Dwight wants to stay in Orlando and start his own path

[AboveLegit]

"I'm not trying to run behind nobody like Shaq or be behind somebody else," Howard said, referencing Shaquille O'Neal's decision to leave the Magic following the 1995-96 season and sign with the Los Angeles Lakers.

 

"I want to start my own path and I want people to follow my path and not just follow somebody else's path. I want to have my own path, and I want to start that here in Orlando. But I can't do it alone. Not only do I need the right teammates, but I need the city behind me. That's the only way it's going to get done. We can change this small city that we have — this small market that we have — and we can make it a big market."

 

"As of right now, I'm a part of the Orlando Magic and I plan to be here," Howard said.

 

"And I want the Magic to do whatever they can to make sure that we can get our city behind us. That's the only thing that I want to happen: just to have the city behind me and the support of our fans. I never said I was leaving. I never, ever thought about leaving. That's basically where my head is right now. I never said anything to them [the Magic] about what my plans were because that's not what I'm focused on right now."

 

"I just want to become better," Howard said. "I want to win a championship. I just felt bad losing in the first round and I just want to make sure that our team has a chance to win a championship next year."

 

"He does not want to leave Orlando," said Howard's manager, Kevin Samples. "You don't do stuff like this and be ready to go. If you're ready to go, you go ahead and go and start taking meetings and stuff like that. This is home for us. It's been seven years. We want to stay here."

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orlando-magic/os-magic-dwight-howard-0531-20110530,0,2026832.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+orlandosentinel%2Fsports%2Fbasketball%2Fmagic+%28OrlandoSentinel.com+-+Orlan

[?QuestionMark?]

They need to pair him another star player. Chris Paul would be the ideal guy. They probably had a good shot at him last year if not for the financial mess ownership in NO was in.

 

If not Paul then a guy like Granger or Iggy. And if not them then on a lesser level a guy like Stephen Jackson. Problem is that outside of Dwight, Orlando doesn't have many tradable assets.

 

If they can't get another star then they have to remake the Pistons 04 team and pair Dwight with 4 other elite defensive players. That means no more turnstiles like Hedo and Nelson and Anderson.

 

It'll be interesting to see what Orlando does. But this is looking eerily similar to KG in Minnesota.

[Nitro]

Problem is that outside of Dwight, Orlando doesn't have many tradable assets.

 

That's the main issue. Arenas is on probably the worst contract in NBA history when you factor in his injuries, Hedo's on a bad contract, I believe Richardson is a FA, Jameer is an average starting PG who isn' a great playmaker, and the rest of the team doesn't have any value besides maybe Reddick and Anderson. The team is cap-locked with bad contracts and average talent.

 

If Dwight wants to take the noble, non-LeBron/Melo route, then cool, but it'll be the worst decision of his career unless Otis Smith works a miracle before next year's trade deadline.