After countless trade rumors and speculation surrounding the trade status of elite center Dwight Howard, the Orlando Magic’ front office and GM Otis Smith has had arguably the toughest job of any team in the league this season. With so much uncertainty surrounding Howard’s future in Orlando and where he might land, all the speculation came to an abrupt halt when the superstar center agreed to waive the opt-clause in his contract and stay with the team through next season.

Even though it appeared that the whole trade demand fiasco was over in Orlando, Howard may still very well get dealt in the summer or before the NBA trade deadline next season. The waiving of the opt-clause was seemingly just prolonging the inevitable and gave the Magic a chance to explore their options.

Reportedly, the Orlando Magic did have a deal in place that would’ve sent Dwight Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Andrew Bynum, Steve Blake and Devin Ebanks. This deal was the most likely to go through before the deadline this season as no deal that satisfied the Magic was able to be made with Howard’s preferred destination of the New Jersey Nets.

With the threat of the Magic trading Howard to the Lakers, the three-time Defensive Player of the Year decided to waive the opt-clause instead of heading to Los Angeles. There could be many reasons for Howard declining the trade and staying in Orlando, but smart money says he just didn’t want to become Kobe Bryant’s sidekick in Hollywood.

Despite no trade going down, there is a good chance something might happen over the season with Dwight Howard still not happy with the franchise. A deal might be able to be swung with the Nets over the offseason as they might be able to sweeten the trade, but anything goes once the season is over for the Magic.

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