Dwight Howard: Dallas Mavericks Will Be Only Winners in Magic Star's Saga

Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard met with team management Wednesday and presented general manager Rob Hennigan with three wishes, apparently mistakenly believing that Hennigan is a genie.

However, much to Hennigan's chagrin, the only one of those possibilities that's remotely plausible at this point will net the Magic a fat bag of nothing, and if Howard's demands are to be believed (and that's one lulu of an "if") the big winner in the Dwight Howard "sweepstakes" is going to be the Dallas Mavericks.

According to a report by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, Howard presented Hennigan with three potential scenarios. Trade the three-time NBA defensive player of the year to the Los Angeles Lakers, deal him to the Brooklyn Nets or watch Howard leave in free agency after the 2012-13 NBA season to sign with the Dallas Mavericks.

The Lakers appear to be all but out of the running, and Hennigan has no one to blame for that but himself. The Magic have hemmed and hawed about the particulars of a deal for Howard to the extent that the Lakers seem intent on moving on without him, with Chris Broussard and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN reporting that the team has entered into talks with center Andrew Bynum on a contract extension.

Frankly, a deal with the Lakers was unlikely to begin with. For one, Bynum would almost certainly have had to be part of the deal and agree to sign an extension with his new team, which the 24-year-old had already indicated he was unwilling to do.

Also, the Lakers are unwilling to accept bloated contracts from the Magic that would get the franchise killed by luxury tax penalties under the new CBA, nor does the team have much to offer in the way of draft picks after dealing two first-rounders to the Phoenix Suns for point guard Steve Nash.

The Nets have long been Howard's desired destination (at least according to his first, 13th, 28th and 134th statements regarding his intentions), but they're an even less likely trade partner than the Lakers.

A trade involving sending Howard to the Big Apple couldn't realistically even be considered until January, when Nets center Brook Lopez becomes eligible to be traded.

However, even once Lopez is eligible to be dealt, the four-year, $61 million contract the Nets recently signed him to makes him more of a financial anchor around the franchise's neck than a valuable trade commodity.

Even Hennigan isn't desperate enough to accept a package of Lopez, Kris Humphries, some lousy draft picks and a bag of Chex Mix for the six-time All-Star. That would leave the Magic even worse off than just watching Howard walk out the door, which appears at this point to be exactly what's going to happen.

That leaves the Dallas Mavericks, who will be flush with salary cap space next summer. As Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports, more than half of the Mavericks roster is entering the final year of their contracts, and Dallas owner Mark Cuban is both a big fan of Howard and has made it no secret that he intends to pursue at least one superstar to pair with Dirk Nowitzski next year.

Granted, this is Dwight Howard, so it wouldn't be all that surprising if a week from now Howard announces that he is giving up basketball altogether to pursue his true passion of securing a position on the U.S. Olympic men's curling team for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

However, with this latest twist in the unending saga that has swirled around Dwight Howard for what seems like forever, it now appears that Mark Cuban and the Mavericks may get their superstar, and they aren't even going to have to do any real pursuing to do it.

Be careful what you wish for, Mr. Cuban. You just might get it.

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