"Today is the day Superman reveals his true intentions.

At least that's the way it should go sometime after 10 a.m. EST when Dwight Howard and Orlando Magic general manager Otis Smith are finally permitted to speak to each other for the first time since June 30.

We are now nine days removed from the tentative settlement to end the NBA lockout, and we've already been treated to two different versions of the Chris Paul story — he has made it known to the New Orleans Hornets that he wants to be traded to the New York Knicks, or he hasn't. You choose who you want to believe.

We already know that Deron Williams is not going to sign an extension with the New Jersey Nets and will become an unrestricted free agent in July, but what we don't know if he'll ultimately end up closer to the Bay Area than Brooklyn.

As for Howard, many have long suspected that he aspires to play under brighter lights. And we all realize that the Los Angeles Lakers are the one team out there that has the most fitting goods to replace him by sending Andrew Bynum, Flotsam and Jetsam to Orlando."