Dwight Howard is not being traded for Rajon Rondo.
After rumors that the unhappy Lakers player was being dealt to the Boston Celtics for injured point guard Rajon Rondo, Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak denied such talk. He stuck to his guns that the team isn’t looking to shop Dwight Howard.
“I haven’t talked to Danny Ainge in weeks,” Kupchak told ESPN . “I made the statement a week or two ago that we’re not going to trade Dwight Howard and that hasn’t changed.”
ESPN the Magazine writer Chris Broussard followed up with Kupchak, asking of a Dwight Howard for Rajon Rondo trade was ever on the table. Kupchak said no.
Howard was also questioned by reporters, but gave a less definite answer.
“The only thing that matters is the present, and right now,” Howard said. “There’s no need to talk about what’s going to happen at the end of the season. No reason to go back and forth about it. I just feel like at the end of the year, I should have my opportunity to make my own decision. I shouldn’t be criticized for waiting for the end of the year.”
It’s no secret that Dwight Howard is unhappy with the team. He recently lashed out at critics — including Kobe Bryant — who chided him for not returning from a torn labrum sooner.
“I want to play. I mean, why wouldn’t I want to play? But at the same time, this is my career, this is my future, this is my life. I can’t leave that up to anybody else because nobody else is going to take care of me. So, if people are pissed off that I don’t play or if I do play, whatever it may be, so what? This is my career. If I go down, then what? Everybody’s life is going to go on. I don’t want to have another summer where I’m rehabbing and trying to get healthy again. I want to come back and have another great year. That’s what I want to do.”
Do you think a Dwight Howard for Rajon Rondo trade would make sense for the Lakers and Celtics?