Houston Rockets Trade Rumors 2016: Dwight Howard Returning to the East?
All throughout his career, Dwight Howard has always been targeted by teams looking for a dominant center and a defensive presence inside. So it's not really surprising to hear reports that his current team, the Houston Rockets, is getting feelers from other teams about the possibility of trading the All-Star.
Multiple online reports are speculating that the latest team to join the discussion is the Toronto Raptors. Just like the previous trade talks, this one is caused by the alleged discontentment of Howard with the Rockets and that he supposedly wants out of the team.
While Howard and fellow star James Harden look very comfortable with each other, the ball hugging tendencies of the latter is reportedly not sitting well with Howard, who has significantly given up a lot of opportunities in posting up and creating shots for his team. As for Harden, the moment he moved to Houston from Oklahoma City, everyone already knew this is his team.
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Should Howard or the Rockets pull the plug and his transfer to the Raptors materializes before the trade deadline, it should be a very interesting twist for both the Rockets and Toronto. It'll be intriguing to see how Harden adjusts without Howard in the middle, and equally exciting to see how Howard fits into a Raptors offense dependent on the guards.
Of course, there's the enticing chance of going deep into the Eastern Conference playoff picture. The fact is the 31-year-old may have a much better chance of reaching a conference final with Toronto than with Houston in the west.
But perhaps the biggest obstacle for this trade to happen is the pieces the Raptors are willing to offer in exchange for Howard. Are they willing to let budding star Jonas Valanciunas just to get the older Howard? The 23-year-old Lithuanian basketball star may not be an All-Star caliber yet but he has tons of potential and very bright future ahead.
