Magic Trade Rumors: Keeping Dwight Howard Would Push D12 to Mavs Next Year

Mark Cuban loves it.

According to the latest trade rumors, the Orlando Magic are clueless. The team continue to prolong the Dwight Howard-era in Disney World, and the longer that they do, the more likely D12 will be handed on a silver platter to the Dallas Mavericks next summer.

That’s exactly what Rob Hennigan is on pace to accomplish.

Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel reported that Hennigan somehow, someway believes that the Magic hold all the leverage. He’s perfectly content to wait for a satisfying offer.

Robbins wrote of the GM’s Wednesday meeting with Howard:

Hennigan has said for weeks that he's in no rush to trade Howard and that he will trade Howard only if the Magic receive a good offer for the perennial All-Star. Hennigan has said he has not ruled out beginning training camp and the regular season with Howard on the team's roster.

Fool.

This is an identical game to the one the Magic played with Howard last season—how did that work out?

It didn’t.

D12 is still in Orlando, and if the Magic fail to deal him by the trade deadline again (crazier/more idiotic things have happened), the team will be left empty-handed.

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported that a source connected to the Hennigan-Howard meeting said of D12’s current desires: “Dwight remained unchanged in his want to be traded and he has no intention of signing another contract extension with Orlando.”

Considering that Howard has always been adamant that he wants to contend for a ring in a massive market, that news isn’t the least bit shocking. Orlando is a small market and the Magic aren’t a contender.

Dallas, on the other hand, is a semi-large market that boasts a superstar in Dirk Nowitzki. Throw in the fact that they’ll have more than enough cap room to sign Howard to a max contract next summer, and you should brace yourself for more unsurprising news.

According to Wojnarowski, Howard will indeed sign with the Mavs if he isn’t traded to the Los Angeles Lakers or Brooklyn Nets this year.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the pieces falling in place, but apparently Hennigan is blind. To his dismay, he has zero leverage and the longer that he holds on to Howard, the more likely D12 rocks a Dallas uniform in 2013.

 

David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.

Follow @TheRealDDaniels

Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1273209-magic-trade-rumors-keeping-dwight-howard-would-push-d12-to-mavs-next-year

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