Dwight Howard's Trade Options: Are Any of Them Any Good?

It's not an optical illusion; your television set isn't malfunctioning. Dwight Howard is still on the Orlando Magic, and by all indications, general manager Otis Smith plans to leave him there until the summer, when Howard has the option of walking away, no strings attached.

Smith has every reason to deal Howard, and soon. If Howard leaves as a free agent, the team will have lost its franchise player and received nothing in return.

The longer Smith waits, the more likely other teams are to try to lowball him. And paradoxically, if the plan is to hope and pray that Howard stays on, this kind of passivity doesn't exactly do much to convince the perennial Defensive Player of the Year that Orlando is still serious about surrounding him with talent.

But there's also the possibility that there's simply no good team to deal with. Howard poses the classic superstar problem: In terms of both finances and roster make-up, the cost of acquiring him could irrevocably alter a team and its identity.

One popular rumor has the Chicago Bulls making a run at Howard. The Bulls, though, are built around a team concept. As prominently as their offense features Derrick Rose, and as badly as they need some sort of reliable second option, what has gotten them so far, so fast is Tom Thibodeau's ingenious defense.

Certainly, adding Howard would provide plenty of defensive might. But the team already has the well-above-average Joakim Noah in the middle. For Thibodeau, the cumulative effect of depth—one that would certainly be lost if the team gave up a lot to get Howard—has proven a successful strategy. There's just little incentive to change other than, well, the fact that Dwight Howard is awesome.

A similar problem comes into play with the Los Angeles Lakers, mentioned as a possible destination for Howard even when they were supposed to get Chris Paul. A Howard deal would almost assuredly cost the Lakers both Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol, the front line that was responsible for their most recent pair of titles.

It would sacrifice the Twin Towers concept for a single, unquestionably dominant force inside. However, that ignores all Gasol does to help the triangle go. Dwight Howard may be worth two players, but there's no way he can fully compensate for two studs as good, and different, as Bynum and Gasol.

This trade would reduce the Lakers to the two superstar model, essentially gambling on Kobe Bryant's sustained health and the idea that two players that good can't help but win. Let's amend that: That when a guard and big man that good are paired together, winning is inevitable.

Certainly, the Lakers would never take that kind of chance if the two overlapped (see: Knicks, New York). And as the Miami Heat have shown us, sheer greatness only goes so far without the proper game plan.

That's why one of the possibilities that refuses to go away is the New Jersey, soon to be Brooklyn, Nets, a team that has nowhere to go but up.

Granted, Howard isn't considering them unless Deron Williams agrees to stick around. And even then, the Nets aren't exactly rife with talent, especially when you take into account what they would need to give up to get Howard. But they would end up with Williams and Howard, a formidable duo that, for a team that is still looking to establish itself, offers one hell of a foundation.

It’s also one that offers a future. There have been mentions of the Celtics, and in theory, Kevin Garnett and Howard could be a scary front line. But how much longer will that team stay viable? What would be left? How much would they have to give up?

Maybe that’s the reason Howard isn’t too troubled over Smith’s inaction. He knows the Magic aren't necessarily worse off than any of the situations he might find himself in next.