REPORT: Chris Paul and Dwight Howard are talking about teaming up

ESPN.com is reporting that Dwight Howard and Chris Paul are in talks of trying to team up together because of course they are.

From Chris Broussard:

The Atlanta Hawks could make it happen. Atlanta, which is Howard's hometown, has the cap room to sign both players to maximum-salaried contracts.

Howard is not particularly fond of the idea of returning to Atlanta, but he would do so to team up with Paul, the sources said.

But Paul, despite recently being upset with the Clippers over the perception that he got coach Vinny Del Negro fired, is unlikely to leave Los Angeles, one source said. He has gotten over his anger with the club and likes living in Los Angeles.

"It would be very tough for him to go to Atlanta," the source said. "He loved Atlanta when they should have drafted him in '05 but not so much since then. But hey, everybody is an option at this point."

The preference for both players would be to play together for the Clippers, according to the sources. Because the Clippers don't have enough cap room to sign Howard as a free agent, it would take a sign-and-trade deal with the Lakers to make it happen.

So there you have it. Just when I was perfectly happy with pursuing Nikola Pekovic, Andrew Bynum and the other tier-2 free agents out there, this story just PULLS ME BACK IN.

Dallas is pretty much poo-poo'd at the end of the story, with Atlanta and...the Clippers? being mentioned as more possible destinations.

I'm not sure how the Clippers could pull this off, even if they traded Blake Griffin. And let's not forget about Houston.

Again, this doesn't really matter in the long run. Paul and Howard were going to be free agents this summer, and it'd seem rather silly if the two didn't converse about the idea of joining together. It's still a long shot. Don't get your hopes up. It's probably not happening. It's most-assuredly not going to happen.

But here's me, getting sucked back in again. Sigh.