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According to Marc Stein of ESPN, the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers have seriously discussed a trade that would end with Dwight Howard and Blake Griffin flip-flopping teams along with guard Eric Bledsoe joining the Lakers. At this point, the Lakers remain confident they can re-sign Howard, but many indications show that he may be on his way out.
With all of the talk lately regarding a deal between the Clippers and the Boston Celtics that would send Kevin Garnett to L.A. along with Paul Pierce and Doc Rivers joining him, there have also been rumors of the Lakers being involved here.
The end result would see DeAndre Jordan and Caron Butler in Boston and likely a few picks tossed around. So far, only one major snag in the trade has been revealed.
The big hold up with either of these deals may be the unwillingness of the Clippers to get rid of Bledsoe, who they have been very high on and intend on keeping part of their future plans.
Why is Howard likely to leave one Los Angeles team for another? Well, he has been said to have a strong want to play with Chris Paul next season, and the Clippers are looking as though they will retain the All-Star point guard if this deal with Boston goes through.
Another big reason he could wind up leaving the Lakers is because he and Kobe Bryant simply did not mesh well together. As I have said before, Bryant stated publicly that he tried everything he could to get that relationship to work but in the end, it just didn’t happen.
With Howard and Paul having said to be talking about joining forces, it only makes sense that the three teams find a way to get these deals done. They may seem quite absurd at first, but in the end the deals could wind up benefiting all teams involved in the future.
Ryan Heckman is a Senior NBA writer for www.RantSports.com also contributing to the NFL. Follow him on Twitter @ryanmheckman or add him to your network on Google.
