Juwan Howard's Freedom Forthcoming

Juwan Howard's roller-coaster of meaninglessness rides on tonight. He got traded in June to play with Kevin Garnett. Then, KG got traded as Minnesota set the ray to 2011 and Juwan frowned. Now? He's close to becoming freed from the shackles of his multi-million dollar contract, according to (?!) Timberwolves.com's Mike Trudell (via Canis Hoopus by way of Ballhype).

Howard isn't just useless to a befuddlingly young team; he'll be useless to most teams in the league. Someone will surely give him another night in the corral; perhaps Miami, who now needs some power forward help behind Udonis Haslem, could party like it's 1996. And he'll give said team some ugly jump shots and maybe some crafty defense. But he's not a difference-maker in any way, shape or form... unless fellow free agents Jalen Rose and Chris Webber want to recreate some semblance of Fab Five-ishness in the CBA or something. (How sad is a world where the NBA will soon feature no Fab Five members? Jesus, we're all getting old.)

By the way, Trudell also reports Minnesota won't be asking Wayne Simien to pick up his jersey... um, because they aren't spending the $60 to make him one. (Bummer.) I have a feeling Simien's definitely getting another chance in the league immediately, if for nothing else than all the promise he showed in his Kansas days. (And the known sympathies for salmonella victims. Undercooked chicken is really the NBA's silent killer.)