Lakers Reportedly Looking Into Moving Dwight Howard Before the Trade Deadline

Could we see Dwight shipped off?

The Lakers will no doubt be involved in the trade market leading up to the February 10th deadline. But in what capacity that will be is anyone's guess at this point. They don't have the cap space or the draft picks to land any major deal, but they could add some valuable pieces. 

Most around the league expect them to get involved in the buy-out market in the coming weeks. So it makes sense that they would be looking to move guys in order to create roster space rather than cap space for a deal. Reports surfaced last week that the Lakers wanted to move DeAndre Jordana and Kent Bazemore with no plans to fill out their roster spots in a trade. 

This week, more reports have surfaced about the possibility of trading away Dwight Howard. The reports suggest that the Lakers have checked in with other teams around the league to assess his value right now. 

Dwight is owed $1.669 million against the salary cap for the Lakers right now. And while that deal would not help them to clear a great deal of space, it could be appealing to other teams looking to add in some cheap defense. 

Howard is averaging 5.2 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 0.6 blocks per game right now in limited playing time. In fact, this is by far the least time on the court that Dwight has experienced in his career. Part of that has to do with the fact that the Lakers pivoted LeBron to center with Anthony Davis out due to an MCL injury. 

With AD's return on the horizon, Dwight becomes very expendable. So the rumors of the Lakers possibly shopping him around to other teams carries at least some weight.