The Orlando Magic's strategy for the moment on Dwight Howard, according to sources close to the process, calls for spending the next 48 hours or so making one last hard push to acquire the sort of difference-maker that would encourage Howard to commit his long-term future to the team that drafted him in 2004.

If no newcomer is acquired by Wednesday, sources said, Magic officials plan to spend the final 24 hours before Thursday's 3 p.m. ET deadline evaluating all of their trade options and then deciding Thursday whether to stick to their long-standing desire to roll the dice and keep Howard beyond the deadline or make the best available trade.

As part of this process, one source said, Orlando will continue to seek a "definitive answer" from Howard about his future and hold out hope that he'd at least agree to exercise the option for next season on his current contract to give their marriage at least one more year. But Howard, according to associates, is determined to become a free agent in July in order to have complete control of his future and get to one of the top two destinations on his wish list: New Jersey or Dallas.

A source close to Howard, addressing reports that he's already made up his mind to join the future Brooklyn Nets, told ESPN The Magazine's Ric Bucher that's not a done deal.

"Brooklyn is 1 and Dallas is 1-A," the source said, "but he hasn't made any decision. He hasn't even decided that he's leaving Orlando. If they can put one or two All-Star players around him, he'd consider staying. All he wants at this point is to play out the season with the Magic and be able to weigh his options."

The Magic will thus have to decide Thursday if they can bear to keep Howard past the deadline, as owner Richard DeVos wants, and expose themselves to the possibility that the 26-year-old could walk away for nothing in July -- a la Shaquille O'Neal in the summer of 1996 -- or make the best possible trade they can make this week at the 11th hour.

Magic officials have been telling teams for weeks that they intend to keep Howard at DeVos' behest. The thinking there, sources said, is that the Magic still like their chances of changing Howard's mind -- believing that a successful playoff run or his deep roots in the Orlando community will ultimately make it hard to leave -- better than anything they can get in a trade.

To hold firm on that position, though, Orlando would have to be prepared for the worst-case scenario of Howard signing in free agency with the team of his choosing and leaving the Magic with no compensation for their franchise player.