Houston Rockets
Dwight Howard staying in Houston for the rest of the season
Despite aggressively shopping him, the Rockets did not make a Dwight Howard trade on Thursday.
We’ve grown used to this with the Rockets — hyped trade deadlines that result in little to no movement.
That was the case Thursday as the NBA trade deadline arrived. The Rockets did make a move to trade Donatas Motiejunas to the Pistons, but the big trade didn’t happen. They were said to be shopping Dwight Howard but no trade materialized and he will stay in Houston for the rest of the season.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski, the Milwaukee Bucks showed late interest but no trade came together.
It creates an interesting situation now as it appears Howard is clearly in a lame duck spot. He can (and is expected to) opt out this summer. The word is since the Rockets have balked at giving him the full max, he wants to go elsewhere. Rocket brass hasn’t exactly had a great relationship with his agent, Dan Fegan, so they do run the risk of losing him for nothing this offseason.
But one thing this trade deadline taught us is Dwight may have a tough time finding another team willing to give him the max.
The Rockets are 27-28, just outside of the playoff picture in the West. With just 27 games left in the season, they don’t have a lot of time to change the direction of this team.