The Los Angeles Lakers gave Dwight Howard a non-guaranteed deal when they originally signed him, but he has outperformed that deal and deserves a new one.
The Los Angeles Lakers signed Dwight Howard to a non-guaranteed contract and got everything and more in the process. Carmelo Anthony got a similar deal that’s now guaranteed. Based on his contributions, Dwight Howard should have a guaranteed contract too.
This NBA season has a ton of storylines to keep things interesting for the first two months. With numerous superstars such as Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry out for most of or the entire season with injuries, the excitement of the season has not lived up to the hype.
But there have been some feel-good stories of redemption that have filled the void considering everyone loves a comeback story. It’s hard to top Carmelo Anthony’s career resurrection that nearly had him on the doorstep of retirement.
After speaking for an hour with Stephen A. Smith, it shined the light on the possible end of the road for Melo.
But thanks to a laundry list of injuries to the Portland Trail Blazers roster that now includes forward, Rodney Hood, who tore his Achilles against the Los Angeles Lakers last week, Carmelo found himself on the roster with a non-guaranteed contract. To say he took advantage of the opportunity is an understatement.
After starting slow the first two games, Melo went off and helped Portland to a 3-0 record and collected the Western Conference NBA Player of the Week award a couple of weeks back.
It was a shock to the NBA with the averages of 22.3 points on 57% shooting from the field (46 percent from 3-point land!), 7.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists. This from a guy that hasn’t played in a year? Beating out James Harden who dropped 60 points that week or break out darling Luka Doncic? Amazing.
It had been over five years since Carmelo Anthony had been named Player of the Week, the last time happening in March of 2014 as a member of the of New York Knicks.
By the time the Lakers came to town to play Portland, the Blazers changed Anthony’s deal to a fully guaranteed contract for the rest of the season. ESPN hyped the game up as the one on one match-up between close friends Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James.
The game was much more than two guys from the class of ’03 butting heads yet again on national TV. This is about Melo getting back into the NBA without the narrative of LeBron James “hooking him up”.
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Melo did not have the greatest of games head to head going up against LeBron, scoring 15 points.
Even though this is a feel-good story, his opportunity may not have come if Dwight Howard had not excelled under similar circumstances. Howard’s career was considered in dire straits as well before DeMarcus Cousins blew out ligaments in his knee and was lost for the season.
If the Trail Blazers can lock up Carmelo Anthony for the year after a couple of weeks, why can’t the Lakers do the same with Dwight Howard for what he has done all year.
We can take this argument back to the Indiana game where Anthony Davis was out with an ankle injury.