SB Nation Chicago - NBA Trade Deadline: Dwight Howard To Stay In Orlando Through 2012-2013 Season

NBA Trade Rumors: Dwight Howard Won't Give Up Opt-Out Option, Next Move Is Unclear

2012-03-15T00:35:50Z

After a long day of rumors that basically had the future of Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard all over the map,ESPN's Marc Stein is reporting that Howard told the Magic in a conference call on Wednesday that he refuses to concede the early termination option on his current contract.

It had previously been reported that Howard told some Magic teammates that he would waive the option and remain with the team through the 2012-2013 season in order to avoid being traded before this week's trade deadline. Stein says that Howard and his agent, Dan Fegan, called the team before Wednesday's game against San Antonio to clarify the player's position.

When asked why Howard told several teammates and members of the organization earlier in the day that he had indeed decided not to opt out of his contract, the source insisted that Howard 'didn't fully understand the ramifications' of surrendering his ETO.

So while it appears that previous reports about Howard's stated intentions weren't necessarily incorrect, it's becoming clear that Howard doesn't have any concrete plans for his future going forward.

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NBA Trade Rumors: Dwight Howard Won't Opt Out, To Stay With Magic For 2012-2013 Season

2012-03-14T20:26:53Z

Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard, the focus of major trade rumors over the past few months, has reportedly told teammates that he won't be opting out this summer and instead will remain with the team for the 2012-2013 season. According to a report from WFTV, an affiliate of ABC in Orlando, Howard told the team of his plans on Wednesday.

One of the best players in the NBA, Howard has long been part of trade rumors after stating his intention to opt out of his current deal and hit free agency this summer, but it appears that he's now changed his mind.

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Rather than opt out of his deal this summer and either sign an extension with Orlando or leave to join a new team, Howard will now exercise his player option for the 2012-2013 season with the opportunity to hit free agency following next season.

In the short-term, this means that Howard is a lock to stay in Orlando through this season, so it'll be interesting to see if the Magic can make moves to improve the team for a championship run this year. With Howard sticking around through next season, the Magic

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NBA Trade Rumors: Magic May Trade Dwight Howard Without Extension In Place

2012-03-14T18:27:57Z

Growing frustrated with the entire situation, the Orlando Magic have been telling teams that they will trade center Dwight Howard before the trade deadline if the two sides can't agree to a contract extension soon, according to Chris Broussard of ESPN.

Here's one of Broussard's sources on the topic:

Dwight's dreaming if he thinks Orlando won't trade him without a commitment. He needs to make some small commitment to them. They're saying it can't be one way.

According to the source, Orlando was offended by Howard's recent public plea to stay with the Magic through the end of the season given his intention to hit free agency at the end of the year. The team feels that Howard is trying to unfairly manipulate the situation.

The report says that Orlando would be satisfied with retaining Howard without an extension in place as long as the center refuses to opt-out of his current deal and his free agency this summer. He hasn't been willing to make that consolation yet, though.

Stay tuned to SB Nation Chicago for more information, and for in-depth analysis on the Chicago Bulls be sure to visit Blog a Bull. Head over SB Nation NBA for more news and notes around the league.

2012 NBA Trade Deadline: Bulls Working On Trade For Pau Gasol

2012-03-13T20:59:55Z

The Chicago Bulls are apparently in pursuit of Los Angeles Lakers center-forward Pau Gasol, reports ESPN's Marc Stein:

Bulls exploring avenues to try to trade for Lakers' Pau Gasol, sources close to situation say. Story going up now at ESPN online
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) March 13, 2012

The 11-year veteran Gasol has averaged 37 minutes or more per game since the 2008-09 NBA season, scoring an average 18.4 points per game and collecting 10.3 rebounds per game during that 4-season stretch.

Chicago currently has SF Luol Deng and PF Carlos Boozer as their two starting starting guards, with C Joakim Noah as the starting center. However, with Deng missing time with his continually nagging wrist injury, and SG Richard Hamilton starting in only 16 games so far this season, the Bulls are hoping to bolster their starting set and bring in the versatile Gasol to help push the team -- which still boasts the NBA's best record -- over the top.

Stay tuned to SB Nation Chicago for more information, and for in-depth analysis on theChicago Bulls be sure to visit Blog a Bull. Head over SB Nation NBA for more news and notes around the league.

Dwight Howard Bulls Rumors: Orlando Center Will Sign With Nets This Summer, According To Report

2012-03-13T19:11:36Z

The Chicago Bulls' ever dwindling chances to acquire C Dwight Howard shrank even more on Tuesday. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, Dwight Howard will not be signing a contract extension with the Orlando Magic in the coming offseason:

"Dwight’s gone, and [Magic CEO] Alex Martins is the only person who doesn’t believe that," a league source with knowledge of Howard’s intentions told Yahoo! Sports.

Howard is in the final year of his contract with the Orlando Magic, and he currently leads the team in rebounds per game (15.0 REB), steals per game (1.5 STL), points per games (21.1 PTS) and field goal percentage (.573). Wojnarowski sources suggest Howard and his six All-Star accolades are headed to the New Jersey Nets next offseason:

Martins has improved the franchise’s relationship with Howard, multiple sources told Yahoo! Sports. But as one source talking to Martins and Howard said: "That’s great, but [Dwight’s] still going to leave."
Said another official, who has been involved in deal talks with Orlando, New Jersey and the agents in the process: "Dwight is going to [expletive] them, and that will be especially true if he doesn’t even ask for the sign-and-trade on July 1, because he wants Brooklyn to keep assets."

The 2012 NBA Trade Deadline is on March 15 at 3:00 p.m. ET.

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Dwight Howard Trade Rumors: Get Over It Chicago, Orlando's Big Man Doesn't Want You

2012-03-13T10:00:21Z

Considering the typical Chicago sports fan is often painted with a hardhat and Ditka mustache attached to its head and a beer and bratwurst in its hands, you wouldn't expect a city with a collar this definitively blue to be so willing to play the role of the jilted lover. Yet, when a star athlete rejects our humble Midwestern metropolis, Chicago gets mad, and maybe even a little ugly. This city loves its sports teams like no one else; as such, we occasionally handle someone telling us "no" with the grace of a toddler. If an athlete doesn't want to come to Chicago, surely it's a problem with him, not a problem with us.

As you probably could have guessed, this is the story of Dwight Howard.

Trade rumors tying the Orlando Magic center to the Chicago Bulls have hung over the entire season like a storm cloud. Yes, Howard's presence is that brooding. In the '90s, the NBA had a wealth of talented pivot men: there was Hakeem Olajuwon, and Patrick Ewing, and David Robinson, and Alonzo Mourning, and Shaquille O'Neal. Now there's only Howard. Forget about an equal, the media couldn't even cook up a rival for DH12 with a straight face. When compared to the Orlando big man, the rest of the league's starting fives seem inherently flawed, if not outright diseased. None of them can move like Howard; no one protects the rim half as well. Marc Gasol, Andrew Bynum and Joakim Noah can be quality supporting players on a championship team. In today's NBA, that's a net-positive. But so far as centers go, Howard is the only one good enough to be the centerpiece of a juggernaut.

When LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh teamed up in Miami during the summer of 2010, they put players like Howard in a precarious position. Even if the Heat didn't win the NBA championship in their first season, they changed the landscape forever. Make no mistake, the Super Team Era is here to stay, and you only need to look at the rosters of the Los Angeles Clippers and New York Knicks for proof. Even if Howard, or anyone else, really wanted to stay with the team that drafted him, doing so with only a middling supporting cast means you run the risk of being irrelevant forever. The Heat haven't won a thing yet, but the mere threat of an impending Miami dynasty is enough to change the culture.

This is evident in every Dwight Howard rumor you hear. He wants to go to New Jersey to team up with Deron Williams. He wants to go to LA to play with Kobe Bryant. Perhaps he'll end up in Dallas, next to fellow free agent Williams and long-tenured Mavericks superstar Dirk Nowitzki. It seems likely that no matter where Howard ends up, his best teammate is going to be a lot better than Jason Richardson, Ryan Anderson, or anyone else he's currently working with in Orlando. This is now the nature of the league, and it isn't changing anytime soon.

Since the moment the lockout was lifted, Howard's departure from Orlando has seemed imminent. Only problem: the teams he reportedly prefers don't have the pieces Orlando is rightfully demanding. The entire time, our Bulls have sat with one eye on the entire ordeal, maybe, just maybe, waiting to pick their spot.

To everyone else, Howard and Chicago seem like a perfect match. The Bulls have the talented young players Orlando covets in return for Howard; conversely, Chicago is also home to Derrick Rose, a fellow superstar who could conceivably fill Howard's fingers with championship rings. The Bulls are very good -- Chicago's .795 winning percentage is the highest in the league -- but the promise of Howard is appealing enough to blow the entire thing up. Noah, Luol Deng and Taj Gibson may very well help lead the Bulls to a championship this season, but most savvy NBA observers wouldn't think twice about trading all three to pair Rose with Howard. If LeBron and Wade thought they were rewriting the script by joining forces, Rose and Howard have the ability to shred it to pieces before production even begins. Their potential reign really could be that colossal.

The issue? Simply, the Bulls aren't on Howard's list of preferred destinations. When he was asked why not with the Magic in town to play the Bulls on Thursday, Howard joked about Chicago being too cold. Right, because the Brooklyn Nets will play their home games on the equator.

It's an impasse NBA rhetoric has been stuck at for months, but with the trade deadline looming Thursday, the news cycle was ripe for another check-in on Howard-to-Chicago. Enter Ken Berger of CBS Sports. This was the crux of his quote-unquote report:

The Orlando Magic would like to seriously engage the Bulls in trade talks for Dwight Howard, but the All-Star center's apparent reluctance to make a long-term commitment to Chicago has all but killed the discussions, league sources told CBSSports.com.

.......

But the team that can make the strongest case for Orlando to depart from its risky strategy of holding onto Howard are the Bulls, who could offer 7-footer Omer Asik, Luol Deng and Carlos Boozer for Howard and Hedo Turkoglu, sources said. The Bulls also could offer a valuable first-round pick from Charlotte -- top-14 protected in this year's draft but but unprotected by 2016.

As Matt detailed at Blog-a-Bull, this really isn't news. So you're saying the Bulls could offer Asik, Deng and Boozer? Well, no kidding. But the lack of any new information certainly didn't stop Berger's column from once against ramping up speculation.

More than one friend sent me the Real GM link to Berger's report. This is the first sentence:

The Magic would be open to trading Dwight Howard to Chicago in exchange for Omer Asik, Luol Deng, Carlos Boozer and a valuable first-round pick from Charlotte, according to a report.

Note that Berger never wrote the Magic would trade Howard for that proposed package of Chicago players. Whatever, never let facts get in the way of a few million pageviews.

As Berger's story started to go viral, there was a predictable backlash in Chicago against the Orlando center that had been dormant for some time. It was way back on Jan. 13 that the Chicago Tribune's Steve Rosenbloom wrote a downright sad and pathetic column that called Howard 'stupid' three times, an 'idiot' twice, and a 'loser' once in the course of its first 110 words. Somehow, the Tribune thought that was fit to print. After the Berger's report grabbed headlines, it started again. Here's what the Tribune's Red Eye had to say:

If Dwight Howard doesn't want to come to Chicago, then I don't want him. He's obviously dumber than a box of rocks.
— Brian Moore (@redeyesportsguy) March 12, 2012

This was a typical response:

@redeyesportsguy dhoward is nota winner. Otherwise hed be in chi.
— Ron Borja (@eentegra) March 12, 2012

Even the blogs got in on the name calling:

Dwight Howard is dumb enough to say Chicago's weather is the problem, but he's even dumber if that's really what he believes. #bulls #magic
— Six Rings & Counting (@SixRingsNBA) March 12, 2012

Clearly, if you don't want to play for the Bulls, you're a stupid, idiot, moron who would rather dance and wear Ed Hardy t-shirts than play for a real city in front of real fans like Chicago . OK, so maybe the second half of that actually is true in regards to Howard. It doesn't make the first part any more acceptable, though.

We've known about Howard's reluctance to join the Bulls for months, but we've never really known why. There's been speculation that adidas -- the shoe company that represents both he and Rose -- doesn't want its brand to be so Chicago-centric. I wondered in this space before the season began if Rose didn't want another superstar to steal some of his spotlight in his hometown. It seems likely Howard doesn't want Rose's star blinding his own, either. After all, we do love our point guard. As Bill Simmons wrote on Friday:

I don't think any NBA fan base loves a player more than Bulls fans love Derrick Rose. If you went into a Chicago sports bar and started trashing Rose during a Bulls game, you'd get beaten up and left for dead in an alley.

Perhaps Howard thinks the Bulls would still be known as "Derrick Rose's team" even if he came to Chicago. I think it's safe to say if the Bulls won a championship or three, he'd probably receive his fair share of credit.

As weird as it seems, this could all be working to Chicago's advantage. Ideally, the Bulls would like to see if they have enough to beat Miami in the playoffs this season. If they don't, then it might be time to do something drastic. The Bulls have been nothing but passive throughout the Howard saga, but another loss in the Eastern Conference Finals could change that. Lose again to LeBron and motivation for working out a sign-and-trade for another star should reach a high-point.

It doesn't appear that Dwight Howard is getting traded anywhere by Thursday, though these situations are nothing if not fluid. As Howard keeps rejecting Chicago, the city will continue to shake its head, wondering what could have been.

Ricky O'Donnell is the editor of SB Nation Chicago and the founder of the Chicago sports blog Tremendous Upside Potential. Follow him on Twitter or reach him at richardpodonnell@gmail.com.

Dwight Howard Update: Magic Intrigued By Potential Deal With Chicago

2012-03-12T00:59:36Z

As the NBA trade deadline gets closer, it should come as no surprise that Dwight Howard is being associated with different teams around the league. According to Ken Berger of CBSSports, the Magic would prefer to trade Howard to the Chicago Bulls because of their assets, but apparently Howard isn't interested in coming to the Windy City:

Magic executives are said to be unimpressed with the assets Howard's three preferred teams could provide in a trade, prompting them to engage in a calculated campaign to expand the field of potential suitors beyond the Nets, Mavericks and Lakers. But the team that can make the strongest case for Orlando to depart from its risky strategy of holding onto Howard are the Bulls, who could offer 7-footer Omer Asik, Luol Deng and Carlos Boozer for Howard and Hedo Turkoglu, sources said. The Bulls also could offer a valuable first-round pick from Charlotte -- top-14 protected in this year's draft but but unprotected by 2016.

Such a scenario has gained no traction since Chicago is "not on his list," a person familiar with the situation said of Howard. Without assurances from Howard or his camp that he'd be willing to sign long-term with the Bulls, Chicago executives have exhibited no appetite for trade talks with the Magic. The two teams have spoken, but there's "no type of serious discussions" going on, a person familiar with the situation said.

It will be interesting to see if the Bulls continue to go forward with the group they have, considering the fact they already have a place among the elite in the NBA. However, if Howard might be the key to getting by the Miami Heat, would it be worth picking him up without the guarantee he would sign an extension?

Stay tuned to SB Nation Chicago for more information, and for in-depth analysis on theChicago Bulls be sure to visit Blog a Bull. Head over SB Nation NBA for more news and notes around the league.

Dwight Howard, Chicago Bulls Trade Rumors: Derrick Rose Says Howard Rumors Are 'Definitely Getting Old'

2012-03-10T01:11:27Z

The Chicago Bulls might be the best team in the NBA, but that hasn't slowed trade rumors connecting the Bulls to free-agent-to-be Dwight Howard, center for the Orlando Magic. A potential deal for Howard has been discussed since the very start of the season, and as the trade deadline approaches, the entire situation remains the same: Howard is still in Orlando, he doesn't appear to want to go to Chicago, and the Bulls are being passive.

The Magic's meeting with the Bulls at the United Center last night only added fuel to the fire. To the surprise of no one, Rose is starting to get bothered by the constant speculation.

“It’s definitely getting old,” Rose said. “We’re sick and tired of hearing it. Like I said, the city speaks for itself. Chicago, marketing wise, is a great city. If someone chose to come here, they would definitely fit. I’m cool with the teammates I have.”

“I don’t pay attention to it unless someone comes to me — like you all and tell me something,” Rose said to a group of reporters. “I don’t know what’s going on or who’s talking to who. You all know more than I do.”

Stay tuned to SB Nation Chicago for more information, and for in-depth analysis on theChicago Bulls be sure to visit Blog a Bull. Head over SB Nation NBA for more news and notes around the league.