Dwight Howard says he could have handled things better in final months with Orlando. You think?

Dwight Howard will face his former team for the first time Sunday, when the Orlando Magic come to Los Angeles to take on his Lakers.

The two teams aren’t too far apart record-wise at the moment, with Orlando at 5-10 and L.A. at just 8-8 after a tumultous start to their season. No one expects it to end up that way of course, because while the Lakers are almost certain to turn things around in plenty of time to make a run deep into the postseason, Orlando is almost certain to be lottery-bound given the talent left on its roster after Howard departed.

There’s no way around the fact that the way Dwight forced his way out of town has plenty to do with the state his former team finds itself in today, never mind the emotional damage he did to the fans of Orlando throughout the process.

After Saturday’s practice, Howard admitted that things could have gone differently had he handled things better.

From Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com:

“I’ve had a chance to sit back and think about it and there are some things I could’ve done better. There are some things that could’ve been done better on both sides,” Howard said in a lengthy, wide-ranging interview after Los Angeles Lakers practice on Saturday. “But at the end of the day, we all learn some lessons and we’ve got to move forward.

Howard didn’t want to elaborate on what he or the Magic could have done differently during the excruciating process that led to his trade to the Lakers in August.

“It doesn’t really matter to talk about it now. It’s over and done with,” he said. “There are a lot of things we both could’ve done, but at the end of the day, it happened just the way it was supposed to happen. There was a reason behind everything. We might not see it or understand it at the time, but there was a reason why everything happened the way it happened and I think it made both parties stronger.”

Not exactly.

It’s not worth rehashing the whole situation at this point, considering it’s one that has been dissected repeatedly both while it was happening and in the months since. But to say that both parties are stronger is factually incorrect, to put it politely.

The Magic are a disaster. They are in a full-blown rebuild mode now, after reaching the NBA Finals just four seasons ago. The team fired its general manager and head coach over this mess, and it’s all because of the way Howard continually went back and forth on what he wanted, while holding the franchise hostage during the decision-making process.

Sunday’s game was originally scheduled to be televised nationally on NBA TV, but the league removed it from the schedule eight days ago. The reason is that there’s no intrigue here — the Lakers are worlds away from the Magic at this point, and watching Howard and his new teammates beat up on the rubble that he helped turn the Magic into wouldn’t be interesting to anyone.

It’s understandable that Howard would be asked about the way he left Orlando the day before he’s set to face his former team for the first time. But if he really wants to begin to make up for what he did there last season, the best thing to do would be to stop talking about it altogether.