HERE COMES DWIGHT!
For the second straight year, the Nets pulled off a blockbuster right before the draft. And this one finally brings Dwight Howard to Brooklyn — along with a bonanza of salarycap relief. The Nets found a taker for disgruntled Timofey Mozgov, shipping the two years and $32.7 million left on his deal — along with cash, the No. 45 pick in Thursday’s draft and a 2021 secondrounder — to Charlotte for Howard. The trade gives the Nets an extra $17 million in 2019 cap room, and a shot at a huge freeagent splash next summer. With just $33 million on the books for the 2019-20 season, the Nets are in position to have two max salary slots ($65 million in room if they renounce cap holds on D’Angelo Russell and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson) for a free-agent crop next summer that could include LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, Karl-Anthony Towns, Klay Thompson, Kemba Walker, Devin Booker and Kristaps Porzingis. Creating the ability to chase two of those stars while still adding a useful piece in Howard — who tried to force a trade to Brooklyn back in 2011 — are why the trade has gotten high marks. “He’s definitely a piece that can help any team. Well-respected around the league, definitely put in the damage to earn that respect, so it’s big-time news,” said Russell, who arrived in Brooklyn a year ago in a blockbuster deal. Now it was Russell’s turn to be shocked on the eve of the draft. “Obviously Dwight Howard, for most of his career, was a perennial All-Star, and still a 15-and-12-type guy. So obviously he brings a lot of talent,” Spencer Dinwiddie said at the B/R Football x Steve Nash Foundation Showdown. “Our future is definitely Jarrett [Allen], so it’s on the coaches to see how that blend goes together. … Any time you add talent, it’s a good thing.” Howard’s rebounding and physical presence can help the Nets if his attitude doesn’t sink them. And if it does, they finally have their own pick in 2019 (tank-without-tanking), and he gives them three big expiring deals — along with Jeremy Lin and DeMarre Carroll — that can be dealt at the deadline.
Howard averaged 16.6 points and 12.5 rebounds (fourth in the NBA) in his best campaign since 2013-14. He left a lasting memory on the Nets after dominating them for 32 points and 30 rebounds on March 21.
“No forgetting that. Big-time performance,” Russell said.
“He had a dominant game against us for sure,” Dinwiddie said. “Anytime you add someone of his caliber it can only make you better.”
Mozgov got that four-year, $64 million contract back in 2016 from then-Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak, and came to Brooklyn as a salary dump in the trade for Russell. Now with Kupchak in Charlotte and desperate to get under the luxury-tax threshold, Nets GM Sean Marks gladly took Howard’s $23.8 million expiring deal.
Howard was largely disliked in both the Charlotte and Atlanta locker rooms, according to sources, likely the reason he’s on his fourth team in four years.
“I don’t really know him. So whatever I’ve heard or any of that, it goes out the window once you become my teammate,” Russell said. “I haven’t really heard anything, so I’m just looking forward to meeting him and getting on the floor right away.”
“I’ve heard he’s jovial. I know a lot of guys like him. I haven’t met him, really,” Dinwiddie said. “I don’t know him indefinitely to the point where I could say something about him, because I don’t know him.”
Howard had demanded a trade from Orlando to the Nets seven years ago, and tried several other times to force a move to Brooklyn. It eventually started Howard’s NBA vagabond days, playing for the Magic, Lakers, Rockets (where he was teammates with Lin), Hawks, Hornets and now Nets.
“Guys are moving every few years very regularly. It’s just the nature of the salary cap and the business nowadays,” said Nash, teammates with Howard in Los Angeles. “Dwight’s got a lot of talent. Dwight knows if he plays hard he has a big impact on the game, and I’m sure he’ll come here hungry and able to help the [Nets] move in a positive direction.”