Recent Lakers rumors are that Anthony Davis played a big part in the team signing Dwight Howard.
With the offseason rolling on for the Los Angeles Lakers, recent Lakers rumors have been about the signing of Dwight Howard.
Many never could have imagined that Howard would once again be on the Lakers. However, due to the injury to DeMarcus Cousins, the Lakers were in need of a big man to fill the spot.
Even though Howard isn’t the All-Star player he once was, he looks to be in great shape and can fill a need for the Lakers. One of the main reasons why the Lakers needed to bring in a center was to obviously give them a second one on the roster.
Since acquiring Davis, it has been made pretty apparent that he does not wish to play a ton of minutes at center. According to Ramon Shelburne, Davis’ desire to not play minutes at center led to the team pursuing Howard. Here’s what she said on the Stephen A. Smith Show with text from Silver Screen and Roll.
"“The reason that Dwight is a Laker is because Anthony Davis doesn’t want to play the five. He doesn’t want to play against the big centers in the Western Conference. He needs a big dude next to him that can eat up some of those minutes and take some of that physical pounding from Nikola Jokic or (Jusuf) Nurkic or any of the centers you want to name out West … Anthony Davis doesn’t want to be that guy, and so he had a big say in whether or not Dwight was going to be cast in this role for them.”"
With Davis not wanting to play minutes at the center all that often in the regular season, signing Howard makes a ton of sense for the Lakers.
Since Davis is a free agent at the end of the season and the Lakers hope to have him in their long-term plans, they want to keep him happy. While Davis will likely be playing some center to close games and perhaps in the playoffs, he wants to avoid having to bang around with some of the heavy centers in the West.
By having both Howard and JaVale McGee, it should allow Davis to play at the power forward position a lot next season. Both are certainly capable of playing 20 minutes a night, and Davis can slide to the five if the opposing team goes small. Overall, it certainly makes sense that the Lakers wanted to add a center like Howard.