In recent news via USA TODAY Sports, Dwight Howard has reportedly chosen the Houston Rockets as his free agency destination. Thanks to Sam Amick for the first bit of information.
USA Today’s @sam_amick reports that Dwight has officially chosen Houston in free agency
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) July 5, 2013
Up to this point, most expected Howard to choose Houston. Chase Budinger has a great relationship with him and seemed fairly confident they could get the job done. Not to mention, Howard and Josh Smith are good friends and there is a strong possibility the Rockets could go after the former Atlanta Hawks forward.
There were rumors that Howard had told Houston he wanted another star along with him and James Harden, so Smith makes sense for this reason.
With Howard choosing Houston, now the rest of the frenzy can continue this summer. There are a few teams who are going to have some work to do that now are out of the running as it appears the Rockets have landed the big man.
The Dallas Mavericks and Hawks, most notably, will have a decent amount of cap space to work with now in free agency. Both teams put a ton of energy and effort into going after Howard, but now will have to go after other options.
The Philadelphia 76ers and Detroit Pistons also have some room to work with and could also be in the mix for some big moves.
The most interesting team in free agency now, is that of the Los Angeles Lakers. What do they do? It’s going to be interesting to see whether they decide to act now or wait until the summer of 2014 to make a big splash.
With so many possibilities opening up now because of Howard’s decision, we can finally begin to speculate where the remaining guys will end up without having to worry about Howard’s decision potentially ruining those signings.
Ryan Heckman is a Senior NBA Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @ryanmheckman, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
