UPDATE 4:10 pm: Here’s a bit of an update on this complex blockbuster four-team Dwight Howard trade that illustrates how complex and potentially unlikely it is. From Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo:
Orlando’s Jason Richardson has been significant name in 4-way talks too, sources tell Y! There’s a scenario where he goes with Howard to LA.
The Lakers would save about $10 million in a trade that would send out Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol and brings back Howard and Al Harrington, and that seems a reason the Lakers would do it. They are way over the tax line the next couple years and want to lower payroll. But it also gives them room to bring back someone like Richardson, who will make about $5.7 million next year but has three years left on his deal. That would dramatically cut the Lakers savings, give them a contract that goes three years out, and the question of if they are better on the court is still up in the air.
And that’s just one team’s concerns and issues in a four-team deal. These are very, very hard trades to pull together.
1:16 pm: While things publically have been blissfully quiet on the Dwight Howard front for the past couple of weeks, the Lakers and Magic have not given up efforts to find a deal that works for everyone to send Howard to the Lakers.
And to do that, things seem to have gotten more complex (maybe too much so) but are now picking up some steam, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports and the NBC Sports Network.
There are multiple moving parts in the fluid talks, but the framework of a possible deal includes Howard and Denver forward Al Harrington going to the Lakers, Philadelphia guard Andre Iguodala going to the Nuggets, Los Angeles center Andrew Bynum moving to the 76ers, and Los Angeles forward Pau Gasol and Denver guard Arron Affalo going to the Magic, sources told Yahoo! Sports.
The Magic would have a better chance of moving Gasol in another deal to get further assets, sources said, and eliminate the risk of Bynum leaving them as a free agent in 2013. Nevertheless, there was still a sense that Gasol’s and Bynum’s destinations could be fluid in the talks. Either way, one would go to Orlando and the other to Philadelphia, sources said.
I’m not saying it is impossible, but do not go thinking this deal is done — that is a whole lot of moving parts and a whole lot of questions.
First, you almost never see four-team trades (in any sport) because they are insanely complex and hard to pull off, both in terms of the cap and making a deal everyone likes. So that’s a strike.
Next, the Lakers have said they don’t want to give up both Gasol and Bynum in a deal, but that was before the Steve Nash trade. Is a Nash/Howard pick-and-roll with Kobe on the wing enough to contend in the West? Would the Lakers really give up both guys? Actually, they might to save money (Howard and Harrington as a combo save them about $10 million next season).
The next issue, both Philadelphia and Denver (and the Lakers) are teams over the salary cap, so nobody can just absorb more salary, and Orlando wants to unload the contracts of Hedo Turkoglu and/or Jason Richardson. Denver has a $13 million trade exception but they are not looking to take on more salary as an organization and wouldn’t do something to help the Lakers unless they got a lot of help in return. Olympian Iguodala might be enough. Might. I could see Philly being willing to move Iggy to get Gasol or Bynum, but how many picks and what else are they going to be asked to surrender?
Which is to say, right now there are more questions than answers.
But it’s out there. And it seems to have some substance.
