It must be the shoes

Dwight Howard, Dwight Howard, Dwight Howard. After Chris Paul got traded to “Lob City” it was all you heard in sports media pre Christmas Day.

Will he go to the Nets?”
Will he go to the Lakers?”
Will he go to the Hawks?”
“The Magic have to get something for him.”

This was all that was being discussed to the point that people, myself included, got extremely tired of all the yapping. Especially when the only team that Howard should get traded to seldom got mentioned. The only team that Howard should even consider is the Chicago Bulls.

Howard playing with the Bulls would be the only true contender to the Miami Heat to come out of the Eastern Conference.

Howard has been one of the most dominant defensive players since he joined the association 7 years ago, being named Defensive Player of the Year the last 3 seasons, All defensive 1st team the last 3 years and all defensive 2nd team in 2008.

The Bulls have an impressive defence themselves, ranked second last year in points allowed (91.3) to the Celtics, second last year in point differential (+7.3) behind the Heat and first in opponent’s shooting percentage with an impressive 43%.

Admittedly, the Bulls would have to trade two of the Joakim Noah, Loul Deng and Carlos Boozer triumvirate, with maybe a Ronnie Brewer or some picks. This does sound like the Bulls would be giving up a lot, but if you combined the games of Noah on D, and Boozer in the post, and put them in a prototypical modern day centre’s body, you have Dwight Howard. Deng would be the big loss for the Bulls, but with the inside-outside game of Howard and Derrick Rose, you would only need a passable outside shooter as a replacement, i.e. Kyle Korver who the Bulls already have on staff.

You may have noticed, that the first reference to Derrick Rose comes late in this article. Obviously, the biggest plus side in this hypothetical trade is the fact that Howard would be playing along side the best point guard in the league, who is just entering his prime, unfortunately this also where this trade comes apart at the seams.

It’s not to do with salary cap, the Bulls would make it work anyway they could to have the best point and big combo since Magic and Kareem.

It’s not even ego, as has been suggested by some people. Those who suggest that Howard is happy to win, as long as its on “his” team are fools and trolls. Unless he signs with the Heat, he will be the “alpha dog” on any team he plays for. Howard also knows that he can’t do it all by himself, if he could, the Magic would have won the Championship at least once since he got drafted.

It’s certainly not anything to do with small media markets. Chicago is the 3rd largest media market in the U.S.A. Not to mention that the Bulls in the ’90’s drove all interest in the league, certainly from an international standpoint.

Nope, it has nothing to do with anything that has already been mentioned.

The reality is that the “Brand with 3 stripes” would be particularly unhappy about Howard and Rose being on the same team. Adidas currently only have 3 marquee athletes in the NBA, the aforementioned Howard and Rose, and current Boston Celtic, and future Hall of Famer, Kevin Garnett. With all probability, this is Garnett’s last season, so that would leave two. Add to that, Rose just signed a $250 million over the next 10 years and that Howard’s deal is up for renewal in the next year. You would have to think that he would have to get at least $25 million a year to match Rose’s deal. So Adidas would be dropping 50,000,000 dollars a year for presumably the next 6 years in one market. That’s $300 million dollars in one market. That’s a big investment, probably too big an investment for a shoe company to make to sell some shoes in Chicago.

It would probably be a worthwhile investment if there were any guarantees that they could emulate Jordan’s Bulls and three-peat at least once this decade, but as Lebron, Wade and Pat Riley know there are no guarantees in the NBA.

Unfortunately for the NBA fans, the only way you’re going to see Rose and Howard on the same team, is either All Star games, Team USA at the London Olympics, or if you do a spot of creative management on your copy of NBA 2k12.