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The Houston Rockets met with Dwight Howard yesterday shortly after Mitch Kupchak had a chat with the free agent center. Kupchak exchanged greetings with Dwight and wished him luck in his free agency process. After that the Rockets star-studded delegation of Daryl Morey, James Harden, Chandler Parsons, Kevin McHale, Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, and Yao Ming put their efforts into wooing the center. Details are slowly emerging about the meeting per Feigen. Rather than summarize the article I'll encourage you read it and keep this informed on the Rockets free agency rumors generally. Below you'll find a running page of updates and links.
Rockets Like What They Hear From Howard
Houston is encouraged by what they are hearing citing that most of the questions posed by Dwight were about long-term growth and championships and about the Rockets organization. I'm really wondering what they were expecting Dwight to ask about if not his fit and long-term prospects in Houston. Maybe they expected to talk about politics or something, I'm not sure. Worth noting in the article is that Jeremy Lin's play style and Omer Asik playing next to Howard were points of emphasis during the presentation.
Special Bonus: Houston is flirting with Corey Brewer and Mike Dunleavy Jr. anticipating that the team will need to be built with Howard in mind per the write up.
Radio Interview with Daryl Morey
ChristopherDionHarris offered this link and warranted there's lots of commercials in the beginning. This is the interview Morey conducted this morning talking about the Dwight pursuit. Enjoy.
Houston gets some love from ESPN writers in the Dwight Howard pursuit. Houston was ranked against Atlanta, Dallas, and LA and pulled a consistently high endorsement from the round of voters here. Teams were ranked on a scale of 1-10 to appraise just how much a team has to offer Dwight Howard in play, lifestyle, and prospects.
CBS Running update on free agency
CBS Sports has compiled links of articles relating to NBA Free agency. Check this site for full NBA coverage if you have an interest in non-Rockets action. On Twitter the rumor is that Andrew Bynum is not working out for teams in free agency and has drawn interest from the Mavericks in case Howard signs elsewhere.
Mike Dunleavy Commits to the Bulls
2 years, 6 million dollars brought the 6'9" shooter to the Chicago team. There were rumors that the Rockets would court him in case of a Dwight signing but the problem with contingency plans in free agency is that you can't make everyone else put their life on hold. On the bright side the Bulls should see Derrick Rose back and Dunleavy will be able to handle their annual injury quota.
Tweets
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Houston likes the idea of Josh Smith at PF and Howard at C. Rockets will meet with Smith today to discuss possible signing.</p>— Brett Poirier NBA (@BrettNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrettNBA/statuses/351688859731509248">July 1, 2013</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Rumor: The Hawks are interested in Omer Asik from Houston. Would offer sign-and-trade deal with Josh Smith if Howard doesn't sign in ATL.</p>— Brett Poirier NBA (@BrettNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrettNBA/statuses/351686729427718145">July 1, 2013</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>The Cavaliers, Blazers, Hawks, Mavericks and Rockets are interested in free agent Andrew Bynum, writes <a href="https://twitter.com/YannisHW">@YannisHW</a>: <a href="http://t.co/N8zQ8OWzSt">http://t.co/N8zQ8OWzSt</a></p>— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlexKennedyNBA/statuses/351399414537011200">June 30, 2013</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Andrew Bynum will not work out for teams in free agency. <a href="http://t.co/m3nTZxgalQ">http://t.co/m3nTZxgalQ</a> And why woul he? What's to be concerned about? WELP.</p>— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) <a href="https://twitter.com/HPbasketball/statuses/351709072040538112">July 1, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Useful Follows
The usual stand bys of Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA), Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine), Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen), and Chad Ford (@ChadFordInsider) are good. If you want to diversify Mike Kerns of TDS (Marginally) is good for breaking news and Twitter harassment (@Zepp1978), and Mark Deeks (Yes, I was a jerk but I gave him credit) broke the Lin shopping story (@MarkDeeksNBA). If you're after commentary and what not you have an option for all the TDS crew @PatrickHarrel, @ak2themax, (Me) @QuestionablyBD, @Xiane1 (Who is still alive apparently), @3ptTheHardenWay, @CroesFire, and @Allen_OJ.
Author's Note: Please refrain from posting gifs and photos as it causes the page to load slower, bog down, and just become inconvenient for everyone.
Since it bears repeating from our playoff threads: In an effort to keep the quality of the site and discussion up (Since a lot of these conversations are devolving to sophomoric levels) we would like to remind our users that we're looking for respect, a level of decorum, and some insight and reflection on posts. Let's give it the ole college try to get our level of conversation back up to one of the more respected Houston Rockets sites on the net. After all, we're really only as good as the community we cultivate/foster.