Los Angeles Lakers: Evaluating what went wrong for Dwight Howard on last several teams

Atlanta Hawks

In July of 2016, Howard was fresh off of a trip to the Western Conference Finals with the Houston Rockets, but he did not make much of an impact on the team’s way there, so they let him walk. That led his hometown squad, the Atlanta Hawks, to decide to give him a three-year, $70 million contract.

However, that investment in the hometown hero did not pay off in the slightest bit. Howard still averaged a double-double that season, but his scoring average had dropped to 13.5, the lowest it had been since his rookie season. The Hawks also only won 43 games, after winning 48 the season prior.

If his on-court struggles were not enough, Howard was also causing drama in the Atlanta locker room as well.

According to a Bleacher Report article from 2017, Zach Lowe said on his podcast that Howard was annoying his teammates in Atlanta, saying,

"“You ask why, and one account was that Dwight would give these speeches before the game about how everyone is playing hard, we want unity, we’re going to… and then go out and play like a blah game where he demands post touches and doesn’t rotate as hard as he could. And everyone is like, ‘Why are you speaking in the locker room?’ But that’s all anecdotal. It’s just crazy how these stories come out after every stop in his career.”"

This same article also mentioned how the Hawks players supposedly “screamed in jubilation” when the big man was eventually traded. It was obviously a pretty hostile situation if teammates would go as far as to openly cheer when he was moved.