2 offseason mistakes that the Los Angeles Lakers are currently feeling
By Jason Reed
1. Letting Dwight Howard walk
The Dwight Howard saga this offseason was extremely short-lived but is still really interesting to look back on. Howard tweeted “I’m staying right where I belong. Laker nation I love y’all. Purple and gold never gets old.”, quickly deleted said tweet and it was reported shortly after that he agreed to a one-year deal with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Howard cleared up the situation, saying that the Lakers never actually offered Howard a contract. It was a miscommunication but it was clear that Howard was happy to return to LA if he would have gotten that offer.
It was a tricky situation as the Lakers still had to trade JaVale McGee for two non-guaranteed contracts in order to have the space to sign Gasol in the first place. However, with better communication, the Lakers could have explained that to Howard, simply had him wait and waived Alfonzo McKinnie to sign Howard to a veteran minimum contract.
Howard was so good as a bench center for the Lakers last season and he even did things that did not show up on the box score. In the Western Conference Finals, Howard’s role was to frustrate and contain Nikola Jokic and he did just that, even getting Jokic in foul trouble one game.
Howard is averaging 5.8 points and 7.7 rebounds in 17 minutes per game. Personally, as big of a Markieff Morris fan as I am, I probably would rather see the team have Howard get the minutes that Morris does and provide the same center depth for LA.
He was not the only center the Los Angeles Lakers could have brought back…