Chris Paul has been up front — he sat down with Hornets officials on Monday and was pretty clear he was not signing an extension and returning to New Orleans. He is not stringing the Hornets along (which is little consolation for the team’s fans).
Dwight Howard on the other hand…
He has seemed conflicted and that is echoed in a new report from Ken Berger at CBSSports.com.Dwight Howard has not yet indicated to Orlando management whether he wants to stay with the Magic, request a trade or play out the season and become a free agent, a person directly involved in the organization’s planning told CBSSports.com Tuesday….
The person familiar with the Magic’s strategy said Tuesday that, while Howard has yet to verbalize what he wants, the All-Star center has “deep roots here” and has previously expressed that “this is where he’d like to fulfill his career.”
“He wants to win,” the person said. “That’s on his mind intensely.”
In Orlando, they think they can keep him. So long as that is the case they will not trade him.
Orlando thinks it has a 50/50 or better chance because Howard is conflicted. He does have roots in Orlando. And he wants to be liked and he saw how Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James took hits for leaving their markets. In his heart I think he wants to stay.
But he also wants to win a ring, and he realizes that the Magic are a long way s from that right now. They are good with him, no doubt, but the pieces around him are not good enough to compete with the likes of the Heat and Bulls. And Orlando is laden with big contracts that are hard to move. Even with amnesty clauses and stretch provisions the Magic are not in a place to win for years and Howard is entering his prime.
His head and heart are in conflict, and the Magic think they can help his heart win the battle. So the process will drag out, with rumors swirling about the Lakers and the Bulls and the Knicks and 26 other teams until a decision is made.
Howard needs to be clear and direct. But he is not there yet. So he has told the Magic nothing.