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Free agency begins July 1, but Dwight Howard and Chris Paul may already be preparing their plans to play together. The two have been in "consistent contact" as they discuss playing together, according to a report from ESPN's Chris Broussard.
Paul and Howard are expected to dominate the free agency landscape this Summer as both players will become unrestricted free agents in less than three weeks. Howard has made it clear he will look at all of his free agency options while Paul has been silent since the Los Angeles Clippers were eliminated by the Memphis Grizzlies.
It's unspecified where the two players would look to join forces, but an immediate candidate would be Howard's hometown team, the Atlanta Hawks, who have been preparing to make a splash this Summer with only $18 million in guaranteed salary on the books.
All you have to do is look at the NBA Finals and see LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh playing in their third-straight championship series to understand why the two superstars would be interested in playing together. If the report is accurate they should have no problem finding an organization to make their wish to play together come true.
As for how the Lakers fit into this, The Great Mambino has already discussed what L.A. would have to do in order to make this happen and concluded that it isn't impossible, but very improbable:
The inherent obstacles are extremely large. Even if Paul and Howard were interested in uniting, this deal would presume that other teams are interested in helping the Lakers set up four or five more seasons as title contenders. This would be, without a doubt, the biggest series of transactions in professional sports history that included so many MVP-caliber players. That alone makes this potential situation very, very unlikely. It's not impossible, but it would take all of Mitch Kupchak and Jimmy Buss's wizardry to make this happen and a gallon of cold, cold blood.
- Drew
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