Dwight Howard reiterated to Orlando Magic GM Rob Hennigan in a meeting Wednesday that he wants to be traded. According to sources with knowledge of the situation, he wants a trade to the Lakers before the start of the season.
The Lakers' position on Howard has remained relatively unchanged for the past few months since trade talks began. They have always been willing to trade for Howard despite assurance on whether he'd re-sign with them after the season, believing that once Howard experienced a championship culture, he would want to stay.
The Lakers, however, remain unwilling to take on the burdensome contracts, of Jason Richardson and Hedo Turkoglu, from Orlando that would subject them to punitive luxury-tax penalties of the new collective bargaining agreement.
The Lakers lost the ability to include future first-round draft choices after including their 2013 and 2015 first-round picks in a sign-and-trade with Phoenix for Steve Nash earlier this month.
Nevertheless, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Houston Rockets have insisted their willingness to be third-team trade partners for the Magic and Lakers in deals that would send them All-Star Andrew Bynum.
Though the Lakers have begun preliminary discussions about extensions for Bynum, if there remains to be a chance to acquire Howard the Lakers will be willing to take it.
Under the terms of the new CBA, Bynum would be eligible to sign a three-year extension before the start of the season or play out this season, become an unrestricted free agent and sign four years with another club or re-sign with the Lakers for five years.
In the meeting on Wednesday, Howard probed Hennigan on why the GM hadn't accepted deals that could've sent him to the Lakers or the Brooklyn Nets before those teams used valuable trade assets to acquire Joe Johnson and Steve Nash.
Without a deal that would deliver him to the Lakers in the near future, Howard says he wants Hennigan to revisit trade talks with the Nets in January, when Nets center Brook Lopez is eligible to be traded.
If deals don't get done with the Lakers or Nets, Howard plans to sign with the Dallas Mavericks as a free agent in the summer of 2013.
Mavs owner Mark Cuban plans to make a run at Howard, and potentially another star player, to join Dirk Nowitzki.