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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