Reheated rumor: Cavaliers reportedly back as third team in Howard to Lakers trade

You spin me right round, baby; right round like a record, baby; Right round round round…

I wish the Dwight Howard trade were dead or alive.

Instead it keeps limping along in unlikely incarnations as the Lakers make one more push for it before throwing in the towel and talking to Andrew Bynum about a max extension. Which is going to start happening soon. But they are making one more push.

Ric Bucher of ESPN has the latest rumor, which is really the same as an old rumor pulled out and thrown in the toaster oven, reheated for your consumption. And even he tells you maybe you don’t want to swallow this.

The Cleveland Cavaliers may have inched ahead of the Houston Rockets as a facilitator in a potential trade that would send Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers, sources said Wednesday. One source familiar with the talks, though, cautioned not to make too much of that shift just yet…

The Cavaliers would land Lakers center Andrew Bynum for a package of draft picks and veteran power forward Anderson Varejao, according to one league source. The Lakers would receive Howard for Bynum. Orlando would get Varejao and draft picks. The source said this was merely the framework of a deal being discussed.

And we’re back to the stumbling blocks. Who takes on Jason Richardson and his oversized contract? Bynum has listed Cleveland as one of the teams he would re-sign with — to make a very nice pick-and-roll combo with Kyrie Irving — but Cleveland will want a commitment not just pretty words. The Lakers reportedly will move ahead thinking they can win Howard over, commitment or not.

And since the Magic are going to flip Varejao in this scenario, those had better be some sweet draft picks and a whole lot of them.

Despite what Laker fans are trying to talk themselves into — and no doubt this would be a good trade for them, Howard is a considerable upgrade over Bynum — this is about as close to reality right now as my 8-year-old daughter swimming in the Olympics in eight years. (If you’re wondering how close that is, she has my genes and I’m a blogger.)