Before talks became momentarily shut down, the Atlanta Hawks sent a trade proposal to the Magic to send two of their stars to Orlando in exchange for megastar Dwight Howard. Hawks believed they were making significant progress and could try again once talks resume.
Sources told ESPN.com that the aforementioned Hawks, meanwhile, engaged Orlando in trade talks for Howard earlier this month with an offer believed to be headlined by $124 million guard Joe Johnson and swingman Josh Smith. You have to figure that the Magic, though, would insist on Al Horford if such discussions ever got serious.
The Hawks are not on Howard’s short list of preferred trade destinations alongside the Nets, Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks, even though Atlanta is his hometown. That’s presumably because Howard wants no part of Atlanta’s perpetually unsettled ownership situation. The Hawks nonetheless took the risk of pursuing Howard anyway and, according to sources, felt like they were making some semblance of progress before the Magic shut down talks.
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