Brooklyn Nets: Dwight Howard era will end before it begins … and that’s OK

According to a report, Dwight Howard — who won’t officially be acquired by the Brooklyn Nets until July 6 — has requested a buyout. The team will oblige.

So much for all those Photoshops with Dwight Howard in a Brooklyn Nets uniform, because it’s not going to happen.

According to Chris Haynes of ESPN.com, the former eight-time All-Star has requested a buyout of the remaining one year and $23.8 million remaining on his contract and the Brooklyn Nets will enter negotiations to work on a deal to do so.

Howard won’t be officially acquired by the Nets until July 6, after the salary cap moratorium concludes after the beginning of the new league year on July 1, but the Nets and Charlotte Hornets agreed to a deal on Wednesday that sends Timofey Mozgov, two second-round picks and cash to the Hornets for Howard’s expiring deal.

An immediate buyout would position the 32-year-old Howard as one of the top bigs on the free agent market this summer.

This is the worst-case scenario I laid out Wednesday when the deal was first being reported — the Nets eat Howard’s cap hit this season, open up the space that was going to be burned by Mozgov’s expiring deal in 2019-20 and potentially have two max salary slots available next summer.

Howard told ESPN the trade caught him off guard. Charlotte was reportedly looking to distance itself from both an unpopular player and the luxury tax threshold for 2018-19.

"I was just really in total shock because I wasn’t expecting it to happen. I thought this season was really good. For one, this is the healthiest I’ve been adn two, my stats this season has been one of the best since I’ve been in the NBA."

But in Charlotte, which was Howard’s third team in three seasons, the same issues were apparently in place, per Scott Fowler of the Charlotte Observer that had dogged Howard since he forced his way away from the Orlando Magic in 2012. From Fowler’s column:

"I was speaking to a team source in midseason — this was months before the Howard trade — and he told me of the Hornets players’ frustration that Howard simply wouldn’t run the play that was called, sometimes in key last-minute situations.Also, for a man with a superhero body, Howard’s screen-setting was often “terrible,” according to the source. Howard and former coach Steve Clifford — who was always seen as “The Howard Whisperer” — also did not have nearly as perfect a relationship as was advertised and had at least one notable confrontation. And I saw firsthand some of the eye-rolling that Howard’s teammates did when they spoke about him."

There are two things at work here that make a buyout of Howard the best option at this point.

The organization has built a positive culture of growth and development, even as losses mounted during the first two seasons under general manager Sean Marks and head coach Kenny Atkinson.
Center Jarrett Allen ended his rookie season playing extremely well and his continued development is far more important than whatever on-court contributions Howard might have made in 2018-19.

Howard told ESPN he wants to play for a winner and also would like to move forward from the reputation he’s gained.

"I want to be in a situation where I have an opportunity to help a team win. That’s my only goal. All I need is a real chance and a clean slate where it’s not people talking about my past."

The problem is that his past seems to keep rearing its head since he left Orlando under less-than-cordial circumstances. There were reports of problems with teammates with the Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets, Atlanta Hawks and now the Hornets.

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That means the “past” to which Howard refers really seems to be the present, as well.

Howard was at one point in his career a super-athletic force of nature, even as critics questioned the lack of development in his game.

He made eight straight All-Star games between 2007-14, helped the Magic to the 2009 NBA Finals and won three consecutive Defensive Player of the Year awards from 2008-11.

But Howard went from being seen as a fun-loving kid to being an indecisive diva when he waffled on whether or not he wanted to sign an extension in Orlando or be traded and seek free agency, an episode that became known as “The Dwightmare.”

And as far as Howard’s future? It becomes more difficult every season to project a team with which a classic post-up center without a real outside shot is a fit. The game has become so much more position-less now, with an emphasis on stretchy bigs who don’t always have to clog the lane.

Howard is the opposite of that, even as he incorporated a modicum of a mid-range jumper into his repertoire with the Hornets last season.

He’s still talented and somewhere there will be a coach and GM who will believe they can succeed with “fixing” Howard where others have failed. There is, after all, no shortage of ego among the men who have reached those heights in their careers.

But what we do know at this point is that Dwight Howard won’t be the Brooklyn Nets’ problem. He will become a cap hit, a line on a ledger, and that’s OK. His acquisition (and immediate departure) was the price to pay for getting out from under Mozgov’s brutally bad contract.

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The fact Mozgov goes to a team now run by the same GM who gave him that contract in the first place in Mitch Kupchak? That’s just comedic gold as the icing on top of the cake.