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We briefly interrupt the much more important NBA Draft coverage to announce that Dwight Howard has been traded yet again.
Per Adrian Wojnarowski, the Charlotte Hornets are set to ship Howard to the Brooklyn Nets, a destination that Howard had reportedly hoped to be dealt to back in 2011 when he was still with the Magic and the Nets were still playing in New Jersey.
Charlotte is finalizing a deal to send Dwight Howard to the Brooklyn Nets for Timofey Mozgov, league sources tell ESPN. Nets will save $17M on deal in 2019-20 season, allowing them to create two max salary slots.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 20, 2018
The Hornets will also receive the Nets second round pick on Thursday and in 2021, Woj reports.
It will be Howard’s sixth NBA team, and fourth in four years.
June 20 is now officially Trade Dwight Howard Day! pic.twitter.com/S2VMM7km6I
— SB Nation (@SBNation) June 20, 2018
Howard - who is set to make $23.8 million in 2018-2019, the final year of his deal – averaged 16.6 points per game (his highest since 2013-2014) and 12.5 rebounds per game (third best in the league) in his lone season with Charlotte. Howard enjoyed something of a statistical rebirth while playing under Steve Clifford, his former assistant coach in Orlando, posting a career-high Defensive Rebounding Percentage of 33.8 percent.
Six years after opting into his contract with Orlando but Dwight finally makes it to Brooklyn.
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) June 20, 2018
During the Dwightmare of 2011 and 2012 in Orlando, talk of Howard’s interest in playing for the Nets began to circulate and rumors of a potential deal involving Brook Lopez started to surface. In December of 2011, when the Magic were set to begin a lockout-shortened season, Chris Broussard of ESPN reported that Howard met with Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov and then-GM Billy King in Miami without the Magic’s knowledge. Howard denied the meeting took place. The Magic considered filing tampering charges. Howard ultimately opted-in to the final year of the deal just before the trade deadline and finished out the season with the Magic. As we all know, he was traded to the Lakers after the season.
And now, after all these years, Dwight and the Nets have been united.
OK, back to the NBA Draft….