Dwight Howard is Worth the Risk

                                               

Back in December, the 2012 offseason was pegged as an interesting one with Deron Williams and Dwight Howard headlining the FA list. As the season wore on, the Dwight saga began and basketball fans across the world saw the immaturity of this young man. His indecisive resulted in multiple firings in the Orlando organization and recently D12 has said that he would only like to go to 1 team, believed to be the Brooklyn Nets. Once Brook Lopez signed, Howard’s dreams were dashed and rumor has it that the Lakers see their opportunity to land the stud and are going after it.

The best place to start is with examining what the Lakers would be receiving in a deal. Excluding taking on contracts to help the Magic, the Lakers will be getting the most dominant center since Shaq who can control a game at both ends. He has been defensive player of the year 3 times and will demand double teams allowing for Nash, Kobe, and the rest of the guards and wings to get open looks. Despite the back injury, Dwight has been healthy for most of his career and would continue that in LA. There aren’t many weaknesses in his game other than free throw shooting, which is abysmal, but fans old enough will remember the one handed rockets that use to fly off of Shaq’s hands as if he was Joe Montana.  Simply put, if you can get a once in a decade center, don’t worry about free throw shooting because he does pretty much everything else at an exceptional level. 

Assuming that the Lakers aren’t taking back contracts, Bynum would be the only player leaving LA and despite a great 2012 season, it would be great to see him go. Bynum has the same immaturity issues as Dwight; the only difference is that he isn’t in the same kind of spotlight. He pouts all the time and complains about teammates as well as Mike Brown. His infamous quote about banks in every city is embarrassing and not something that the Lakers should tolerate. Any worries with Dwight and his injuries are trivial compared to the knees of Andrew Bynum that turn him from a 24 year old into a 34 year old. Although he solidified himself as the second best center in the league this season, he also showed that he doesn’t have any allegiance to the Lakers and thus shouldn’t be a player that the front office builds the team around.

The biggest deterrent from getting Dwight would be that he hasn’t shown any interest in signing an extension with the Lakers. If I’m Kupchak, I don’t worry about Dwight signing because if this team and accomplish what it should and win a championship, Dwight won’t want to go anyway. The endorsements and attention that comes from being in LA will keep Dwight with the Lakers. Only situation that Dwight would get traded and lose would be if the team loses early in the playoffs and Nash opts to retire or something bizarre. Even if Howard weren’t to stay with the team, the Lakers would have money to go out and make some moves. If anything was clear from this past Finals, it was that winning a championship doesn’t require a good center as the Heat have had a void there since the big 3 and the Thunder have the offensively challenged and defensively overrated Kendrick Perkins. That being said having the advantage of Howard with the best supporting cast he has ever had will make the Lakers a matchup nightmare for any team in the league and the favorites to win the championship.