NBA Trade Rumors: Portland GM's Remarks Do Not Mean Dwight Howard Trade Is Dead

It appears the Orlando Magic are indeed quite serious about starting the season with Dwight Howard on their roster.

I wasn't quite sure I wanted to believe it, but Portland Trail Blazers acting general manager Chad Buchanan made it pretty clear that the Howard talks have died down when he said on Tuesday that he hasn't heard anything from anybody regarding Howard.

"Absolutely not," Buchanan said, per CSNNW.com. "No. We haven't had any discussions with anybody. We like our team. We like the makeup and chemistry of our group and we're very comfortable with where we're at."

He also added, "We haven't had any discussions for quite some time now."

Why is this significant, you ask?

Because the Blazers were in line to be a third party in a deal that would have sent Howard from the Magic to the New Jersey Nets. According to Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, the Nets would have gotten Howard, Chris Duhon and Hedo Turkoglu, the Magic would have gotten Gerald Wallace, Brook Lopez, Jordan Farmar and a first-round draft pick and the Blazers would have gotten four draft picks.

The rumor goes that this deal was killed by Orlando's ownership, much to Howard's chagrin.

So either the Blazers are out of the loop, or talks have truly died down. Either way, it's apparent that Howard is not going anywhere.

At least, not soon. The Magic have pulled him off the block, but they can always put him back on it at any point before the March 15 trade deadline. If and when they do, they could always choose to give the Nets and Blazers a call and attempt to arrange the same trade that Howard thought was a "done deal" at one point.

The Nets will no doubt be willing, but the Trail Blazers could be tough to sway. They made the playoffs last season and could very well return this season. Come March, they'll probably already be on their way, and thus won't be overly willing to break up the band.

If so, the Nets will have to find a new third party, preferably one that could contribute a capable player that the Magic could play right away, which is what Wallace would have been had the trade gone through.

As such, this trade is not quite dead but it is on life support for the time being. The Nets, Magic and Blazers had a window to complete a deal, and that window seems to have been slammed shut.

It could open again, but it's just as likely that another window will open instead. Either way, this thing is far from over.