The Los Angeles Lakers and the Houston Rockets will play for the first time since Dwight Howard left on Thursday and with Houston coming off a game against Chris Paul and the Los Angeles Clippers, it's interesting to note that it may have been possible for the two to play together in LA at one point.
As the game comes up, ESPN.com writer Arash Markazi took a look at the situation and writes about how David Stern called off the trade for Paul two years ago and that knocked of the Lakers' plan to get both stars in the Staples Center with Kobe Bryant in the center of it all. It was called "basketball reasons" and while both Howard and Paul appear very happy on their respective teams, it's interesting to look at what could have happened if that deal was actually allowed to go through.
The Lakers plan was at first to acquire Paul from the New Orleans Hornets and then to add Howard to the mix and while the team was able to get Howard eventually, as Markazi notes, the team DID pull off both deals, as trade for Paul was going through before it was called off, so "technically" they can pat themselves on the pack for both. The Lakers future could be looking very different if the deal went down and so could that of the Rockets and the Clippers.
Obviously if that deal went down, Pau Gasol would no longer be in a Lakers uniform and neither would Steve Nash, but clearly that didn't happen. The Lakers plan writes Markazi was to trade for Paul using Gasol and Lamar Odom and tertiary players and then the team was going to be set to get Howard and they would have used Andrew Bynum to pull that deal off. The Lakers eventually did that with Bynum, although the deal likely would have been different if they were allowed to get Paul.
If David Stern allowed that deal to go through, the Lakers and the NBA would look very different and perhaps things wouldn't be so bleak in LA for the purple and gold. While it didn't go down, it's interesting to note what might have been. The news was shocking to say the least and the NBA got a ton of flak for allowing the deal to the Clippers after ditching the Lakers one and at the time it would have been a league-changing deal, as Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant would be playing together. Clearly that did not happen and now both teams are heading in different directions. Houston is thrilled to have Howard and the Clippers are clearly thrilled that they were able to extend Paul.
