A Dwight Howard report says the former Orlando Magic and Los Angeles Lakers center is interested in signing with the Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks.

But the Dwight Howard report might be at least tangentially related to the apparent cursing match between Dwight Howard and Los Angeles Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak, after the Lakers were swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of this year's playoffs.

Ken Berger of CBSSports.com reported late Sunday night that Dwight Howard, a free agent with the Los Angeles Lakers, is mulling offers from the Houston Rockets and the Dallas Mavericks.

With Kobe Bryant convalescing his torn Achilles tendon, Steve Nash hitting 40-years-old, and Pau Gasol's future as a Laker still up in the air, the Dwight Howard report makes sense.

The 7-foot center, Dwight Howard, might have experienced back problems stemming from surgery last off-season, but even with his health in question, his defensive dominance and ability to grab rebounds, means teams will do anything to get the 27-year-old center who came straight out of high school to be the number one pick in the 2004 draft.

The Dwight Howard report from CBS Sports says that at various levels within the support staff around the star, Howard's said to be far from a done deal for the Lakers this summer. With only six weeks to go before Dwight Howard becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 30, multiple sources with knowledge of Dwight Howard's decision-making process have said he's considering the young Houston Rockets as a possible destination point.

The Rockets acquired all-star guard James Harden from the Oklahoma City Thunder just before the 2012/13 season tipped-off last fall. They also have Chandler Parsons on a second round rookie deal as well as a center, Omer Asik, who has been a force on defense and would help alleviate some of the strain on Howard's responsibilities if he came to the Rockets.

Houston general manager Daryl Morey, has always coveted the mammoth Dwight Howard, and the Dwight Howard report doesn't change that assumption at all as the Houston Rockets are pulling out all the stops to sign the free agent.

But the Lakers can pay the superstar Dwight Howard more, even if he's considering the Rockets, and if the Dallas Mavericks can make a few salary dumps, they'd be able to afford Dwight Howard as well. The lure of Texas is strong with athletes because they don't have to pay any income tax, which can be substantial for guys making many millions of dollars a year. The Dwight Howard report says that Howard would save close to $10 million playing in Texas over 4 years of a deal. 

The Lakers are still in the driver's seat, even as Howard becomes an unrestricted free agent. They're the only team that can offer him a fifth year to his maximum deal, and they can pay him salary increases of 7.5 percent over the first year of his deal, which will exceed $20 million a season. The Rockets and Mavericks can only offer him a four-year deal with an option for the fourth year and salary increases in each of 4.5 percent, per the NBA's 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The Dwight Howard report also mentions those tax savings, so even though the Lakers can offer him a larger contract, and more money with larger salary increases, at 27-years-old Howard is just entering his prime (if he's healthy), and so the Dwight Howard report could mean a shorter deal in Texas before opting out of the fourth year of the contract to become an unrestricted free agent when he's 30.

Then, Dwight Howard can command another maximum deal, but this time sign for the larger five-year structure that would pay him until he was 35.

Regardless, the Dwight Howard deal has sent reverberations across the NBA landscape even while the Conference Finals started on Sunday in San Antonio.