Chris Paul and Dwight Howard really, really, really want to play together

Here’s the latest super team rumor, courtesy of ESPN’s Chris Broussard:

Chris Paul and Dwight Howard have been in consistent contact recently about the possibility of becoming teammates next season, according to league sources.

Paul and Howard will be the biggest free agents on the market this summer, and their desire is to play together, the sources said.

“They would love to play together if somebody can make it happen,” one of the sources said.

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.

Broussard speculates that it might take a Blake Griffin and Eric Bledsoe package to pry Howard away from the Lakers in a sign-and-trade. If I’m Mitch Kupchak, I make that deal in a heartbeat.

Any deal moving Howard to the Clippers eliminates a KG/Paul Pierce and Doc Rivers mega-deal with Boston.

Here’s how I envision a text message conversation between Paul and Howard:

CP3: Yo, you tell your agent yet that we want to play together?

DH: Hold on, I’m making a video of me farting in the tub.

CP3: Remember what we discussed about taking paycuts.

DH: LOL. Spongebob is hilarious. You look like Squidward.

CP3: Gotta run. Catch up later.

DH: I’ll send you a pic of this bloody booger I just yanked from my nose.

Good luck, CP3.