NBA Trade Rumors Debate: Will Dwight Howard Be Traded Before the Deadline?

Will Dwight Howard be traded before the NBA's March 15th trade deadline?  The NBA fan rumor mill is rife with potential landing spots.  

Last week, Howard himself added fuel to the fire when he suggested that he would be willing to play for the Chicago Bulls. I think the Chicago Bulls represent the best destination for Howard, but if they want him the Bulls will have to trade for Howard before the deadline because they do not have the money open to sign him in free agency.  The Los Angeles Lakers have the same problem.  

So, will the Orlando Magic trade Howard before the deadline?

The Orlando Magic will trade Dwight Howard if basketball sense wins out over petulant anger.  The Magic's current group is a solid playoff team, capable of a fourth seed in the East and a second-round playoff exit.  

But viewing them as a real contender would be foolish.  Even in their best season, the Magic were a weak NBA finals participant.  The chances of them winning a title are slim to none.  

Howard has already informed the Magic he will leave as a free agent after this season.  The team has every reason to take him at his word.  There would be no real incentive for him to bluff and tell them to trade him when he could simply play out the season and sign with either the Dallas Mavericks or Brooklyn Nets (both favored destinations).  

So, Orlando Magic General Manager Otis Smith needs to trade Howard for a set of young, talented pieces that he can use (either as core building blocks or trade-able assets) to rebuild his team.  

Two contending teams that could sign Dwight Howard long term, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Chicago Bulls, can make fair offers.  The Lakers will never offer both Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, but a trade of Bynum, Devin Ebanks, picks and cash for Howard would offer acceptable value.  

The Chicago Bulls can offer better deals, which makes them both the best destination and the best trade fit.  Their base trade offer would be Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, Kyle Korver, picks and cash for Howard and Chris Duhon (the bad contract).  

They could also offer a more complicated deal of Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer for Dwight Howard and Hedo Turkoglu (a worse contract), which would give the Magic a strong frontcourt rotation to work with or use in additional trades.  

For their part, the Bulls would keep Gibson and Asik and be able to use their amnesty on Turkoglu in the summer before signing a better power forward.  None of these trade scenarios are perfect for the Magic, but they all make more sense then holding on to Howard after he has already told them he intends to leave.

The main argument for holding on to Dwight Howard, which is repeated by a sect of Orlando fans and others, is Howard will not turn down the additional year and $25 million the Magic can offer him.  But Howard can make that back and more by moving to a contending team in a larger market.  Not to mention, as the league's only superstar center, one year at $25 million is chump change anyways.

If the Magic have any sense, then I think they will trade Dwight Howard before the NBA Trade Deadline.  But what do you think?  Should they trade their franchise center?  

Let's debate.