Not surprisingly, the increased stakes that the Houston Rockets are pushing to land Dwight Howard in a trade with the Orlando Magic make Houston's the best possible deal for Orlando, according to ESPN's Marc Stein.
The Rockets are offering to wipe the slate clean for Orlando - and their own roster - in exchange for Howard. That means Houston would take on the contracts of Jason Richardson, Glen Davis and Chris Duhon, likely forming Howard's supporting cast in Houston around those players. However, in addition to taking almost every cumbersome contract off of Orlando's books, the price paid from Houston's roster could be massive, according to Stein:
Sources say that the Rockets would have to send Kevin Martin, Patrick Patterson, Marcus Morris and Chandler Parsons to the Magic from their current roster to make the salary-cap math work, as well the draft rights to Jeremy Lamb, Royce White and Terrence Jones, all selected in last month's first round.
It looks like Daryl Morley's Draft-night trade strategy of trying to break into the Top 10 to land Howard draft-bait for Orlando paid off by failing, in essence.
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