NBA

Magic can deal Howard dilemma to Nets

For Magic coach Stan Van Gundy, the only way his team’s Dwightmare will end this season is by dealing their star center before Thursday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline.

Speaking to reporters yesterday in Orlando, where the Magic routed the Pacers, 107-94, Van Gundy shot down the notion that Orlando will get a reprieve from talk of Dwight Howard’s future if they choose not to deal him this week.

“There’s closure, I guess, if he goes,” Van Gundy said. “If he stays [past Thursday], it just starts all over again. You just start the clock again. Then we’re right back to where we were when the playoffs ended last year. Everybody will be talking about, ‘OK, what’s going to happen in the summer? And what’s going to happen next year?’

“But we’ll have to wait and see what happens,’’ Van Gundy said. “But if Dwight stays, then we’ll have the same storylines.”

As for the team’s ongoing discussions surrounding Howard, Magic CEO Alex Martins told the Orlando Sentinel yesterday the team has yet to decide.

“We’re not at the point where we’re ready to answer that question yet,” Martins said. “Sometime in the next four days we will be, but we’re not at the point where we’re ready to answer that question yet.”

For his part, Van Gundy said he expects talks to go right up until the trade deadline.

“It certainly looks like it [will go until Thursday],” he said. “Maybe it will happen tomorrow, Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday or maybe nothing will happen at all. I don’t expect to have anything but the team that I have now until something happens. So my expectation is that these are the guys that we’re coaching. That’s what I expect.”

The Nets, who face the Bucks tonight at Prudential Center hoping to pick up a third win in four games, continue to wait and see if Howard becomes available, and if they can pair him with superstar point guard Deron Williams either now — or this summer in free agency — to give the franchise one of the league’s best one-two tandems and become an instant title contender as they prepare to move to their new home in Brooklyn next season.