The NBA trade rumors continue to roll as there are already some notable names traded. But the biggest fish in the pond is still available.
Perhaps the biggest trade so far has been the Detroit Pistons getting their coveted forward in Tobias Harris of the Orlando Magic in exchange for Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova. Despite the denials from Stan Van Gundy and Jennings' expressing willingness to come off the bench behind Reggie Jackson, the trade happened.
Which means that with the most persistent trade rumors, the adage that "where there's smoke, there's fire" applies. The thickest smoke that lingers in the deadline is the Dwight Howard trade, and it is not a knee-jerk reaction to an incident like the Blake Griffin rumors-the Rockets have real reasons to trade Dwight Howard.
This is why Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report has named the Dwight Howard trade as his bold prediction at the deadline. As he stated in the video, the Rockets are wary of Dwight's impending free agency and as evidenced by the trade rumors, there are still a lot of teams interested in D12 and risk having to pay him the max contract that he would command.
Bucher named two teams that could be possible destinations for Howard, and one of the considerations would be whether those are possible long-term landing spots. Thus, Bucher said teams that Howard considered in his last free agency circus come to mind. He has burned his bridges with the Lakers and he is leaving Houston, so the Dallas Mavericks and Brooklyn Nets became the most likely candidates.
The Nets have a bigger motivation to trade for Howard because they do not own their 2016 draft pick (although the same applies for Dallas in 2016) and they have also compromised their future picks with the Boston Celtics.
The only assets that the Houston Rockets could possibly covet that could approximate Howard's value is Brook Lopez or possibly Thaddeus Young. Brook Lopez would not give the same impact as Howard, but the Rockets are close to accepting the fact that they would not get the value they're looking for.
As ESPN noted, Lopez may have narrowed the gap, but Howard still makes an impact. "A 30-year-old Dwight Howard with his back problems entering a free agent year doesn't sound as desirable as Brook Lopez. But Howard, when he's healthy is a strong defender and despite his struggles with his post moves, is good on alley oops and put backs," ESPN's Calvin Watkins said.