Orlando Magic Will Reportedly Field Offers for Dwight Howard Before NBA Draft
The Orlando Magic are ready to move on from Dwight Howard, and they won't wait long to begin entertaining offers for their superstar center.
According to Chris Sheridan of SheridanHoops.com, the Magic will begin talking to other teams about Howard again after next Wednesday's NBA draft lottery, when they'll have a better picture of what the rest of the league has to offer.
The news comes just days after the ousting of head coach Stan Van Gundy and general manager Otis Smith.
Howard was known to have a contentious relationship with Van Gundy and reportedly went so far as to request that the front office fire him during the 2011-12 regular season. He was also rather critical of Smith at times, both for the moves he made (i.e. trading for Vince Carter and Gilbert Arenas in separate deals) and what he saw as a lack of communication between player and GM.
Per Sheridan, Howard allegedly asked out of Orlando even after those two were let go, with his eye toward joining a new team in a bigger market. Sheridan suggests that Howard's list of destinations includes the Brooklyn Nets and the New York Knicks as front runners, with the Dallas Mavericks, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Clippers and his hometown Atlanta Hawks in the mix.
The six-time All-Star and three-time Defensive Player of the Year was elected to his fifth consecutive All-NBA First Team on Thursday after being named to the All-Defensive First Team for the fourth year in a row earlier in the week.
Howard will be a free agent after the 2012-13 season, and he could have entered the market earlier had he not opted into the final year of his deal at the trade deadline at the Magic's behest.
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