Before the start of the regular season last Sunday the Orlando Magic announced that they were no longer listening to trade offers for center Dwight Howard.
Safe to say that didn’t last very long.
Now, according to Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel, the team is listening to offers from all teams in exchange for their superstar center. This means teams that aren’t on Howard’s so-called wish list. Ultimately, that means Orlando is hoping a team will take a chance on Howard as a rental player before possibly losing him to free agency after the season.
They will listen to anybody who is willing to take a risk and give up a few good men for Howard if he can lead them to the NBA Finals as a temp. It’s another reason why they will wait until the March 15 deadline to make a deal for Howard, after he’s played 44 games in Orlando. His new team would land him for 22 games, plus the postseason.
Realistically this isn’t much more than a negotiating tactic to put pressure on the Los Angeles Lakers and New Jersey Nets, the two teams seen as the front-runners in the Howard sweepstakes.
But Lakers fans will be happy to hear that Schmitz believes in the end Howard will end up in Los Angeles.
“The deals might get better closer to the deadline, but I still believe Andrew Bynum will be wearing a Magic uniform in the end.”