NBA Trade Rumors: Dwight Howard Breakup with Orlando Magic Will Be Ugly

The chances of Dwight Howard staying with the Orlando Magic have steadily been going from bad to worse. Howard has been pretty vocal the last couple of days about why he doesn't want to come back, and a lot of it has to do with Otis Smith. 

Howard apparently wants to be consulted when it comes to player moves, according to USA Today's Kyle Hightower:

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"It's simple, the best player on the team and the GM have a great relationship. If you go down the line of teams, every GM has a pretty good relationship with not just the best player, but all the players. If you don't have a good relationship with the guys you work with, how are you guys gonna get better?"

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Elsewhere Howard said to ESPN's Brian Windhorst:

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"The stuff that I have asked for, the stuff I felt our team needed to get better, none of it has happened," Howard said. "That's not me being cocky but I want to be involved with the organization. I've been here for a long time, I don't want to sit around."

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Some of those moves were Chris Paul or Deron Williams according to Hightower. Per Windhorst, they also included the likes of Stephen Jackson and Monta Ellis. 

Again, according to Windhorst, when Howard was asked whether he wanted Smith's job, he said:

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"I'm not a GM, I never said I wanted to be a GM. ...What I said was I want to be involved. Everybody has a right to be involved. ... I should want to be involved. I should want to say 'hey, this is what we need, this is what we need to do.' If I didn't care, I wouldn't have said anything. Obviously I care enough about this team that I've asked them and I want to be involved. If you don't like something, you'd just walk away. If you want to be involved you'd do anything you can. If you don't get it, what do you do."

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Translation: I didn't want Smith's job, I just wanted to tell him how to do it. 

Granted, Smith was doing a pretty questionable job himself and according to him, some of the players that Howard wanted are presently on the roster. 

I've never been a player that wants to dictate what happens around it. No matter how great a player you are that doesn't mean you're the best equipped to build a team, particularly one you're on.

If you don't believe me, just look at Michael Jordan. 

It's almost a foregone conclusion now that Howard will be gone and if he goes the rift will be ugly. There is still a small chance that the team can retain him, with a report coming out literally as I write this, also from Windhorst.

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After meeting with team, Dwight Howard seemed to re-open door to staying with Magic if there are "changes." Story coming.

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Maybe they decided to make Howard GM after all.