Dwightmare Part Two

> On 2/21 at noon Pacific the Los Angeles Lakers franchise will reach a crossroads that will define them for years to come.  Much like when the Philadelphia 76ers decided to keep Allen Iverson after firing Coach Larry Brown or when the Portland Trail Blazers drafted Greg Oden over Kevin Durant.  These are the type of mistakes that take years to overcome and this is my plea to Executive VP “Little Jimmy” Buss (LJB) and GM Mitch Kupchak to trade Dwight Howard before it is too late.  I know Mitch has told the media that Howard will not be moved but what else is he going to say?  Hopefully he’s just covering his bases before trading him out of nowhere. 

Before I get to why Dwight should be traded I need to cover just how the Lakers ended up in this predicament in the first place.  It started when LJB went against Kupchak and hired Mike Brown over Mitch’s choice Rick Adelman prior to the lockout season.  As a Laker fan it’s depressing to think just how good this group would be with Adelman at the helm, not to mention last year’s squad as well.  Rick’s motion offense would have no problem integrating Howard, Pau Gasol, Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant.  They would by no means be stellar defensively but Adelman would get them to play just enough D that it wouldn’t kill them every night.  Alas, LJB chose poorly and 71 games later Brown was out the door with a 42-29 record. 

The next LJB induced disaster was the hiring of Mike D’Antoni as coach over Phil Jackson.  Even though I preferred neither of those two gentlemen at the time as both are ill-suited to the Lakers current personnel, Jackson clearly could have managed all the aircraft carrier sized egos currently residing in LA.  D’Antoni is a “players coach” that rarely gets confrontational with anybody, as if you couldn’t tell by all the melodramas that play out in the media (instead of behind closed doors) with this bunch.  The problem with D’Antoni now is that he is still owed $4 million per season over the next two years.  Since the Lakers will still be paying Brown $4.5 million next year I find it highly unlikely that they’ll be paying a third coach for the ’13-14 season…no matter how little he may cost. 

With that being the case it seems like LA is stuck with the fundamentally flawed Mike D as coach so it behooves management to build a roster that fits his preferred style.  That means one of Gasol or Howard has to go, and despite Dwight being five years younger, a better rebounder and stronger defender, I’m choosing to keep Pau for several reasons. 

Let’s tackle the offensive end first.  Gasol has a plethora of low post moves with both hands, an effective jumper out to about 18 feet, can make free throws and is as good of a passing big man as you’ll ever see.  He also is a great roll man for Nash since Pau is able to pop or roll after setting a pick.  

Now compare that to Howard (19.20 PER, his lowest since his rookie year) who was the best roll man in the NBA last season (1.38 points per play as the roll man among the 75 players with at least 50 plays).  Somehow that skill has all but vanished in LA even though Nash led the league in pick-and-roll passes last season.  One would think pairing the best passer and finisher (statistically speaking) on the pick-and-roll would be a devastating combination.  That is certainly what LJB and Kupchak thought when hiring D’Antoni but it just hasn’t worked out that way, and it’s not because Jameer Nelson is better at running the pick-and-roll than Steve Nash is.  

Dwight has also complained about wanting more touches in the low post even though Mike D and Nash envision him as the vintage version of Amar’e Stoudemire rolling to the rim and exploding for dunk after dunk after dunk.  The problem with this is two-fold as I see it.  When Howard catches the ball on the block his go-to move is a hook shot off one dribble coming to the middle of lane.  Granted he can finish this move with either hand off either block, but his preferred is the left hand off the right block.  The problem is he has no counter-move to this and often has the ball stripped when deciding what to do next when the middle is taken away from him.  D’Antoni, Nash and Kobe have no patience with this and go away from it quickly leaving Dwight as a spectator more often than not.  

However the real reason the Nash-Howard pick-and-roll hasn’t worked is because Dwight does not set good picks anymore.  Gone are the bone crushers he used to lay on people regularly in Orlando.  If he just set good solid picks and sealed his man hard on his back before rolling he’d get so many more easy baskets a game.  So why doesn’t he?  Well I think it’s because physically his back can’t take it.  As someone with the same back issues as Howard I know jarring it suddenly does not feel good, and setting good solid screens would certainly do that.

Dwight also recently made a revelation to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith that I think flew totally under the radar when it should have been big news.  He told Smith “For me, even sitting down in this chair right now is causing my legs to go numb and having this tingly sensation all the way down my legs.  That happens when I’m playing and that happens when I’m just sitting on the bench for a couple of minutes.  It’s not easy.  There are times when I can’t feel my legs when I’m out there playing.”  

Unfortunately I know all too well about leg numbness and the difficulty in getting rid of it, but then again, I’m not a professional athlete who’s about to sign a 5-year contract worth about $118 million (4-years/$88 million if he signs with anyone besides the Lakers).  I know Gasol is currently out for 6-8 weeks due to a tear in the plantar fascia of his right foot, and he also has tendinitis in both knees and bursitis in his left elbow, but none of those things are as crippling as a chronically bad back.  Not to mention that Howard also has a partially torn labrum in his right shoulder that will likely require offseason surgery to repair. 

The shoulder injury brings me to my last comparative point, which is that Dwight is not mentally tough.  By all accounts his shoulder really hurts but it’s also an injury that he can play with and not make worse.  Kobe has obviously done this with a myriad of injuries (currently tendinitis in his right elbow), Nash’s left leg still isn’t right and Pau was playing through foot, elbow and knee issues before he went down.  Yet Howard misses SIX games because his shoulder hurts and he doesn’t want to jeopardize his future?  He also thinks opponents are targeting his shoulder now...well duh, why wouldn’t they?

To the surprise of no one Kobe called him out on this very publically and the word on the street is that Nash did the same, albeit privately.  Gasol is used to dealing with Bryant’s demanding nature and has even thrived under it.  Where Dwight has bristled under Kobe’s intensity and complained numerous times about wanting more touches on offense.  Then there’s the free throw line, where apparently Howard shoots 80+% in practice but is unable to tune out mental distractions at the line when it counts during games.  I mean really, who admits that to the press? 

I agree with Rick Fox, who recently joined Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Robert Horry and James Worthy as former Lakers who have questioned Dwight’s commitment to the team, when he says Howard really needs to “Look at the history of the organization and what it stands for and who has come before him and what this is about, then he would never look at it for a second at himself as bigger than this situation.” 

So what are LJB and Kupchak to do?  They should target a PF that can play with Gasol and fit into Mike D’s system.  When offering up Howard that should still, even at this point, bring in the best offers from around the league.  They could try to improve their defense with someone like Al Horford or Kevin Garnett.  Or they go for straight offensive fire power with someone like Kevin Love or Dirk Nowitzki.  Or they could maybe try for a package of players like the one Milwaukee or Denver could offer.  The possibilities are endless really. 

If Howard were to sign with another team this summer then the Lakers would still be over the salary cap and thus unable to add anyone significant to replace him.  So moving Dwight and sticking with Gasol gets LA more skills on offense, better health and someone that can mentally stand the rigors of playing for the NBA’s glamour franchise.  Sure the defense will suffer but under D’Antoni the Lakers defensive ceiling is only middle-of-the-road-not-too-terrible anyway. 

Now I could be wrong about all of this and Howard regains his health next year and dominates like he once did, but I just have one of those feelings.  And if I’m right my favorite club in all of sports is going to be mediocre for a loooong time.  So I’m begging Mitch and especially LJB to be proactive here and think outside of the box a little and understand sometimes addition by subtraction is the best way to go regardless of what the media hacks might say.  Fortune favors the bold my friends and the Lakers need to be just that here…bold. 

> With LeBron James recently stringing together six games in a row with 30+ points and 60+% shooting from the field the comparisons between him and Michael Jordan have begun.  MJ weighed in saying he’d pick Kobe over LeBron because “Five [rings] beats one every time I look at it.”  James responded to MJ by saying “At the end of the day, rings don't always define someone’s career.”  I’m just happy that this stale media debate has moved on from Kobe-MJ to LeBron-MJ.  Enjoy it Bron-Bron! 

> Keeping this post strictly Laker-centric I did some research this week on what many consider the biggest heist in NBA history.  Of course I’m talking about when LA acquired Pau Gasol from Memphis.  Back on 2/1/08 when the deal went down everyone was all over how the Lakers fleeced the Grizzlies.  Well I’m here to tell you that five years later the trade looks worlds more even.  LA received Pau and Devin Ebanks while Memphis got Marc Gasol, Darrell Arthur, Quincy Pondexter and Jon Leuer.  Had the Griz kept Greivis Vasquez (Pondexter) and Marreese Speights (Leuer) and the Lakers not won two titles I’d call this one solidly in favor of Memphis.