Rumors about Dwight Howard walking away from the Houston Rockets are getting stronger by the minute. As noted by various sources, the center, who is about to become an unrestricted free agent this July, has a lot of issues with his current team.
Last month, Howard directly stated that he's unhappy with how Houston is using him. He revealed that he had a chat with Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Rockets, and told him that he's not happy with how is roles in the team were being reduced.
"I felt like my role was being reduced," he said according to Fox Sports. "I went to Daryl and said, 'I want to be more involved.' Daryl said, 'No, we don't want you to be.' My response was, 'Why not? Why am I here?'"
"It was shocking to me that it came from him instead of our coach," he added. "So I said to him, 'No disrespect to what you do, but you've never played the game. I've been in this game for a long time. I know what it takes to be effective.'"
But, as if his beef with Morey is not enough to drive him away from Houston, he also reportedly has some other issues with new coach Mike D'Antoni.
As noted by Crossmap, Howard is not too fond of the idea of the Rockets naming D'Antoni as its new head coach, which just happened earlier this month. These two were together from 2012 to 2013, when Howard was still with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Even back then, Howard already felt that he was being under used by the coaching staff because he was not getting enough time with the ball during games. He also didn't appreciate the fact that may of the Lakers' plays revolved around Kobe Bryant.
Now, with D'Antoni on board, he might be feeling that his bad time with the Lakers might happen again in Houston. And for him, this could be the last straw that will drive him to leave the Rockets once free agency begins.
But, as noted by Morey, if Howard decides to stay with Houston, he and D'Antoni will still welcome him back.
