There was a report yesterday that Mavs GM Donnie Nelson and Magic GM Rob Hennigan met regarding Howard and will probably talk again sometime. The story says that Dallas doesn't have much to offer Orlando, and (understandably) there are several offers that are much more enticing for the Magic

However, it also notes that Dallas' best shot at Howard is next year's free agency, and should Dwight get traded to a team he doesn't want to play for, Dallas is really his only destination, since the other two teams on his wish list (Lakers and Nets) won't have the cap space to sign him in 2013 without a trade. If Dwight is traded to the Lakers or the Nets, then he will likely re-sign with either team and Dallas loses its chance of landing Howard

In this sense, it stands to reason that Dallas would like to either see Dwight not traded at all, or Dwight traded to Houston, since Dwight has no intention of re-signing there. I believe that, in that regard, Dallas could (and probably should) be a facilitator in a Dwight-to-Houston trade, in order to maximize its chances to land Dwight next offseason. I crunched the numbers threw players into the NBA Trade Machine on ESPN and tried to come up with a (reasonable) three way trade between the Magic, the Rockets, and the Mavericks - and this is the most reasonable trade I got that I could picture all three teams taking:

Dallas receives: Jason Richardson (SG), Chris Duhon (PG), Patrick Patterson (PF)
Houston receives: Dwight Howard (C)
Orlando receives: Kevin Martin (SG), Shawn Marion (SF), Toney Douglas (PG), Jeremy Lamb (SG), two 1st rounders of your choosing (Dallas' 1st thru Houston, Dallas' 2015 1st, Toronto's 1st thru Houston, etc)

--Please note that this deal will not be available until August 26th, which is the first day Lamb's contract is tradable--

The following reasons for why each team would take the trade are in my own opinion, and you are more than welcome to point out why it doesn't make sense or why it's a bad trade:

Why Orlando accepts: Receives a mess of expiring contracts while unloading bad ones, receives Jeremy Lamb and picks, has the option of keeping Marion's $9m contract in 2013 or choose the Early Termination Option, freeing up more cap space

Why Houston accepts: Receives the superstar player they covet, thrusts them into definite playoffs with Lin and Howard for 12-13, thus begins the year-long pitch to keep Dwight

Why Dallas accepts: No real cap hit in absorbing Richardson and Duhon by sending Marion out, still has the cap space to sign Dwight outright in 2013, banks on the belief that Dwight will stay true to his word and leave Houston

Again, if you do find anything wrong with this proposal (financially, logically, whatever), feel free to point it out. Ideally, I'd like to see fans from all three teams to weigh in on this proposal since I'm sure that I am unable to remove all bias when coming up with reasons for teams accepting the trade. Thanks for your attention!