TUESDAY, 8:34am: The Heat have questions about Howard’s character and the way he’d fit with their team, sources tell Zach Lowe of ESPN.com.
MONDAY, 10:56am: The Rockets and Heat are talking about a potential trade that would involve Dwight Howard and Hassan Whiteside, according to Frank Isola of the New York Daily News (Twitter link). Miami would have to come up with at least an additional $17,315,052 in salary to make such a trade work within the league’s salary-matching rules, thanks in part to Howard’s trade kicker, and significantly more if the Heat want to cut payroll to avoid repeat-offender tax penalties. The Heat have reportedly measured the market for Whiteside, and the Rockets have reportedly gauged interest in Howard, too, if only on a due-diligence basis.
Howard is making in excess of $22.359MM this season, while Whiteside earns the three-year veteran’s minimum of $981,348. Both are poised for free agency this summer, with the Rockets expecting Howard to opt out and Whiteside’s bargain contract set to expire. The Heat have only Early Bird rights on Whiteside, meaning they’d have to use cap room to pay him in excess of roughly $6MM next season. The same would be true for the Rockets, or any other team that might trade for him before Thursday’s 2pm Central time deadline. The Heat reportedly believe Whiteside, who turns 27 this summer, would command a salary of at least $17MM. The Sean Kennedy client will no doubt try for a max deal with a projected starting salary of $20.4MM, while Howard, only three and a half years older but with eight additional years of NBA experience, is expected to seek his max of a projected $29.3MM.
Miami has reportedly grown frustrated with the emotional Whiteside, while the Rockets are looking for answers while they sit at 27-28, in ninth place in the Western Conference. ESPN’s Chris Broussard said this morning that Howard would like to play for his hometown Hawks, though it’s unclear if Atlanta has interest, and the market for the former All-Star center apparently hasn’t been overwhelming so far.
Can you envision a workable trade proposal involving Howard and Whiteside? Share your ideas in the comments.
Dragic, gerald green, whitside for Howard, brewer, lawson… Finalize it
I’m a huge Dwight fan, so I follow his teams closely. Trust me you don’t want to bring back Lawson or Brewer. McDaniels and Thirtin are better options
Impossible, the Heat would be taking on $22 million too much, they’d have to add in something like Deng, McRoberts, and Anderson just to match. Plus, they aren’t letting Dragic go for a rental of Howard and Lawson (Heat wouldn’t exercising his option)
Hell naw that’s the dumbest trade I’ve ever heard because dragic, green & whiteside are better than all of them and I’m a Heat fan why give up the best center in the east for a washed up Dwight Howard when that’s not the issue we don’t need big men we need to make a pitch for Rudy Gay because Deng is trash and also we need to make a pitch for Joe Johnson if Brooklyn plans on buying out his contract
Whiteside deng mcroberts Anderson works financially, but that’s a lot of depth lost.
Am I the only heat fan that personally doesn’t want Dwight? At this stage of their careers, you can argue Whiteside is actually better than Dwight. This current Dwight. And I want to trade Whiteside. But it doesn’t make sense to trade him for an older, broken version of him.
Dwight still has something left. He would be a nice piece in Miami. If they can give up Deng, Anderson, Whiteside and McRoberts and bring back Dwight and KJ, the Heat should jump on that.
Not at all that’s a dumb trade because why trade a center who has the potential to get a triple double almost every game for a washed up howard? What you all fail to realize is big men are not the heats downfall Miami needs a small forward to replace lebron instead of Deng and I was reading that we would give up Deng for Rudy Gay and I also read that the Heat are interested in adding Joe Johnson the the roster of the Nets plan on buying out his contract. That makes way more sense than trading whiteside for Howard.
Riley knows how to use Centers with Howards skill set. Wade and Bosh know how to play with Players like Howard.
Totally agree with you. I’m looking at all this comments thinking, seriously? Are there any true heat fans here? Riley believes in cohesion and in good character. I don’t think whiteside is Riley’s guy, but I don’t think Howard is anywhere NEAR a heat guy a Riley guy a franchise guy. I do believe that we would do more with Howard than Houston but he is not a heat player. I do also think, contrary to my feelings, that trading whiteside mcroberts and someone else who doesn’t include dragic or deng would be ‘okay’ bc whiteside is causing more bad than good ( doesn’t get the ball, then sulks, things of that nature that make him a “me” player) and if we wait for the end of the year, he leaves and we get nothing in return since freeing his salary wouldn’t have an impact of any kind
Exactly. Howard is a dead weight anchor who lowers energy if his teammates…….eventually.
I’m a Heat fan, but Dwight Howard is still exponentially better than Whiteside.
No your not but your crazy why trade Whiteside he’s clearly the best center in the east along side Drumond but Whiteside is a way better defender I like him I want him to stay in Miami because has talent I don’t want Dwight Howard only center I’d take over whiteside is Drumond or Marc Gasol
Agree!
Miami is trying to minimized the guy because they can’t pay him.what have he done to deserve this.he’s not smoking,beating up women,clubbing.a few technicals.Rodman,Wallace ,shack all have rings they had many fights.Never seen a player with 10 blocks in 20 minutes.
Whiteside for jordan clarkson
As the main pieces of a swap. Lakers get a big man they can resign with cap space. And miami get d wade eventually replacement
Or lakers keep clarkson, have his RFA rights, and sign whiteside. Trading for him wouldn’t mean birds rights or anything so it’s pointless.
Theres no replacing a Dwyane Wade
No thank you if lakers really want him they can try in free agency
Heat would have to give up Anderson/Deng/McRoberts to get Howard and Sam Dekker
That deal is so underwhelming for Houston if they don’t get Whiteside.
and Whiteside
Why would anyone want Dwight, especially at his pay grade. He is a clubhouse cancer and will never win a championship with his me first attitude. Does anyone ever look at his track record? Orlando, Lakers and Houston all had to put up with his nonsense which hurt their team when he was on them. Other then his first couple years in Orlando he has been injured very often and a selfish, childish POS. I don’t understand why anyone would make the mistake of trading for him or signing him unless you are a franchise that just wants a “star” and doesn’t care about winning.
Jesus Christ, I’m so sick of this narrative. He took one Magic team to the finals single handedly, which is way more than guys like Chris Paul/Tracy McGrady ever did. That Lakers team with a broken down Kobe/Nash/Howard was going nowhere, and would have gone nowhere these last few years. And his Rockets team last year got within 3 games of the finals, only losing to what’s apparently one of the greatest teams of all time. On what planet is he a loser and a quitter?
For a guy with no post moves, he’s averaged 18 ppg over his career. For a guy with an aging, broken down body…he’s still averaging 14/12/2 (which DeAndre Jordan and Whiteside can still only dream of at this point). I still have yet to read one comment from anyone actually connected to the Rockets or Howard himself regarding his “cancerness” around the team since he’s been here. The reason he’s on the block is b/c we remember the end of the Yao Ming era all too well, and don’t wanna commit 30 mil a year for the next 4 years to a 30+ year old center with injury issues…which is def a knock on the guy, but it’s not because of the crap you spieled above
Howard never quit on the Lakers, he just saw the writing on the wall that they were a dumpster fire waiting to happen, and went somewhere he knew was in a better spot to compete…even if we’ve fallen short of a title since he’s been here. Players give zero craps about how many titles your team used to win, they care about how many titles your positioned to win in the future…and Howard was just the first of many before LA/Melo/Love/Paul George/LeBron/soon to be Durant proved that to the legions of bitter Lakers fans (which you may or may not be, but I wanted to get that out there as well)
Howard quit on Orlando the Lakers and now Houston. He is a selfish overrated player. Numbers don’t mean anything if you are selfish and your teammates don’t like playing with you. He had the Lakers franchise in his hands and couldn’t handle Kobe’s winning attitude. Stop making excuses for this guy. The dude is a team cancer.
FYI if Howard wasn’t a cancer and didn’t want to go to another new team because he is a cancer Daryl would lock him up. It has nothing to do with Yao’s injuries, that is just laughable. Morey realized he made a mistake by acquiring him and now he needs to try and make it right.
We’re seeing a few narratives that don’t make any sense, similar to the opinion on Dwight. I think it started b/c people were still salty with LeBron, and then Dwight had the whole indecision thing when he was in Orlando for his last year. Since then, there is this ridiculous perception about him…James Harden has been drinking way too much of his own cool-aid. If anything, he is Houston’s problem
I actually agree with you there. If Howard was 5 years younger, I would advocate trading Harden to Howard in a heartbeat. But we’re married to Harden for better or worse right now, hopefully he’ll bring his head back in from the clouds
I don’t think Howard’s been perfect either, but I’ve long been tired of the whole “he’s a quitter and a coward” story from when he left the Lakers. Somebody’s fan base is going to be pleasantly surprised if he gets dealt this week…he’s a better dude and player than he gets credit for
Howard can’t even get along with one star (Harden) let alone 2 with Wade and Bosh and even Dragic would be an option before him. He would be the 4th fiddle and Dwight can’t even handle being the second option right now. There is a reason the well managed teams (Toronto, Boston) don’t want anything to do with him. Take off your Howard blinders and read the writing on the wall. The dude is NOT a winner and he never will be as long as he puts himself first over the team.
Why for heaven’s sake would Riley and the Heat take on the inevitable anchor that Howard becomes?
I don’t care who we the heat give up as long as it isn’t gragic green Johnson or mcroberts I like brewer thought
With Bosh’s health concerns, I think a trade for a solid 4 makes more sense, than trading Whiteside. If they lose Bosh for an extended period of time, making a trade will be difficult.
Bucks trade: Henson, MCW, Mayo,and O’Bryant for Whiteside, Dragic, and McRoberts
Dragic/Bayless/Ennis
Middleton/Vaughn
Giannis/Inglis
Monroe/Parker
Whiteside/Plumlee
Deng Whiteside and McRoberts for Howard.