Over the last two offseasons, the respective general managers who inherited Dwight Howard couldn’t get rid of him fast enough.
In Atlanta — where a previous Hawks regime signed Howard to a three-year, $70.5 million deal in July 2016 — the center was traded in June 2017, a month after GM Travis Schlenk was hired. A year later, the Charlotte Hornets, with Mitch Kupchak at the helm instead of Rich Cho, took on an additional year of salary to dump the eight-time All-Star. And with Howard’s departures from each, reports quickly emerged about the center’s negative impact in the locker room.