The future of Dwight Howard?

At the start of this season, Orlando Magic centre openly said he wanted a trade. The disappointment of last season was hard to take, and as the franchise centre piece it must have hit him harder than most. The problems that Orlando could find themselves in if he does leave would take years to recover from, there is now other centre like him in the NBA and I doubt there will be for a few years.

Shaquille O'Neal has said it would be a travesty if Howard where to leave Orlando now. "I think they have to be a little bit worried that he hasn't committed to signing, so there may be an underlying problem of what's really going on," O'Neal said.
"I don't know if he doesn't like the organization, I don't know if he wants to go to a bigger city where he can get more endorsement deals, he can do movies. No one really knows the problem."

So what is it that Howard thinks he can get elsewhere? It can't be money. Orlando can offer him more than any other franchise because of the new collective bargaining agreement, in that sense it is very different to when Shaquille O'Neal left to go to LA Lakers in 1996. Every player wants championships in their career and he is no different, in a recent interview he said it was now a race between him and Lebron James to see who could get a ring first, Lebron stands a good chance of getting one this season while Howard doesn't. In his eight seasons at Orlando they've been a regular in the Eastern Playoffs but have only made the finals once.

It could be that he is fed up of broken promises. Howard has always heard how the franchise plan to bring in star quality, that hasn't happened. While players like Hedo Turoglu and Jameer Nelson are very good players in their own right, they'll never be a league beater. Originally Howard said he wanted to go to New Jersey, he stands more chance of winning something at Orlando who are 20-11 and fourth in the East, than at New Jersey who are 9-23 and fourth from bottom. I could understand if he came out and said I want to go to Miami or Boston, but the nets?

One trade I have heard of in the last few days is to Golden State, I'm going to look at this in a selfish view. If he goes to Golden State I'd want two players and a draft pick at least. The offer in the news at the moment is; David Lee, Monta Ellis and either Klay Thompson or Ekpe Udoh for Howard and Glen Davis. If Orlando is going to lose Howard anyway, this actually seems like a really good deal. All of these players can fit straight in to the Orlando side. Orlandos owner Richard DeVos Senior has constantly said that he doesn't want to trade Howard.

My stance hasn't changed since I heard the news in December, I'd love him to stay. The fear he puts in to other teams is unmatched. But if he won't resign then they need to look at the options and if we can get a very good trade like the one supposedly offered by Golden State Orlando would be daft not take it. The trade deadline is the 15th March and everyone needs to have something signed by then.