It has been reported that, under the new collective bargaining agreement, Howard can be paid as much as $109 million for five years by Orlando, or $81 for four years by any other team that has sufficient cap space. It was recently reported on ESPN.com that, through this point in his career, Howard has been the most durable "modern" center, having played the most minutes and the most games and missed the fewest through his first eight seasons. That era doesn't include Wilt Chamberlain or Bill Russell, but Wilt missed about a hundred in his first eight seasons, which is more than five times as many games as Howard will have missed, and Russell missed more than did Howard also. Only Kareem missed about the same number of games as has Howard.
Shaquile O'Neil broke down much more often, missing over 100 games in his first eight seasons, including missing more than twenty games in each of four of them. Only David Robinson had comparable durability through his first seven seasons, before having an off-season back injury from which he fully recovered, but then followed that with a season ending broken foot. Taking the diagnosis of a simple herniated disk and prognosis of a full recovery, with rehabilitation starting in two weeks and taking four months, as accurate, I'd say that any negative effect this injury and surgery will have on his future value will not drive him below the maximum allowable value he can be paid under the current collective bargaining agreement.
