NBA Trade Rumors: Magic Have Themselves to Blame for Dwight Howard Situation

He's still suiting up for them and he's still playing for them, but it's no secret that Dwight Howard would rather not be a member of the Orlando Magic.

You know it. I know it. Everyone knows it.

That includes Houston Rockets shooting guard Courtney Lee, who played alongside Howard as a rookie in the 2008-2009 season. What Lee knows that the rest of us don't, however, is that Howard's frustration with the Magic has been growing for over two years now.

“I’m not surprised (Dwight requested a trade),” said Lee after the Rockets lost to the Magic on Tuesday night, per the Orlando Sentinel. ”When they broke up the team in 2009, you could just see the frustration in Dwight’s face. We talked about it a couple of times and you could tell he was upset about it."

If you don't recall what happened in 2009, the Magic lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals in five games. Not long afterwards, Magic general manager Otis Smith made a few moves he thought would make the team stronger, but that ultimately proved to make the team weaker.

And he apparently made these moves without consulting Howard.

"Most franchise players are involved in the decision-making," said Lee, "and Dwight’s feeling like he’s not involved. If you’re going to build around a player, you should communicate with that player and see who he’d like around him."

Since the Magic chose not to trade Howard during the NBA's abbreviated offseason, they still have time to do this. If they want to keep Howard in Orlando for the foreseeable future, it's in their interest to give him a cookie and a glass of milk, and to keep both coming.

My only concern is that it may be too late for Howard and the Magic to make amends. When the Magic decided to kill trade talks for Howard a couple weeks ago (see Yahoo! Sports report), one league source said Howard was "not a happy camper." He clearly had his heart set on being traded.

Thankfully, Howard has looked like his usual self in Orlando's first two games. He may not be happy, but at least he's being professional.

The Magic should consider themselves lucky that Howard is being so courteous. I'm not sure I buy Lee's insistence that stars should be consulted before their teams make moves, but it is true that Orlando's front office screwed up what was a pretty good team in 2009. They've been trying to fix things ever since, but none of their moves have made the team any stronger.

This offseason, the Magic proceeded to come within inches of dealing Howard, only to back off at the last minute. One can understand their reasoning, but one can also understand why Howard would feel miffed at not being traded.

The Magic are going to have to trade Howard at some point. They want to keep him, but they've done enough to push him towards opting out of his contract at the end of the season. Assuming Howard doesn't have a sudden change of heart, the Magic will pretty much be forced to deal him for the sake of getting something for him while they still can.

Many Magic fans will no doubt feel betrayed. But if and when Howard is traded, the blame will lie with the powers that be in Orlando's front office.