With the deadline for NBA teams to sign fourth-year players to contract extensions looming, the Orlando Magic may offer starting power forward Ryan Anderson one in the days ahead, reports Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. Anderson is among "the most likely candidates to receive" an extension offer before the January 25th deadline, along with Nicolas Batum of the Portland Trail Blazers, Danilo Gallinari of the Denver Nuggets, and Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Anderson has blossomed in his fourth professional season, emerging as Orlando's second-leading scorer (17.8 points per game) and rebounder (7.2 per game) next to Dwight Howard. His accurate (41.4 percent), high-volume three-point shooting has helped return the Magic to the league's elite on the offensive side of the ball.

However, Orlando must decide what Anderson's play might be worth if he weren't playing alongside Howard, who draws defensive attention away from Anderson to free the former California Golden Bear for open three-pointers. Is Anderson a go-to offensive weapon on a Howard-less Magic team, or would he need to share the floor with another double-team-commanding offensive presence in order to be effective? Andrew Greif of Dime Magazine grapples with that question--with Orlando Pinstriped Post's help--in a story published Thursday.

The New Jersey Nets made Anderson, the 2008 Pac-10 Player of the Year, the 21st pick in the 2008 NBA Draft. After one season, they traded him to the Magic, along with Vince Carter, for Courtney Lee and the expiring contracts of Rafer Alston and Tony Battie. Initially considered a throw-in, Anderson has proven to be the best player involved in that trade and stands as one of the few of Otis Smith's recent acquisitions to pan out in Orlando.

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Rather than beginning their rebuilding efforts by trading Dwight Howard prior to the March 15 deadline, the Orlando Magic could instead look to bolster their roster by making a trade for a high-impact player, reports Ken Berger of CBSSports.com, hoping to get back into championship contention and to convince their superstar center not to leave town when he becomes a free agent this summer.

Berger says Orlando's 10-4 start, coupled with iffy showings by the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat, has emboldened the Magic's efforts to make one last push to avoid losing their once-in-a-generation talent. To that end, Berger says, citing sources, the team "has not ruled out making a play for Steve Nash."

Though 37 years old and with a balky back, Nash nonetheless leads the NBA with 10.1 assists per game while scoring 15.1 points of his own, shooting 55.2 percent from the field. The surefire Hall-of-Fame point guard hasn't asked the Phoenix Suns for a trade--"I don't feel like it's choosing a restaurant," Nash told ESPN.com in early January about the possibility of requesting a trade--but Phoenix could attempt to trade its franchise player if its struggles continue.

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Dwight Howard has expanded his list of teams in which he's interested to include the Los Angeles Clippers, reports former ESPN and Associated Press scribe Chris Sheridan on his website."He's been watching them a lot," a source Sheridan cites says. "He's intrigued by the Clippers."

Howard has previously asked Orlando to trade him to either the Los Angeles Lakers, New Jersey Nets, or Dallas Mavericks. In turn, the Magic granted Dan Fegan, Howard's agent, to contact those teams in order to work a trade.

The Magic want Howard to re-sign with them long-term, but the free-agent-to-be appears to be determined to leave town. Ken Berger of CBSSports.com reports Howard sought advice from Carmelo Anthony, who held the NBA world hostage during last season by demanding the Denver Nuggets trade him to the New York Knicks, on how to handle difficult trade situations. "The Magic are destined to lose Howard," Berger says, "once he and his representives" implement the strategies Anthony and LeBron James used to leave their respective teams of late.

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The Orlando Magic agreed to trade Dwight Howard to the New Jersey Nets for a package including Brook Lopez sometime in December, Alex Kennedy of HOOPSWORLD reports, but "Orlando's ownership stepped in and stopped it at the last second." The Nets are, understandably, unhappy with Orlando due to its backing out of the deal. In addition to losing out on Howard, the league's best center, New Jersey also lost Lopez for several months when he broke a bone in his foot shortly after Orlando backed out of the trade.

New Jersey is among three teams with which Howard would sign a long-term deal as a free agent; the other two are the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks. Prior to the start of the season, Howard asked Magic management to trade him.

Lopez is thought to be among the better center prospects in the league, but took a step back in 2010/11, averaging just six rebounds per game and shooting below 50 percent despite his size and position.

According to Steve Kyler, a colleague of Kennedy's at HOOPSWORLD, Orlando has delayed trading Howard because "there is no deal the Magic can make today thats [sic] better than the deal they can make in July via sign & trade." It wouldn't make sense to trade Howard now when better deals might come along later. And the Magic could retain him past the March 15 trading deadline, hoping to either convince him to re-sign during the offseason or instead working a sign-and-trade deal over the summer.

Further, the Magic believe any offer on the table for Howard now will still be there later; that includes a trade package built around Lakers center Andrew Bynum, who's averaging career-bests in scoring (16.4) and in rebounding (13.8, including four offensive boards).

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While trade rumors surrounding Orlando Magic superstar Dwight Howard are nothing new, another team has entered the bidding for the three-time Defensive Player of the Year. A recent report indicates the Golden State Warriors have made an offer to Orlando of late, though the Magic have shown no interest in parting with Howard, a free agent-to-be who's asked Orlando to deal him to the New Jersey Nets, Los Angeles Lakers, or Dallas Mavericks.

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported Thursday the Warriors would be willing to gut their roster if it meant landing Howard, even if only for a one-year "rental." Golden State can build a package around 23-year-old point guard prospect Stephen Curry, who owns career averages of 17.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 1.7 steals, and 43.8 percent three-point shooting. They could also offer Orlando the salary-cap space necessary to unload Hedo Turkoglu's onerous contract.

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The New Jersey Nets' pursuit of Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard became more complicated Thursday when they learned center Brook Lopez, the 23-year-old center around whom they've based trade offers for Orlando's superstar, suffered a broken bone in his foot and will be out until at least February. In response to Lopez's injury, the team traded for Utah Jazz center Mehmet Okur, absorbing the Turkey native into its cap space and sending Utah a heavily protected second-round draft pick in return.

The Nets are among four teams with which Howard has said he'll continue his career, with the others being Orlando, the Los Angeles Lakers, and Dallas Mavericks. As he'll be a free agent in the summer of 2012, Howard has some leverage in any trade situation, as he can scare potential trade partners off by declaring he would not re-sign with that team in free agency.

Even if Lopez can return to the floor by February--an optimistic projection according to Zach Lowe of Sports Illustrated, who believes the Stanford product could miss the entire regular season--Orlando might be disinclined to trade for him, given that he'd be a seven-footer with a history of foot injuries. Though Lopez has been remarkably durable throughout his three-year NBA career, as he has yet to miss a game, foot injuries among big men raise red flags.

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The ongoing trade drama surrounding the Orlando Magic and Dwight Howard took another strange turn Wednesday afternoon. First, the organization refuted a Yahoo! Sports report that it had stopped listening to trade offers for Howard. "That's not where we are," Otis Smith, the team's President of Basketball Operations, told Josh Robbins. "What we’ve basically said is we don’t feel like we have to trade him today. We’re going to continue to look and explore opportunities. Actually, I don’t know if anything changed in my mind."

Ken Berger of CBS corroborated the Yahoo! story, adding that word around the league is "the Magic will once again revisit trade scenarios for Howard, but not until after All-Star weekend -- which is being held in Orlando Feb. 24-26." The trade deadline this season is set for March 15th.

In another development, Adrian Wojnarowski updated his initial Yahoo! report with word that Howard is unhappy in Orlando and reiterated his trade request Tuesday. A source said Howard is "not a happy camper," according to Wojnarowski's report.

If Howard indeed asked once again for a trade Tuesday, it'd cast a new light on his comments to Orlando media the day prior. "There's no place I would rather be than here in Orlando," Howard said Monday.

That Howard appears to have changed his tune once again is consistent with what one person "close to him" told Wojnarowski in an earlier report: "He runs hot and cold.... He just doesn't always know what he wants."

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The Orlando Magic have decided to cease fielding trade offers for superstar center Dwight Howard, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports, citing "league sources." Orlando, which has made clear its goal is to convince Howard to re-sign with it long term, will enter the season with Howard and, in all likelihood, only re-open trade discussions if Howard makes clear he wishes to continue his career elsewhere.

The Magic had granted Howard's agent, Dan Fegan, permission to seek a trade with the three other teams in which he's interested: the Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Lakers, and New Jersey Nets. It appears as though Howard prefers New Jersey to the other two teams, but its inability to put together an acceptable trade package--even after talking the Portland Trail Blazers into agreeing to send Gerald Wallace, a former All-Star, to the Magic--has ended its chances to acquire Howard via trade.

Perhaps the Magic are still open to dealing their franchise cornerstone, and that this news is only coming out in order to drive up Howard's trade value. It'd be naïve not to consider that possibility. However, I tend to believe Orlando's reluctance to trade Howard is genuine, insofar as it believes it can keep him for the rest of his career.

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