NBA Trade Rumors: Orlando Magic Need To Deal Dwight Howard Immediately

Now that the cat is reportedly out of the bag about Dwight Howard wanting to be traded to the New Jersey Nets, it is in the best interest of the Orlando Magic to make a deal happen as fast as possible and not think twice about it.

Howard is, by far, the best center in the NBA and he will command quite a haul in return. We have heard reports from Marc Stein and Chad Ford of ESPN.com that the Nets would structure a deal around Brook Lopez and two future first-round draft picks.

While Lopez is not the player that Howard is, he is a more than capable center in a league that is starved for legitimate seven-foot players that can actually handle the grind of an 82-game (or 66-game) schedule.

The Magic have all the incentive in the world to get a trade done because they aren’t going to win anything this season, and Howard has all but said that he is not going to sign an extension to stay with the team.

That is a harsh reality to face, especially considering that Howard has been the face of the franchise for seven years and the front office has done everything it can to build a team around him.

But Orlando has been in this predicament before—in 1996 with Shaquille O’Neal. They tried to roll the dice and hope they could get past the Chicago Bulls, win a championship and convince him to sign an extension.

When none of that happened and O’Neal signed with the Los Angeles Lakers, it took the Magic eight years to recover. They can’t be left in a lurch again by their superstar, and there is no reason for them to when there is an appealing trade allegedly floating around out there.

The Nets would be the obvious beneficiary of a Howard deal in the short-term, but it is entirely possible that the Magic get at least one lottery pick out of the two draft picks that they would receive in the reported deal.

Building a team around Lopez and a lottery pick is not too bad for a team that would enter the 2012 season with none of those parts if they choose not to deal Howard.

The Magic need to pull the trigger on the Howard trade as soon as possible because they have to do what is in the best interest of the franchise. 

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