Orlando Magic expect trade offers for Dwight Howard
Is there a trade you'd make for the superstar?
Brian Schmitz Magic Insider
9:35 p.m. EDT, April 1, 2011
As hard as it is to believe, NBA teams have come to Otis Smith before with trade offers for Dwight Howard.
So the Magic general manager is fully prepared to field more calls next season --- potentially, Howard's final season in Orlando.
"To say it hasn't happened before is crazy, so, yes, I expect it to happen," Smith told me Friday.
"And the answer will be the same as it always is: No."
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Imagine what somebody would have to put on the table to land Dwight.
Fantasy basketball-league geeks would be hard-pressed to come up with a big enough package.
For fun, if you had to deal him, would you take Kevin Durant? Pau Gasol? Steven Spielberg's movie vault? Google? Bill Gates' money?
LeBron? Even if it would pain you to send Howard to Miami, LeBron might be it.
Basically, Dwight is untradeable --- in a good way.
Smith wouldn't divulge the teams who have made a run at Howard --- or the fellow GMs who tried to hoodwink him during Dwight's raw, formative years, he said.
Smith expects clubs to come calling before the trade deadline, thinking the Magic would rather receive compensation instead of letting Howard walk as a free agent.
Smith made it clear: He's willing to take the risk.
"Sure," he said.
There's a reason he feels that way.
He reiterates that teams dealing superstars never get fair value, which is true, but there's something more.
Smith believes --- and this is obviously encouraging news for Magic fans --- that Howard will stay in Orlando when all is said and done, texted and tweeted.
"That's my sense," he said.
Smith said he feels this way because of his relationship with Howard, and the feedback he receives from Howard's family, friends and his agent, Dan Fegan.
And Smith feels this way because the Magic have tried to build a contender with him as the centerpiece for seven seasons, spending money like the Yankees, some of it foolishly.
"We've been recruiting Dwight for seven years," Smith said. "Everybody's looking at one summer (2012), but we've essentially had seven years of free agency with him."
Smith said the plan is to still offer Howard a contract extension after this season ends, which might as well be a blank check.
It's a good-faith formality, more or less, considering Howard won't sign it.
Smith understands that his superstar wants to go exploring.
"I think that sometimes we always look at free agency one way," Smith said, referring to the team's side of it. "This is Dwight's opportunity to look at other options."
Howard never played a minute in college, arriving to the pros from high school. He never quite was exposed to the recruiting experience beyond wishful thinkers, such as the North Carolina Tar Heels.
Some stars love the wooing, the attention and the drama, leaving a franchise and a city breathlessly awaiting their decision.
"The NBA is a reality show, isn't it?" laughed Smith.
Teams might have tried to snooker Smith into acquiring Howard when he was new to the GM job (he took over fulltime in 2006, Dwight's second season ), but he's no fool.
He doesn't buy into everything he hears from Howard's camp, and realizes things can change in a year.
And who knows what next year will look like? A lockout is coming. A shortened season for Magic fans means seeing even less of Howard.
We know one thing for sure: Next season is the most critical in Magic history.
This is why I said that the Magic will never trade Howard during the season. He's means to much to Orlando and its fan base. Trading someone like him is the equivalent of Cleveland trading LBJ during the season. It's way too demoralizing for your fan base to see their megastar leave their city and it shows in their PER ratings. LBJ #1 and D12 #2.
The major problem for Orlando is that it looks like they've already been told that Dwight will not sign the contract extension and he wants to be a free agent. No matter which way Smith tries to spin it, he's in a terrible position. LBJ meant even more to Cleveland than Dwight does to Orlando and LBJ still "took his talents to South Beach" in pursuit of a championship.
Does Otis really think that Dwight is going to go into free agency knowing for sure that he'll resign with the Magic. D-Will just stated that you don't win a team of role players. Howard said the same thing earlier this season when talking about championship teams. You need at least two allstars, one star, and quality role players. We're far not even in the conversation of having that type of team but at this point, Orlando is missing it's second allstar and if you want to call Jameer Nelson a star, I think you'd be stretching it.
Smith says that they've essentially had 7 years of free agency with Dwight. Please, what kind of PR bs is that?? The situation that they face in 2012 is nothing like what they have experienced before.
He cites the fact that they spent money on the team for a long time, which is true, but look at how they spent their money. The fact that they signed Rashard to that monstrosity of a deal years ago was ridiculous. The only reason why they made it to the Finals two years ago is because they had created mismatches when they had Rashard and Turkoglu on the floor at the same time. Then they trade let Turkoglu walk (much to Howard's chagrin) which destroyed that mismatch, and then trade away Lewis for Gilbert Arenas and his ridiculous contract. Can a player really appreciate the moves you do if you're always giving players more money than they're worth, trading away combinations that helped you to succeed, trading for even worse contracts, and never getting under or close enough to the salary cap so that they can even consider signing a big time FA? Sure, you've made moves but when is the last time anyone has said that Orlando has made a great trade, draft pick, or free agent signing since drafting Dwight (which was more of a no-brainer pick than it was a smart GM move).
In many ways, I feel sorry for Orlando. It just looks like they're talking themselves into believing that Dwight is definitely going to stay. There's a reason why he wants to explore free agency. If you won a championship, this year or next year I doubt that he'd still consider being a free agent. People want to be free agents because they want be on a better team, not because they want to have a 'kid in the candystore' feeling. This latest non-move by them could be the worst move that they've made in franchise history.
