The Los Angeles Lakers are in big trouble if Dwight Howard opts out

Dwight Howard is not guaranteed to rejoin the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Los Angeles Lakers were dealt another potentially severe blow to the roster as Dwight Howard may decide to bow out to participating in Orlando. With Howard maybe joining Avery Bradley on the sidelines, are the Los Angeles Lakers in trouble?

Lake Show Life has done it’s very best to cover all aspects of the drama surrounding the NBA’s return. We have covered the political side to the ever-changing steps the players and the league are collaborating on to get the season started at the end of the month on July 30th.

Until July 9th, when the Los Angeles Lakers are officially in the NBA bubble in Orlando Florida, stick to this website’s way of thinking and you might survive the season. Maybe.

• This is 2020. In this year, we have all witnessed events that will be in history books with social unrest, COVID-19 and for the first time maybe ever, sports have not been the distraction to get fans through.
• This is the Los Angeles Lakers and this squad has been built on the cheap with the absolute genius of Rob Pelinka, who created a squad of veterans on a tight budget.
• Don’t believe anything about how this roster is built until July 9th. The NBA players are changing their minds almost daily at this point.

Two weeks ago, “All The Smoke” podcast host, Matt Barnes was on Yahoo Sports! digital sports show “Dunk Bait” relating rumors that two “key players” for the Lakers were thinking about sitting out the season.

Remember the most intriguing part?

Josiah Johnson:

"Guys have literally told you, “Yo, man, we don’t really feel comfortable playing until this situation gets resolved and figured out.” Is that something that has happened?"

Matt Barnes:

"It is. Actually, Snoop hit me the other day too, talking about it. Because I had talked to a few guys, not to mention no names. And he said he had talked to a couple guys from the Lakers and the Clippers, and there’s some whispers about some teams not being comfortable. Some guys want to play. Some guys don’t want to play."

Fast forward two weeks, LeBron James and Anthony Davis are leading the brigade with the Los Angeles Lakers preparing for action at Disney World in Orlando. Not only that, but the two players that were discussed between Matt Barnes and Josiah Johnson have come to light.

Avery Bradley informed the team last week that he would not play in Orlando, citing the health and safety of his family, most notably his six-year-old son Liam. The announcement was made before the deadline for players to inform their teams whether or not they were playing on June 24th.

Remember the part where you read don’t believe any roster finalization until July 9th? Well…

The NBA’s June 24th deadline allowed a one-week transaction window for teams to replace players which closed on Tuesday. The staff was pretty locked in with the coverage who was going to be Bradley’s replacement which was J.R. Smith, who signed on Wednesday. Some were happy (The writer!) and some just were not.

• Los Angeles Lakers: Avery Bradley is out for Orlando, J.R. Smith in?
• Los Angeles Lakers: 3 reasons why signing J.R. Smith was a bad move
• Los Angeles Lakers News: J.R. Smith signs, what he brings to the table
• Los Angeles Lakers: 2 things J.R. Smith has to prove in the seeding games
• Los Angeles Lakers: J.R. Smith — when we last saw him

The other player up in the air is Dwight Howard. Frank Vogel brought the media up to date on the status of Howard wanting to participate in Orlando. Vogel says it is a fluid situation, via ESPN.

"“We’ve been in communication with Dwight the whole way with the support of phone calls and text messages and we don’t know what the level of participation is going to be yet,” Vogel said. “He wants to play. We are hopeful that he’s able to join us. He has an extenuating circumstance that he’s working with the league on in terms of what that’s ultimately going to look like. We’re hopeful that optimistic that he’ll be able to join us in Orlando. “We don’t have any intention of replacing Dwight’s roster spot when we believe he’ll hopefully be able to join us.”"

Like Avery Bradley, Dwight Howard has been vocal about his feelings towards the NBA season causing possible distractions to more pressing concerns such as the fight against racial injustice. Also, family concerns are the reason that he will sit out.

• Howard’s 6-year-old son, David, is in his care. The mother of the child, Melissa Rios, died of an epileptic seizure on March 27.
• The concerns of racial injustice may coincide with his uncle, David Howard, the District Attorney who announced 11 charges against Garrett Rolfe, who fired three shots at Rayshard Brooks, two of which hit Brooks in the back killing him and another that hit a car with three people inside.

It is reported by ESPN that Rob Pelinka and the Lakers are working with Howard and his agent, the NBA and the players union to find a workable compromise for Howard to report to the team. However, this is a situation that no one really can predict.

The deadline passing is not stopping players from opting out and it might continue as the COVID-19 cases are starting to spread at a record rate almost daily. The list is starting to accumulate.

Brooklyn Nets:  Center DeAndre Jordan (out), Wilson Chandler (out), Spencer Dinwiddie (Has COVID-19) in quarantine.

Houston Rockets: Thabo Sefolosha (No reported reason)

Washington Wizards: Davis Bertans (Contract reasons)

Portland Trail Blazers: Trevor Ariza (Family reasons concerning his 12-year-old son.)

Dallas Mavericks: Willie Cauley-Stein (Expecting a newborn in a few weeks)

Indiana Pacers: Victor Oladipo is still weighing options. (Looking for a prediction? Nope.)

The message is clear here. Players are perfectly fine opting-out of the league’s continuance despite the deadline has passing.

This article is not about Dwight Howard’s decision to play or not. That’s a grown man and anyone that criticizes his decision one way or the other really needs to look in a mirror.

This article is to inform Lakers Nation that the Lakers championship aspirations are basically gone if he does not rejoin the team. Period. Howard is a huge loss for the Los Angeles Lakers whether LeBron James and Anthony Davis are on the roster or not.

Anyone angry yet?

To the “stat professionals” that want to bring up numbers, let’s get that out of the way. Howard averaged 7.5 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game in 62 games.

Let’s get started with what Dwight Howard brings to the Los Angeles Lakers.