April 21, 2012; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Rockets point guard Goran Dragic (3) lays in a shot against the Golden State Warriors during the second quarter at the Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Campbell-US PRESSWIRE

The Charlotte Bobcats lost out on signing free agent point guard Goran Dragic, who will land in the now Steve-Nash-less Phoenix desert.

It was a surprise to many that Charlotte even got in the discussion for Dragic, but it was an even bigger surprise that they offered him as much as they did. Some reports had the deal Charlotte offered Dragic at 4-years, $9 million per season.

Now, assuming JJ Hickson does what everyone thinks he’ll do and sign with Golden State, the Bobcats will likely turn their attention to value-contracts and anyone who can help them in the front court.

Antwan Jamison will most likely be the first free agent to land in the Queen City. Charlotte is going after him hard, and they will offer him more money than any contender who’s interested in him can offer.

Other guys I still think Charlotte has on their shopping list include Aaron Gray and Ivan Johnson (although he will be hard to pry away from Atlanta with all their new-found cap space.

I think that shot was an airball. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-US PRESSWIRE

The biggest winner in the New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors battle to land Steve Nash will no doubt be Landry Fields.

Fields and the Raptors have reportedly reached a verbal agreement on a 3-year, $20 million deal… That’s just under $7 million a year for a shooting guard who scored 8.8 points per game and shot 26 percent from behind the arc last season.

The boys in charge North of the Border are basically making this move to assure the Knicks won’t have any leverage to work a sign and trade with Phoenix for Steve Nash. There had been rumblings of such a deal as recently as Monday.

And, while this deal almost certainly takes the Knicks out of the running for Nash, it will probably take the Raptors out of the running for the playoffs over the next few years; If they do end up signing Nash, that will leave 56 million dollars tied up between two players for three seasons. Nash certainly makes that team better, but the addition of Fields won’t really mean much in the win/loss column.

There’s still a chance Nash ends up in New York. Phoenix apparently really likes Iman Shumpert, and if the Knicks were to offer him in a sign and trade situation, the Suns would think long and hard about it.

For now though, it looks like Nash is going to finish out his career on a middling team. At least he’ll be going home, and you can’t knock a guy for wanting to do that.

April 10, 2012; Washington, DC, USA; Injured Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard claps from the sidelines against the Washington Wizards in the second half at Verizon Center. The Wizards won 93-85. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-US PRESSWIRE

Dwight Howard and Steve Nash are both getting killed by Internet morons, but for very different reasons.

The backlash against Howard for his childish antics this past season was harsh. Still, for whatever reason (I think he was roofied) he decided to opt into the final year of his contract with the Orlando Magic.

Now, for reasons only he and the Magic are aware of, Howard wants out again. Whether promises were broken or trust was pushed aside, we may never know, but now Howard’s haters are back out in full force.

Steve Nash is catching flack for an entirely different reason; He might just decide to take a three year $36 million deal to go back to his home country and play out what will likely be the final years of his career in Toronto.

Some people think he should take less money to go after a title. And those people are killing him for thinking about signing with the Raptors.  

How can both of these situations exist? Howard being slammed for demanding a trade to a team that with him, could possibly compete for a title as soon as next year, and Nash being slammed for pretty much the opposite of that?

First of all, I don’t like what Howard has done the past few seasons. If he wanted to be traded, he should’ve quietly asked management for one. If he didn’t get it after that he should’ve just opted out of the last year of his contract. Those clauses are put in there for pretty much that exact situation; You want out? Don’t opt in!

If you’re giving Nash a hard time for thinking about going home to finish his career, you just need to take up a new hobby and get off the Internet. He’s given everything to this game and if he wants to sign a bigger deal and fight just to make the playoffs, so be it.

The way things are going, it looks like Nash will end up in Toronto, and Howard will be traded.

And when those things happen, both guys will catch a ton of flack for doing essentially the exact opposite of each other.

Crazy world we live in, huh?