Howard won’t be eligible to talk to teams until July 1 and sign a contract until July 10, but he’s supposedly already identified several teams he plans to speak come early July.
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However, with news that him and Clippers guard Chris Paul have visions of playing together, Ramona Shelburne and Marc Stein of ESPN.com delivered a huge rumor this afternoon:
“Sources say the Clippers want to keep open the option that they could package Bledsoe with Griffin in a sign-and-trade offer for Howard after the Lakers’ center becomes a free agent on July 1.”
If Howard is dead set on leaving the Lakers, then they should explore options to get pieces in order to compete next season with an aging roster. However, general manager Mitch Kupchak recently stated that the team isn’t interested in a sign-and-trade for Howard despite several teams making overtures.
Regardless, the Clippers can hope all they want to land Howard, but the first hurdle is to acquire Doc Rivers, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce from the Celtics. While the Celtics have resisted the Clippers overtures, it sounds like they’re starting to find common ground on a deal.
Since the report from Shelburne and Stein, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports tweeted out what every Laker fan is thinking:
Lakers have fully resisted Clippers overtures on a sign-and-trade for Dwight Howard. “They will never do it,” source with knowledge tells Y!
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) June 15, 2013
It’s clear the Clippers are trying to shake things up in a major way, but there’s no chance the Lakers would help them and if Howard returns to the form like Kupchak expects, it’d be awfully hard to watch him do that in a Clippers uniform.
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