4. Trading Andrew Bynum to the 76ers and Two Draft Picks to the Magic for Dwight Howard
When the Los Angeles Lakers created the supposed super team in the offseason of 2012 that had Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Steve Nash, and Pau Gasol on one team they instantly had title expectations. There were many that were already deeming the trade for Dwight Howard a success and putting his jersey in the rafters next to a long list of legendary Lakers centers.
That did not come close to happening and Howard ended up bolting to Houston after only one season wearing the purple and gold. This trade was also a double whammy because it essentially ruined Andrew Bynum’s career because his motivation for basketball was never the same after it.
Bynum was a solid young center who had contributed on a couple of Lakers championship teams but already had a bad injury history. They still could have treated him better than shipping him off for one disappointing season of Dwight Howard, or they could have used him as a trade piece for a star that fit better along with Bryant.
Howard did come back in 2020 and won a championship with Los Angeles, and that redeemed his image with Lakers fans. Yet even he knew not to wear the number 12 when he came back because of how terrible it went the first go around and that number being associated with so many bad memories.
This trade also crippled the Lakers’ future by giving away assets like a conditional 2017 first-round and a conditional 2015 second-round draft pick. The Lakers had already given up two future first-round picks in the Steve Nash deal, so this move was doubling down on going all in.
To be fair to Howard, they did trade for him when he was coming off back surgery. Also, his other running mate who appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated with him, Steve Nash, was basically a shell of himself due to lingering injury in the one season they played together.
Which is a perfect segue into the third-worst trade in franchise history.