NBA Trade Rumors: New Jersey Nets Need a Miracle to Land Dwight Howard

At last check, Dwight Howard was still a member of the Orlando Magic.

(Double-checks.)

Yup. Still there. Still No. 12, and still playing center. He's currently averaging 18.6 points and 14.6 rebounds per game, for the record.

The question, of course, is how long Howard is going to remain on the Magic. The NBA's March 15 trade deadline gets a little closer every day, and it's no secret that there are a handful of suitors for Howard out there.

The most serious of the bunch is the New Jersey Nets, who have been after Howard like Boba Fett was after Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back. 

Stefan Bondy, who covers the Nets for the New York Daily News, still thinks the Nets have a legit shot at getting Howard. He expressed as much via a series of tweets on Tuesday.

Here's one:

And two:

And three:

And four:

Long story short, it's still a good fit, and the Nets are still trying. Where there's a will, there's a way, right?

Typically, yes. In this case, probably not.

The truth of the matter is that the Nets just don't have that many assets to give up. The one big asset they had at their disposal before was center Brook Lopez, but his value has taken a hit thanks to the broken foot he suffered just before the start of the season. He will be back out on the court in the near future, but for all intents and purposes, he's damaged goods.

Beyond Lopez, all the Nets can offer for Howard is spare parts, hence the reason Bondy thinks they need to bring in a third or fourth team.

Here's the thing, though: The Nets already tried that.

Way back on December 14, 2011, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported that the Nets actually had a deal in place that involved the Portland Trail Blazers sending Gerald Wallace to the Magic as part of a Howard trade. The deal was rejected by Orlando's ownership, and talks for Howard were killed right then and there.

As a total package, that rejected trade was a good one and it could have easily been accepted. Evidently, the Magic thought they were better off taking their chances.

There will be more and more pressure on the Magic to complete a deal as we get closer to the trade deadline, but they're not going to get desperate to the point where they'll accept anything less than fair value for Howard. To even come close to offering fair value, the Nets are indeed going to need to get a third and maybe a fourth team involved, and it's hard to imagine them doing any better than a deal that includes Gerald Wallace.

It could happen, but it's going to take some clever negotiating on the part of Nets general manager Billy King. It's also going to take a lot of luck.

Judging from the Nets' awful start this season, luck is in short supply in New Jersey.