Amid reports the Brooklyn Nets have agreed to a buyout of center Dwight Howard’s remaining one year and $23.8 million, we look back at some of the moments Howard had as a Net … actually, we may look at all of them.
The Dwight Howard era with the Brooklyn Nets has reportedly come to an end.
According to Brian Lewis of the New York Post, the Nets and Howard agreed to the terms of a buyout of Howard’s contract, which had one year and roughly $23.8 million remaining.
The buyout can’t become official until July 6, which is also when the trade bringing Howard to Brooklyn from the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for Timofey Mozgov, the rights to 45th overall draft pick Hamidou Diallo and a 2021 second-round pick also becomes official.
The deal for Howard was announced on June 20 and Nets fans were ecstatic to
acquire the former three-time Defensive Player of the Year
dump the two years and $32.7 million remaining on Mozgov’s contract, which could allow Brooklyn to open two max salary slots in the summer of 2019.
Howard had a strong season statistically with the Hornets, averaging 16.6 points (his highest average since 2013-14), 12.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in 30.4 minutes per game on .555/1-for-7/.574 shooting.
But statistics reportedly did not tell the story of Howard’s one-year stay in Charlotte, his third team in three seasons.
Former NBA center Brendan Haywood told SiriusXM NBA Radio the day the trade for Howard was announced that the former eight-time All-Star was not popular in the Charlotte locker room.
And by “not popular,” Haywood apparently meant “bubonic plague on the towels would have been more well-liked.”
It’s unclear at this point how much additional cap space the Nets will clear with Howard’s buyout. Per the New York Post, such deals typically involve a player settling for 60 to 70 percent of the contract’s remaining value, which in Howard’s case would be between $14.3 million and $16.7 million.
That, in turn, would give the Nets an additional $8.1 million to $9.4 million to their 2018-19 cap space.
However, the same report in the Post indicated that Howard was balking at giving up that much. In any event, the deal is done and we’ll know in the next couple of days what the effect on Brooklyn’s cap space will be.
With that, we look at Dwight Howard’s three moments as a Net. Not his greatest moments, because he never actually wore a Brooklyn uniform. So we’re working with what we have.