The gag order Dwight Howard received against baby mama Royce Reed three years back reportedly led to ‘Basketball Wives‘ axing Reed and two other stars from the reality show.

Production insiders informed TMZ that Jennifer Williams and Kesha Nichols will be keeping Reed company. The three will reportedly be replaced next season, and it was still unclear who would be taking their spots.

Those same ‘Basketball Wives’ sources said it won’t be long before producers gave the baby mama of Dwight Howard and her two co-stars -whom the sources called  ”dead weight” - their walking papers.

According to TMZ, Royce Reed was cut because a 2009 gag order forbade her to talk about her ex-husband Dwight Howard in any way. In addition, the other ladies had also decided to ostracize her, so Royce couldn’t shoot scenes with the rest of the cast.

Meanwhile, producers reportedly believe that Jennifer Williams was too much of a liability after she sued ‘Basketball Wives’ co-star Nia Crooks after the latter slapped her during the show. And Kesha Nichols, the ex-wife of Golden State Warriors player Richard Jefferson, was supposedly “just too boring”.

“We don’t comment on casting until everything is final,” a representative of VH1 informed TMZ when asked about the allegedly-axed ‘Basketball Wives’ stars. “Thanks for checking in.”

“Basketball Wives” star Royce Reed has reached out to the judge handling the custody battle between her and estranged lover, Dwight Howard – asking the judge to lift the order of keeping silent about their dispute so Royce could publicly trash-talk Howard.

After agreeing to keep silent about the bitter and never-ending custody battle with Dwight Howard, Royce Reed now wants the public to know a few things she has on her mind. Reed wants people to know that Howard is allegedly not morally fit to have custody of their son; his mental state is sketchy; Dwight Howard has funny substances laying around the house the kid shouldn’t see; and that she has other horrible things she wants to say about the Orlando Magic basketball player.

Those are just allegations about Dwight Howard, but Royce Reed wants to file legal docs about these allegations and she wants the documents available to the public.

A judge has yet to rule on the request.