In the past week, following the trade that sent Joe Johnson to Brooklyn, Dwight Howard has become the center piece of virtually every Sports reporting website. As it stands at this point in time, the Brooklyn Nets are at best a four or five seed behind Miami, Boston, Indy, and a healthy Knicks team. Joe Johnson put the team back into the playoff picture, but not enough to make any of the serious title contenders cringe. A Howard trade would do exactly that. Dwight Howard is a franchise player when healthy, and not bitching about his contract or how pissed he is that the second best player on his team is Jameer Nelson. Is Jameer Nelson a good player? Yes. Is he top 50 caliber, probably not. The trade creates a drastic shakeup of a conference that has been owned by the same two teams for the past five years it seems (my beloved Celtics, Miami).
Teaming up Howard with Deron Williams and Joe Johnson creates a perfect balance, something that a team like Miami can't offer. Williams is a pure point guard, someone who can create shot opportunities for others while also posing a threat that he will drop 40 on any given night. Joe Johnson went from being from arguably the most underrated player in the NBA to becoming a 119 million dollar bust when he signed a max contract with the Hawks back in the free agency frenzy of 2010. This doesn't change the fact that Johnson is still a very good player, one of the best shooters in the NBA who, despite not being worth the max contract, will still consistently put up around 20 points a game.
And then there's Howard, and absolute game changer on both ends of the floor. Howard anchors the defense, blocking shots and controlling the paint every second he stands on the floor. This type of balance provides the Nets with a pure PG, a dominant scorer in Johnson, and a true center, the best in the league in fact. This creates a matchup nightmare for the newly crowned champs in South Beach. Not only do the Heat not have a true center, they also have a weak link at point guard in Mario Chamlers, someone who has progressed very well in his time in the NBA, but nonetheless a guy who would get torched by a player of Williams caliber night in and night out.
Howard to Brooklyn would help the Nets jump to the two seed over the likes of Boston and NY, two teams that create intriguing match-ups come playoff time. Both NY and the C's have low post threats in KG and defensive player of the year Tyson Chandler. They also have point guards who can match Williams level of play, Rondo, and at least keep things close (Lin, Kidd).
The Heat certainly look the strongest team in the NBA right now, following Ray Allen's exodus to Miami, something that I will expound upon in detail later. If Howard is to join Brooklyn, which is looking more and more likely by the minute, it will put the east with five very solid squads in Miami, Boston, NY, Indy and Brooklyn. It would drastically change the outlook of the Eastern Conference and create the dream matchup of Brooklyn vs Miami in the ECF. That however remains to be seen with the Celtics and Pacers reloading and the Knicks looking to get healthy. The Eastern Conference is a much bigger horse race than the Western Conference, with the Mavericks striking out in free agency and the Clippers still without a dominant wing.
This is all speculation of course, Howard has been trying to push this deal for months now, and has in the process ruined himself from a PR standpoint as well as the organization that adored him so much. The trade is intriguing and would create a very interesting ECF race for not just next season, but much of the decade.
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