"The Orlando Magic and Dwight Howard must make momentous choices about their futures in the weeks ahead. Those decisions, whatever they turn out to be, could affect Los Angeles Lakers center Andrew Bynum.

That is what makes Friday's Magic-Lakers matchup at Amway Center so intriguing. The Magic's current center could be facing the Magic's center of the future.

To understand how Bynum compares to Howard, the Orlando Sentinel asked an executive for an NBA team, ESPN analyst Jon Barry and NBA TV analyst Dennis Scott to evaluate Bynum. Their conclusions are similar: Although Bynum is a very good player who is improving, he simply is not on Howard's level.

"If you took Bynum and put him on the Orlando Magic, they're not 10-4 right now," Barry said. "There's just no way. I don't see him as being a guy that carries a team. He's not a franchise player. Dwight Howard is a franchise player."

This is the dilemma the Magic face. Howard finished as the runner-up in last season's MVP voting, and it will be enormously difficult for Orlando to receive equal value if the franchise decides it must trade him before the March 15 trade deadline. "