As free agency nears, are we really seeing Dwight Howard‘s name mentioned in Milwaukee Bucks rumors again?
There’s likely to be few more interesting free agent cases this summer than that of eight-time All-Star and three-time Defensive Player of the Year, Dwight Howard.
Howard’s stock has been in steady decline ever since he left the Orlando Magic in 2012, with a combination of injuries, poor fits, attitude questions and more, getting in the way of the caliber of play that made him one of the league’s very best players.
As a result, Howard opted out of his $23 million player option with the Houston Rockets for next season, raising many eyebrows and inspiring multiple reports of teams who are prepared to take a risk on him recapturing some of his former glories.
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One of the teams whose name has seemed to appear most often as a suggested destination for the 30-year-old center is the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Bucks were reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! and Marc Stein of ESPN to have enquired about Howard’s availability, and the possibility of him opting in for next season, as the clock ticked down at the NBA trade deadline.
Most recently, the latest mention of Milwaukee and Howard in the same breath has come from Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders.
"“While Howard isn’t the darling in NBA circles that he once was, there is a belief that he’s the second name on the Knicks’ wish list and could be the primary target for teams like the Milwaukee Bucks, Portland Trail Blazers and Charlotte Hornets. The Dallas Mavericks continue to be a name linked to Howard, although he may be much lower on the list than he was two summers ago.”"
With many Bucks fans believing their team should spend free agency doing little more than adding reliable role players and strong veteran presences, any suggestion of Howard being a primary target is not going to be greeted with overwhelming joy.
More than that, the feeling for many would be that regardless of what level of talent Howard may or may not still have, a move for him at Milwaukee’s current juncture would be nothing other than short-sighted in light of younger players soon requiring new deals.
If Howard’s turning down a $23 million option for next year, not only is he expecting more money than that, but also additional security with extra years on a deal too.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski, speaking on The Vertical Podcast with Chris Mannix, things may not be quite that simple for Howard though:
"“I’ve had a few teams say to me we would look at him on a one-year deal at a big number, but I really think it’s going to be hard. Not impossible, he’ll probably find one, but I think it will be hard to find teams that will give him three years. I don’t think he’ll get four at a big number, for a lot of reasons; health, how he’s going to fit into certain teams.He opted out of that deal and usually when you opt out of a deal like that, you know you have something else out there, and he may. He may know that he has something, but I don’t know where it is.He’ll meet with teams and I know there’s a market, but the idea of him getting a three-year max or a four-year max, that would shock me. I think he could get one year at a big number, maybe, but the rest of Dwight’s career could be piecing together one year here, one year here, one year here, unless he goes somewhere and really solidifies himself.”"
If Howard’s future rests in shorter term deals, the chances of the Bucks being prepared, and financially positioned to make a run at him would seem to increase significantly.
Even if they are successful in re-signing Miles Plumlee, as they hope to do, that wouldn’t necessarily rule out the possibility of Howard coming in and providing the catalyst that finally pushes through a Greg Monroe trade.
With many skeptical of recent Howard links to multiple teams acting as little more than a method for his representatives to create a market, it remains to be seen whether the Bucks and others will have any real interest.
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For better or worse, what we do know is that the team’s ownership are fond of landing big free agents, and in more ways than one a Howard signing would provoke quite the reaction.
Free agency is coming.