Dwight Howard Going to Houston

Looks like Texas just got a little bigger.

As first reported by USA Today, Dwight Howard has chosen to join the Houston Rockets. Howard had met with the Rockets earlier this week and also several other teams vying for the affection of Dwight. Howard now joins James Harden and Jeremy Lin in hopes of bringing a championship back to Houston.

This might not be the only star player the Rockets get. Houston and Atlanta might make a sign-and-trade deal involving sending Josh Smith to the Rockets in exchange for Omer Asik who doesn't want to play with Dwight Howard.

A huge day for the Rockets as their bar has been raised to championship highs and instantly with this news. It's probably fair to expect a championship now that Howard is on the team but unless they can get Josh Smith as well, I'm not sure whether they are the best team in the West. OKC is still strong with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, San Antonio has proven to never count them out, and even Golden State can surprise you.

As for the Lakers, they are apparently still in denial. It's a first that an all time great player has walked away from the Lakers. Though to be fair, the Lakers sort of drove Howard away. While Dwight and Kobe might've never gotten along anyway, the Lakers hurt their chances of keeping Howard long term when they hired Mike D'Antoni as head coach. Combine that with how everything else went in LA during Howard's one year there and how do you expect him stay?

The Rockets now look like title contenders while the Lakers just look like another borderline playoff team at best. Oh what a difference a year makes.

NOW the Lakers are the Favorite in the West

As the meaningless NBA season starts sometime in the next few days (does it even matter?), a major trade has been executed among two western conference teams.

The Oklahoma City Thunder send James Harden to the Houston Rockets as part of a multi-player trade. The Thunder get Kevin Martin and Jeremy Lamb along with 2 first round draft picks and a 2nd round draft pick. The Rockets get James Harden along with center Cole Aldrich and forwards Daequan Cook and Lazar Hayward. Harden and OKC had been negotiating a new long term deal to keep Harden but couldn't come to terms as Harden wanted a max contract. Harden will seemingly get that with the Rockets.

No more room in OKC long term meant that the team had to trade away a key component to their offense. Sure Harden wasn't the biggest star on the team but he sure seemed to be a difference maker with team averaging +9.1 with him on the court as opposed to +1.7 with him off of it. I'm sure the Sixth Man of the Year will do fine in Houston playing with Jeremy Lin but we will have to wait and see how this move will affect the Thunder going forward.

P.S. Someone wake me when the Conference Finals are here.... or when Hockey returns, whichever comes first.

P.P.S. Might go back to sleep if the NBA Conference Finals come first.... just saying.

Jeremy Lin Not Going to the Knicks?

The most fascinating and perhaps most captivating player of the year has been Jeremy Lin. He lit up the court for a brief period of time around February and caught all of our eyes. He quickly became the most talked about player around the country. Then he came down to earth a little, got hurt, and the Knicks got booted from the playoffs yet again.

So far this off season for the Knicks has been moves centered around the PG position. Now heading into the off season, you would assume that the team was going to keep Jeremy Lin and see what they could with him next year. The Jason Kidd move seemed to support that as he might've been coming in as a mentor. Then the Knicks traded for PG Raymond Felton, a guy who was seemingly on the Knicks a couple of seasons ago. With that move completed, it seems that the team is going to move on from Jeremy Lin. Sources are saying that the Knicks will not match the offer from the Rockets and let Lin go to Houston for 3 years and $25 million.

So much for Linsanity in New York. Also, when did $15 million (3rd year of the deal in Houston) become worth more than a billion dollars? I need to retake math class. I think it's a shame that Lin, Melo, and the Knicks weren't given a real chance to see if they could work. They had rough games but they didn't have an off season to practice together and to see if they could become more. As for Lin in Houston, another move to try and get Dwight Howard or simply to try and get someone to build a team around (Lin or someone else).

Lin ironically goes back to the team that he had started with for the 2011-12 season. Lin never played a regular season game for the Rockets but it's presumed that he will play quite a few for them now.