Dwight Howard has been traded again, and his value has never been lower

Dwight Howard was traded to the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday, marking the second consecutive season and the third time in his career that the former all-star center has been dealt over the summer. It’s one giant fall from grace for a three-time Defensive Player of the Year who was widely considered the best big man in all of basketball during his prime.

And it’s even worse when you consider how his value has trended downward to an all-time low now in 2018.

Howard has been the investment that depreciates in value

It’s an unfortunate truth that has underscored an incredible, likely Hall of Fame caliber career. Ever since he left Orlando, Howard has been marginalized on offense, while Father Time robbed him of the athletic gifts that defined his game.

Howard wanted to get to the Lakers to compete for championships with Kobe Bryant. We know how that worked out, but in hindsight, the return the Magic got for the all-world big man was massive. Two other teams were involved in this trade, and Orlando sent Jason Richardson to one of them, but here’s what matters:

Lakers receive: Dwight Howard, Earl Clark, Chris Duhon
Magic receive: Arron Afflalo, Al Harington, Nikola Vucevic, Moe Harkless, Josh McRoberts, Christian Eyenga, 2014 first-round pick via DEN (Dario Saric), 2017 first-round pick via LAL, 2013 second-round pick via DEN, conditional 2015 second-round pick via LAL, protected first-round pick via PHI

OK. Let’s forget about how Orlando butchered the spoils of this trade by dealing that 2014 first-round pick, which became Dario Saric, AND that 2017 first-round pick, which became De’Aaron Fox, in a move straight-up for Elfrid Payton. (Sorry, Magic fans.) The point is they were able to get those picks, plus (at the time) solid rotation players back for Dwight Howard. That’s when his value was at an all-time high. Howard averaged 20.6 points, 14.5 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks per game.

It wouldn’t get any higher than that.

What happened next?

Howard spent one season with the Lakers. The Spurs swept the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs. Howard left Los Angeles for Houston in free agency, even though the Lakers actually tried to keep him (if you surrendered all those assets, you’d want to keep him, too)
Howard spent three seasons in Houston attempting fewer and fewer shots per game each season. The fit with James Harden — one that projected to be seamless — was as bumpy as they came. Howard eventually left the Rockets — who did not make a significant attempt to re-sign him and were even close to dealing him at the 2016 trade deadline — and signed a three-year deal with his hometown Atlanta Hawks team

That lasted a year before Howard’s value plummeted further

The hometown hero story wrote itself. Home is where the heart is, and it was supposed to be the place Howard could spend the rest of his playing career in peace. But the Hawks realized they weren’t meaningful contenders midseason and blew it up by trading Kyle Korver to the Cavaliers — a team competing in the same conference as them — for Mike Dunleavy. The world knew Paul Millsap was leaving in free agency the following summer. The Hawks were tearing this thing apart. Then the trade happened:

Charlotte receives: Dwight Howard, pick No. 31 in 2017 NBA Draft (Frank Jackson)
Atlanta receives: Miles Plumlee, Marco Belinelli, pick No. 41 in 2017 NBA Draft (Tyler Dorsey)

The Hawks got a shooter in Belinelli, but added long-term salary by taking on a worse player in Plumlee and traded down 10 spots in the draft. They eventually bought out Belinelli’s contract at midseason, leaving them only Plumlee’s bloated contract and Dorsey to show for a year of Howard.

This is a former all-star we’re talking about here. The key word here, I guess, is “former.”

And then it plummeted ever further

Howard was expected to pair well with Kemba Walker as a lob option off the screen-and-roll, and his playoff pedigree was supposed to help drag the Hornets back into the postseason. Instead, Charlotte finished 36-46 for the 11th seed in the East — bad enough not to make the playoffs, but just good enough for their draft pick to fall outside the top-10.

On top of that, they still were on the hook for another season of Howard’s enormous contract. Not anymore:

Nets receive: Dwight Howard
Hornets receive: Timofey Mozgov, two future second-round picks

Yup. The Hornets took back the dude who got baptized by Blake Griffin (who was also the dude complaining about not getting playing time behind Jahlil Okafor, Quincy Acy and rookie Jarrett Allen this season) and a pair of second-round picks, all while adding an extra year of long-term salary in the form of Mozgov’s contract.

Man, life comes at you fast.

Here’s how some Hornets fans rationalized the deal:

In layman’s terms, “We moved Howard’s $23.8 million salary, got two second-rounders, and hey... Mozgov is better than nothing!”

The Nets more than likely won’t end up trading Howard this season. They probably won’t play him more than 25 minutes per game either, not with Jarrett Allen having the solid rookie season he did last year. Brooklyn is going to sit on that $23.8 million salary until it comes off the books and creates a giant slot for a max contract on a free agent next summer.

And that’s where the value of Howard has hit rock bottom. At one point, the Lakers gave up everything plus the kitchen sink for him. Now, teams are doing whatever they can to get rid of him.