The NBA Trade Deadline is a few hours away and the fate of Dwight Howard is still not completely decided. Howard made it known late last night that he would opt-in to his contract with the Magic for another year, but according to SB Nation, when he had the opportunity to make it official in writing, team management informed him to sleep on it and decide for sure on Thursday.
It's possible he was just reacting to some negative feedback he had gotten for how he handled the whole situation, so I think the Magic wanted to make sure that he really was on board. But that might not be the best idea.
Denton calls the move "classy." Others might call it "deluded," "naive" or "absolutely stupid in every possible way." Howard, you see, hasn't exactly shown a willingness to make a decision and stick with it over the last six months or so. He changed his mind on the ETO waiver three times on Wednesday alone, at least according to the reports that surfaced throughout the day. To be given a window to lock him in and tell him to sleep on it is akin to the horror flick killer who sabotages himself with a grand soliloquy while holding a knife to the protagonist's throat.
This is a classy move, but it could backfire. It doesn't seem like Howard knows what he wants right now, and they had a chance to lock him up for another year. It seems like they just wanted to make sure that he wasn't going to take them on this ride again next year, and if that was their intention, then it was probably a smart move.
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