3. Dwight Howard
Dwight Howard is on his third stint with the Los Angeles Lakers and he is likely hoping to pick off where he left off in his second stint. There was a miscommunication last offseason and Howard legitimately thought he was returning to the Lakers.
Instead, the team was really looking to go in another direction with Montrezl Harrell and Marc Gasol and did not offer a contract to Howard. Howard signed with the Philadelphia 76ers and not even a year after winning the title with the Lakers he is back in LA.
The Lakers noticed the errors in their ways at the center position as both Harrell and Gasol have been traded away. This is the classic case of a team simply not overthinking it. All the Lakers need is a rim-protecting, rebounding center and it has that in Howard and DeAndre Jordan.
Howard’s first stint with the Los Angeles Lakers was an extreme disappointment. He was brought in alongside Steve Nash and was meant to help in this new era of Lakers basketball to give Kobe Bryant another ring late in his career.
It blew up in the Lakers’ faces. Kobe and Howard did not get along, Nash’s career was essentially over and Kobe got hurt at the end of the season, ending any hopes of a miracle run in the playoffs.
Howard quickly bounced to Houston and bounced around the league thereafter. He returned to the Lakers for the 2019-20 season as a flier signing after DeMarcus Cousins tore his ACL and turned out to be a great signing for the team.
He became the team’s only usable center in the 2020 NBA Playoffs and even made the last shot of the 2020 season: a three-pointer.