After meeting with free agent Dwight Howard on Tuesday, the Golden State Warriors are now convinced they stand a strong chance of landing the most sought out free agent during the 2013 offseason.

The Warriors were one of the teams given the opportunity to recruit Howard in an in-person meeting this week, and have already begun to aggressively attempting to trade away players in order to clear salary-cap space to sign the All-Star center.

ESPN.com reported that Warriors officials "made an impression" on Howard to the point that they had gained ground on the two teams -- the Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks -- widely presumed to have the only legitimate shot at stealing Howard away from the Lakers.

Sources say the Warriors got Howard's attention during this week thanks to their pitch, which featured owner Joe Lacob, coach Mark Jackson, general manager Bob Myers and special Warriors consultant Jerry West.

Sources still say that the biggest threat to the Los Angeles Lakers remain to be Rockets and Mavericks unless the Warriors can address their financial limitations.

The Warriors have also expressed the desire in meeting up with another top-tier free agent in Josh Smith.

Their interest in Smith only confirms that they feel they could win the Howard sweepstakes, however, Smith doesn't seem too interested in the Warriors.

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