Dwight Howard Unlikely to Re-sign with Lakers

Source for picture: Blacksportsonline.com

It's happening again.

Dwight Howard doesn't know what he wants.  Last year's Dwight Howard saga involved him bringing sports media attention to Orlando, because of his evident disgust of being part of the Orlando Magic organization.  He clearly expressed that he wanted to go somewhere else, be a part of another team, preferably the Nets or the Rockets.  Those desires were not fulfilled.  Instead, he signed a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Lakers, who he thought, and the rest of the team thought, were going to be able to challenge the Miami Heat for a championship.  Well so much for that Los Angeles.  The Lakers had one of the worst seasons they have ever had, going 45-37 in the regular season. During the regular season, the Lakers were plagued by injuries of Dwight Howard(shoulder), Steve Nash(hip, hamstring) and Pau Gasol(foot).  With these players being injured, Kobe virtually had no one to help him every night.  The Lakers rarely had all of their team together this past season because of how many injuries they suffered.  After the regular season, they barely squeezed into the playoffs.  Unfortunately, before the playoffs, Kobe Bryant suffered a season ending injury of a torn achilles. With Bryant's season ending injury, it ended the season for the Lakers as well.  In the first round of the playoffs, the Lakers were swept by the San Antonio Spurs.  Their season was over.

In the aftermath of Bryant's injury, and the loss to the Spurs, the Lakers looked ahead to the off-season and what it would bring.  Of course they knew Howard would be an issue to confront and acknowledge, but with the news today they didn't know it would be this big. The Lakers have tried everything in attempting to bring Howard back to the Lakers for maybe even just one more season. Bryant and Nash have expressed that they want him back and the Lakers have too.  The Lakers' pleas are so monumental that outside Staples Center, there is a poster with Dwight Howard on it and under it, it says, "Stay D12".  The Lakers want Howard back that badly.  But as usual Howard wants otherwise. He has even expressed that Lakers fans are "the most unappreciative group of people ever". Wow Dwight. Clearly he doesn't want to stay in Los Angeles because naturally, this off-season, Howard has received offers from the Rockets, Clippers and Hawks. Currently it seems like the Rockets are his strongest bidder right now.  The Rockets are trying to make room on their roster for Howard as much as they can.  Recently, there have been reports that there are offers on the table for Thomas Robinson of the Rockets to go to the Cavaliers for the 19th pick or the Bulls for the 20th pick.  If either one of these deals happen on draft night, I would imagine that the big Dwight Howard deal would follow shortly after.

Maybe Dwight Howard does know what he wants this time around.  Maybe the guy has grown up a bit.  But these are assumptions and most likely false hopes for NBA fans.  One thing Dwight is sure of though, is that he doesn't plan on staying in Los Angeles any longer.