NBA Trade Rumors: Why the LA Clippers Need to Go All out for Dwight Howard

With each passing day, it becomes more and more apparent that the Orlando Magic must trade Dwight Howard.

It is also apparent that Howard would love to play in Los Angeles. Everyone assumes it would be for the purple and gold, but the Clippers have the opportunity to step in and hijack Dwight from their arena-mates.

The Clips need to take advantage.

This is the hour that they (well, at least their fans) have been waiting for to gain NBA relevancy for the first time since, well, ever. It was just two years ago that ESPN the Magazine labeled the Clippers as the worst franchise in major pro sports. Blake Griffin has already taken steps to revamp the team's image, but acquiring Dwight Howard would put the Clips in a position they're not used to being in—challenging the Lakers' monopoly on L.A. basketball.

The Lakers and Clippers have shared a Los Angeles location since 1984, but there has been no sharing of the spotlight. Even in the rarest of times when the Clippers were actually the better basketball team–like in 2006–the city cared only about the Lakers. That's what happens when you're a franchise as hapless as the Clips have been, with an owner that no one can abide.

But last season saw a small turn of the tide. Blake Griffin burst onto the season with the baddest rookie year since Shaq, gobbling up attention on highlight reels and in social media. Griffin's dunks became trending topics on Twitter and you could bank on at least one of his superhuman slams landing on SportsCenter's top 10 plays of the night.

Fan interest began to perk up around the city.

Just before Thanksgiving last year, I bought tickets to a Saturday night Clippers-Knicks game about 12 rows up from the baseline for under $20. Staples Center was at about 75 percent capacity. On that night, Blake had his "I have officially arrived" performance where he unleashed this to go along with a line of 44-13-6. 

Four months later, I paid just over $30 to sit in the next bowl up on a Wednesday night game against the Wizards. Staples was a packed house that night. A Wednesday. Against the Wizards. 

The fans were there to see one of the most entertaining young teams in the league led by the single most must-watch guy in the NBA. Griffin didn't disappoint, putting up a 33-17-10 gem, and neither did the Clippers, who won a double overtime thriller. 

In the span of a few short months, the Clips had Staples Center buzzing. Fans were being drawn back in to see them. All of a sudden, it was cooler and more fun to be at a Clippers game than a Lakers game.

While the resurgence of L.A.'s shunned team was a nice story last year, the Clippers have the opportunity to build on it in a big way. They can make their first real run at challenging the Lakers for Los Angeles supremacy.

L.A. fans aren't exactly the most hardcore or loyal in the country (take it from someone who's lived there most of his life). They follow trends and jump on bandwagons. Those fans you see at Lakers playoff games; they're there because they want their friends to be impressed when they say they were at the game. They're there because A-list Hollywood celebrities are in attendance, meaning it has to be cool. They can't name anyone on the team besides Kobe, the "tall, white dude from Europe," "the skinny guy that's on Keeping up with the Kardashians" and Kobe. 

If the Clippers can acquire Dwight Howard, they'll be the next big thing the L.A. crowd gets behind. If Donald Sterling opens up his checkbook to extend Howard's contract and then follows that up by locking up Blake Griffin and Eric Gordon, he'll finally be reversing some of the negative karma he's built up for all the decades of suckitude he's dragged the Clips through.

With the addition of Howard, this Clippers run will turn into more than a hip trend. Perennial championship contenders have staying power. Just look at the Lakers. A new generation of Los Angeles basketball fans, already gravitating towards Blake Griffin's awesomeness, will be proud to root for a winning franchise. 

We're talking about more fans, more exposure, more national TV dates, more playoff appearances, more revenue, finally taking advantage of being in the L.A. market and possibly—if everything breaks right—an NBA championship banner hanging in the rafters at Staples Center that does NOT belong to the Lakers. All of this can stem from one trade.

And the best part? This fantasy has a pretty good shot at becoming a reality. No team out there can put together a package as good as the Clippers. In fact, the Clips can leave Eric Gordon, the best under-25 shooting guard in the league and the Clipper every potential trading partner will ask for first, out of the deal altogether and they'd STILL have an offer that no one could match.

The Clippers can offer Orlando quality young prospects (DeAndre Jordan if he agrees to a sign-and-trade, Al-Farouq Aminu, Eric Bledsoe), a likely top-five draft pick (Minnesota's pick, which the Clippers own) in a loaded 2012 draft, a big expiring contract (Chris Kaman) and cap relief (they can take on Hedo Turkoglu's ugly contract, opening the door for the Magic to use their amnesty on Gilbert Arenas' uglier contract).

If you're Orlando GM Otis Smith and you know you're losing your franchise player at the end of the season, how are you turning down a deal along those lines? The Magic get pieces to build around, a shot at a potential franchise guy in next year's draft, and clear some major cap room for free agency next summer, where they can splurge on one of the several talented (potential) restricted free agents, or even chase Chris Paul or Deron Williams if they remain unsigned. 

Everything is breaking right for the Clippers to mold themselves into a fixture in the NBA's spotlight. Blake Griffin's breakout stardom last year was the first step. Parlaying that with acquiring the second best player in the league will set the rest of the dominoes in motion.