On the heels of the report that Dwight Howard is unlikely to re-sign with the Lakers, Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki confirmed this morning that he’s been in contact with the soon-to-be free agent.
Nowitzki, unlike Rockets forward Chandler Parsons, who earlier in the week mentioned he “talks to Dwight everyday”, said that he while he hasn’t been very aggressive in his recruiting of the free agent center, he would love to play with Howard.
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Nowitzki’s persuading hasn’t been particularly belligerent, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com:
“I’ve reached out to him and told him we’d love to have him,” Nowitzki said Thursday night. “That’s really about it. It’s not like we call each other every day.”
The Dallas Mavericks pursuit of Howard has been no secret, as Dallas has spent the past two seasons trying to acquire Howard via trade as well as prepping for this summer, where they have ample cap space to over Howard a max contract. Despite the Mavs’ efforts, it still appears as they are not Howard’s top choice in the state of Texas, as the Houston Rockets are still considered the Howard’s most likely choice if he does decide to leave Los Angeles. Regardless of the odds, the Mavs and Nowitzki’s pursuit of Howard has yet to be deterred.
MacMahon went on to report that, according to Nowitzki, Howard had yet to make a final decision:
“He’s just weighing out his options. I’m sure he has a couple of meetings set up for whenever that might be in early July. Hopefully the Mavs are one of those teams, and we’ll go from there.”
While it makes sense that key players from potential destinations for Howard continue to reach out in hopes of swaying his decision, the lack of public contact between Howard and the Lakers suggests that Howard’s return to Los Angeles is questionable at best. As Howard’s signing date of July 10th comes closer, the future of both Howard and the Laker franchise remain unclear.
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