams’ philosophy on the defensive end of the floor by his example.
Aaron Afflalo is a good NBA player, but Iggy is without question an upgrade over him. Throw in the fact that Al Harrington has an unsavory salary and the Nuggets will get to keep their first-round pick if they somehow land in the lottery. This is a fantastic deal for Denver.
The only thing keeping this grade from an A, is the undeniable fact that the Nuggets, a team who nearly beat the Lakers in the playoffs last season by exploiting their slow interior defense, essentially orchestrated a trade that gives the Lakers the most athletic interior defender in the NBA.
Adding Iggy is a big improvement, but they don’t help themselves by making the Lakers an even bigger threat in the same conference.
Philadelphia 76ers Grade: A
3 of 476ers Trade: Andre Iguodala, Nikola Vucevic, Moe Harkless and a protected first-round pick
76ers Receive: Andrew Bynum and Jason Richardson
The Philadelphia 76ers lost a ton of perimeter defense by trading away Iguodala, but they hadn’t won anything significant with him as the team’s franchise player. So moving in a different direction made a ton of sense even if they didn’t get such a great haul in return.
Being able to turn a solid starter, a young big man with some potential, an unproven rookie prospect and a protected first rounder into Andrew Bynum and Jason Richardson is a great move for Philly.
Bynum can now be the star of a team as the No. 1 option, something he’s always wanted while being overshadowed by the Kobe Bryant/Pau Gasol tandem in Los Angeles.
After a career year and breakout season for the 24-year-old center, he should only improve his already impressive repertoire with more touches as the Sixers’ franchise guy moving forward.
The only concern here is that Bynum is immature and tends to butt heads with coaches.
That’s an attitude that simply will not be tolerated in Philly under a no-nonsense coach like Doug Collins (who, if you recall, kept Marreese Speights in his doghouse for a year before he was traded to Memphis).
This addition could be a match made in heaven if Collins and Bynum can see eye-to-eye. If not, it could end in either a coaching change or the Sixers losing Bynum for no gain after this season. Only time will tell.
Orlando Magic Grade: F
4 of 4Magic Trade: Dwight Howard, Jason Richardson, Chris Duhon and Earl Clark
Magic Receive: Aaron Afflalo, Al Harrington, Nikola Vucevic, Moe Harkless, Josh McRoberts, Christian Eyenga, three protected first-round picks and two second-round picks
Rob Hennigan is the next GM in line to be ridiculed until he actually makes some good moves that work out (if he ever gets the chance to make that happen).
The only team this trade didn’t make sense for was Orlando, and it's not even close. They were the team giving up the most talent, and they got the least amount of talent in return.
Here are three under-the-radar factors that seem to get lost in the translation in the early aftermath of the trade:
- Hedo Turkoglu and his grisly contract, which will pay him more than $11.8 million next season, is still on Orlando’s payroll.
- Orlando fired Stan Van Gundy, one of the league’s best coaches, in an effort to appease Howard, who was never going to have any interest in staying with the team anyway. The Magic will move forward with the unproven coach Jacque Vaughn. (For the record I think Vaughn will be a good coach, but he isn’t even close to as good or as experienced as SVG).
- The Magic began the rebuilding process earlier this summer by giving Jameer Nelson, who had one of his worst NBA seasons on record, a three-year $25 million deal (according to Alex Kennedy of Hoopsworld via Twitter). For a frame of reference, that’s $7 million more than the Phoenix Suns paid over the same span to get 23-year-old forward Michael Beasley.
As if that isn't bad enough, ESPN's John Hollinger tweeted that the Magic's $30 million 2014 cap space is unchanged from the $30 million cap room they had before the Howard trade.
Hollinger also tweeted that the Houston Rockets "pretty clearly had a better offer." According to Hollinger, the trade would have sent a guaranteed lottery pick to Orlando. If you ask me, one guaranteed lottery pick is better than three first rounders that will undoubtedly land in the 20-30 range.
And last, but certainly not least, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports tweeted that the Brooklyn Nets' final offer for Howard in July included Brook Lopez, MarShon Brooks, one year of Kris Humphries and four unprotected first-round picks.
One final tidbit for Magic fans to stew over, the Phoenix Suns got two first-round picks and two second-round picks for the 38-year-old Steve Nash. The Magic got nearly no additional value in comparison for the 26-year-old superstar in Howard.
It's hard to see any positive for the Magic following this four-team trade. They are big, big losers, there's simply no nice way to put their inept decision.
