NBA: Top 10 ‘What ifs’ from the 2010s
By Alex Saenz
7. What if Dwight Howard never opted-in to the last year of his contract with Orlando?
The 2011-12 season was when Dwight Howard’s career started to go off the rails. Just days after the lockout officially ended, he demanded a trade from the Orlando Magic, the team he had spent his first seven years with. This situation hung over the team for the entire season, and the Magic flamed out in the first round with Howard out due to back surgery.
If Dwight Howard never has a sudden change of heart and keeps his trade demand, Smith ends up cutting the cords on the D12-Orlando marriage at the trade deadline. Howard goes to New Jersey, who at that time were big-game hunting for superstars to pair with Deron Williams. In return, the Magic receive Brook Lopez and the Nets top-3 protected first-round draft pick. This pick is significant in that it ended up going to Portland for Gerald Wallace that same trade deadline. The Blazers wound up using it on a sharpshooting point guard out of Weber State.
In this alternate NBA, the Nets move to Brooklyn with a core of Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, and Dwight Howard. They still never live up to the big expectations and end up being no more than a footnote in recent league history (some things never change).
Orlando drafts Dame as the heir apparent to Jameer Nelson and the Blazers wind up in NBA Siberia instead of Orlando. Andrew Bynum stays with the Lakers, and because he was actually good at basketball once upon a time, the Lakers still squeak into the playoffs. Philadelphia keeps its core of Jrue Holliday/Andre Iguodala/Evan Turner/Thaddeus Young/Nikola Vucevic together, which is destined to be a solid but low-ceiling playoff team for the next several years.
Sam Hinkie never gets hired so there is never any Process to trust. Perhaps the Warriors win one or two or even three fewer championships without the services of Iguodala. And maybe the Lakers do not have their worst decade in franchise history if they never bring along Dwight Howard.