NBA Trade Rumors: Dwight Howard's Trade Request Puts Magic in No-Win Situation

When Dwight Howard went public with his desire to be traded away from Orlando, buyers started lining up for a shot at the NBA’s best center. The Magic, however, nixed a potential three-team trade that would have brought in Gerald Wallace and Brook Lopez in shipping Howard to New Jersey.

Even with that deal falling through, however, Howard is steadfast in his desire to be moved. The Orlando Sentinel reports that the 26-year-old, asked if he had changed his mind about his request, declared, "It still stands."

The Magic front office has expressed hopes of talking Howard out of his request prior to the March 15 trade deadline, but it’s hard to imagine those efforts amounting to anything. If Howard hadn’t been sure he wanted out, he would never have been foolish enough to torpedo the team by going public with his desire to be dealt.

As a result, the Magic can either find a trade partner or wait for the 2012 offseason, when Howard can become a free agent and leave the Magic holding the bag. That latter scenario is a familiar one to Orlando fans, who saw the same thing happen when Shaquille O’Neal skipped town for L.A. in 1996.

At the same time, trading Howard would also be a terrible mistake. With the league well aware of his desire to leave, the Magic are in terrible bargaining position, and it would already have been an impossible task to receive equal trade value for the best player at the NBA’s scarcest position in the prime of his career.

With no realistic hope of keeping Howard, all the Magic can reasonably do is cut their losses and take the best trade offer they can find. Even if they pull the trigger on a deal, though, Howard’s actions have ensured that Orlando will come out very much on the short end.