The Dwightmare may be over finally. Marc Stein is reporting on ESPN.com that the trade that would send Dwight Howard to the Lakers is complete and a call has been scheduled with the league office for Friday to get the necessary approval to make the deal official. As reported so far, the trade will look like this:

Lakers get Dwight Howard
Nuggets get Andre Iguodala
76ers get Andrew Bynum and Jason Richardson
Magic get Arron Afflalo, Al Harrington, Nikola Vucevic, Moe Harkless and a protected first round pick from the Lakers, Nuggets, and 76ers.

This is risky for both the Lakers and the Sixers in that neither Bynum nor Howard have committed to signing with their new team and both have indicated that they want to enter free agency next off season. So, it may a one year rental for both teams. I would say that LA has a better chance of re-signing Howard than the Sixers of re-siging Bynum, although, Bynum grew up about an hour away from Philadelphia so it's a homecoming of sorts for him.

This makes the Sixers a bit tougher inside and we may see the fruits of signing Collins early in that he has been very good at defending both Bynum and Howard in the past. I'm wondering if Herr Stern will sign off on this one. It appears that the Lakers are getting Howard without giving up all that much. Bynum for Howard? Not exactly an even trade. And it seems to me that the Rockets have more assets to offer the Magic than what they are getting from this trade. Seems to me that the league needs to kick in their basketball reasons again.

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