The Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night and it extended Anthony Davis' winless streak against Damontas Sabonis. As great as Davis is, he has a bad streak against big men such as Sabonis and Nikola Jokic, which makes it tough for the Lakers to make a deep run in the NBA Playoffs.
Davis needs more help in the frontcourt as the only other healthy rotation piece right now is Jaxson Hayes, who certainly leaves more to be desired. Even though this has been an issue on the team's radar for quite some time, the Lakers have done nothing to address it.
Fans are getting fed up with it and it has reached the point where they are begging for the team to sign players who are not even in the league. Former Lakers big man Dwight Howard posted a gif on social media of him with the Lakers and the responses were flooded with fans asking him to come back and help AD.
— Dwight Howard (@DwightHoward) March 14, 2024
Lakers fans beg for Dwight Howard back
Dwight Howard played a key role on the 2020 championship team and specifically increased the Lakers' title odds in his matchup against Nikola Jokic in the Western Conference Finals. Jokic himself admitted that the 2020 Lakers, who had multiple bigs to throw at him at any time, was the toughest matchup that he has faced in the league.
While Howard played a prominent role on that year's team, adding him would do nothing for the Lakers. Yes, the Lakers need more frontcourt help and on paper, they need exactly the kind of player that Howard is. But he is out of the league for a reason.
Howard would not add anything tangible to the purple and gold. If he was someone who was still NBA rotation quality then he would have gotten signed months and months ago. Father Time has won his battle against Howard, regardless of how much he thinks he can still contribute in the NBA.
Unfortunately, the Lakers have to sleep in the bed they have made and the team knows this. There is not going to be a magical solution that comes along and suddenly makes the matchup against these great big men easier. All the Lakers have it Davis, Hayes, and Christian Wood whenever he returns from injury.
Is that good enough to beat someone like Jokic or Sabonis in a seven-game playoff series? Probably not. But the Lakers should have know that in the summer when they actually had a chance to do something about it.