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Houston Rockets: The Dwight Howard Saga Continues

By Duncan Smith

Dec 9, 2015; Washington, DC, USA; Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard (12) talks with Rockets guard Ty Lawson (3) against the Washington Wizards in the fourth quarter at Verizon Center. The Rockets won 109-103. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 9, 2015; Washington, DC, USA; Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard (12) talks with Rockets guard Ty Lawson (3) against the Washington Wizards in the fourth quarter at Verizon Center. The Rockets won 109-103. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Houston Rockets’ season-long struggles have continued, and rumors about Dwight Howard’s future with the team have come to light.

The Houston Rockets have been the biggest disappointment in the NBA thus far in 2015-16. They have a 12-14 record, have been swept in the season series by the lowly Denver Nuggets in three embarrassing losses, and just came off an embarrassing 107-97 loss to the equally poor Sacramento Kings on Tuesday.

It’s time to come to terms with the idea that this ship is not going to right itself. The season is still early, and thanks to the surprisingly bad records of a number of Western Conference teams, the Rockets hold the seventh seed in the West. But there is an element of fool’s gold to their record.

The Rockets have only won one of their 12 victories by more than seven points, and have only held three opponents under 101 points through 26 games. They have the 10th worst net rating in the NBA, being outscored by 3.4 points per 100 possessions.

They are giving up the worst opponent field goal percentage in the NBA, allowing 47 percent shooting on defense, and the emphasis on small lineups is causing the Rockets to be among the worst rebounding teams in the NBA, collecting just 48.2 percent of possible rebounds.

As Gerald Henderson of the Portland Trail Blazers noted in the above tweet, at one point against the Kings on Tuesday, the Rockets rolled out a lineup consisting of Jason Terry, Patrick Beverley, James Harden, Corey Brewer and Trevor Ariza.

This is a lineup with three guards, and two small forwards, and the six-foot-eight Ariza was playing center.

The Rockets are scrambling, trying to piece together lineups that can work, and have had no luck in finding one. Houston’s most used lineup consists of Ariza, Harden, Dwight Howard, Ty Lawson and Marcus Thornton, and they’ve played only 72 minutes together, according to NBA.com.

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The underachieving, turmoil and upheaval helped lead to head coach Kevin McHale‘s dismissal after 11 games and a 4-7 start, and he was replaced with assistant J.B. Bickerstaff. That quick firing (after McHale signed an extension this past offseason, no less) is a clear sign that the Rockets front office is going to pull out all the stops to get this team back on track, no matter what it takes.

There have been rumors surrounding point guard Ty Lawson, although those have been dispelled by Rockets’ management.

The next big name on the block appears to be Dwight Howard. According to Chris Sheridan of Sheridan Hoops, Howard is unhappy in Houston playing second fiddle to James Harden. He predicts that Howard will end up with the Miami Heat as part of a deal that will move center Hassan Whiteside out of Miami.

The counterpoint to Sheridan’s prediction comes from Ethan Skolnick of the Miami Herald, who outlines the questionable logic of the Heat moving Whiteside at this point in time considering the unusual nature of Whiteside’s contract. He expresses the fact that it doesn’t make much sense for a team to yield assets for Whiteside when his price tag is going to balloon monstrously in the offseason, basically making him an unreasonably overpriced rental.

Naturally, in response to Sheridan’s claims, Dwight Howard had a response of his own.

Howard’s contract expires this year, and he has a player option for 2016-17 worth $23.2 million. If he opts out, he’s certain to command a huge price tag, and it’s possible the Rockets might not want to pay it. If that’s the case, they run a significant risk of losing him for nothing, and that’s not the way the Rockets general manager Daryl Morey does things.

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    • That leads to some tricky questions. The Rockets have an undersized roster, with only Howard, Clint Capela and Donatas Motiejunas taller than six-foot-nine. That means that any trade for Howard is almost certainly going to require a size-for-size trade, as they can’t really afford to get smaller.

    Another twist in this issue is that Howard has actually been one of Houston’s best players this season. He is tied for second on the team in net rating with +4 points per 100 possessions when he is on the floor, and he’s averaging 12.6 points, 11.6 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 32 minutes per game.

    So if the Rockets are going to trade him, it’s going to have to be for a big man who can step in immediately and be one of the best players on the team right off the bat.

    It’s also unlikely that he is going to be traded for any kind of rental, like Whiteside, who would provide no assurances of returning next season.

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    It’s a frustrating result to come to, but it seems like it’s going to be very difficult and probably inadvisable for the Rockets to try to move Howard, unless the landscape of the NBA shifts dramatically in the coming weeks.

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