Warriors Owner Wants Howard In Ellis Deal

12:11pm: The Warriors have turned down the Magic's various trade proposals and talks have ended for now, tweets Jarrod Rudolph of RealGM.com. Presumably if the Magic put Howard on the table in the next couple days, the Warriors would be interested in reopening discussions.

11:16am: Monta Ellis was at the center of a major trade rumor yesterday, as reports suggested the Warriors were engaged with the Magic and Hornets about a possible three-way deal that would have sent Ellis to Orlando. However, multiple outlets, including ESPN.com and the Bay Area News Group, reiterated what's been an ongoing stance from the Warriors in recent weeks — Golden State isn't interested in trading Ellis unless it gets Dwight Howard in return.

Ken Berger of CBS Sports expands on this stance, noting that Warriors owner Joe Lacob has no desire to send Ellis to Orlando for non-Howard assets (Twitter link). The hope on Orlando's part is that acquiring Ellis would mean Howard commits to at least one more season with the Magic. But Lacob, who would badly like to acquire Howard himself, wants to preserve the Warriors' chances of acquiring D12, however slim those chances may be (Twitter link). Golden State is highly unlikely to participate in any deal that would improve the Magic's odds of retaining its star center.

While I tend to believe Ellis could still be had in the right deal that doesn't involve the Magic and Howard, it appears the Warriors aren't expecting to make a major trade before Thursday's deadline.

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