The Dwight difference

Dwight Howard’s arrival at the Los Angeles Lakers adds to a long history of the franchise landing marquee big men, from George Mikan in Minneapolis, to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar transferring after a championship run in Milwaukee to Shaquille O’Neal fulfilling his frustrations just over a decade ago. But what kind of a honeymoon period are we talking about, and will Dwight be a real part of the offense or become a glorified garbage man scrambling after missed shots?

Howard has had a very consistent career with the Magic. On the defensive end, he became the first player in NBA history to be named Defensive Player of the Year three seasons in a row. Last season, there was the curious case of Tyson Chandler being named best defensive player, but not being part of the All-Defensive Team, as Howard was. The last four season, Howard has averaged two and a half blocks per game, which is no easy feat. 

His offensive numbers have gone from 12 points per game in his rookie season to a high of 22.9 in 2010-2011. The question I’d like to ask is if he will score more or produce less on a team that has more talent and someone who takes a lot of shots per game. Kobe Bryant himself admits he still has a tendency to try to shoot his team back in a game when they’re behind. He also had a hot and cold relationship with another talented big man when Shaquille O’Neal was around. That relationship eventually sobered into mutual grudging respect for each other, and resulted in a three-peat entering the new millennium.

Now that Bryant is a bit older and wiser, with possibly two or three years left in what has been a magnificent second half of his career, how will he receive Howard in reality? It may be revealing to note that when Phil Jackson came aboard as head coach (thanks in large part to Shaq and Kobe’s prompting), he chose to develop a close relationship with O’Neal first, not Bryant. His analysis was that Shaq’s personality needed it more. On the basketball side, he also had two points: you build a team from the inside out, and O’Neal would be responsible to distribute the ball from the low post.

The duo would also engineer record-setting performances. In the 1999-2000 season, O’Neal won his first Most Valuable Player Award and led the league in scoring. In the Finals that season, the Lakers came back from 13 points down in the fourth quarter to win Game 7 at the expense of the Portland Trailblazers. That was the biggest Game 7 comeback in NBA history. Their record of 67 wins and 15 losses was also one of the best all-time.

But Shaq had such a large personality and commanded such attention that it was hard to stifle him. Aside from the immense media mileage, the Diesel also normed 27 points, 11 rebounds and over two blocks per game in his last season with the Orlando Magic. There was no way the Lakers were going to tinker with that kind of success. Shaq was a crafty media manipulator who knew what was good for his career. He didn’t go out of his way to antagonize Bryant; but he fired back when he felt it necessary, especially when it came to the issue of “buying love” that Bryant brought up.

Remember that, at Orlando, Howard was basically surrounded by outside shooters. At LA, he will have a vastly more varied arsenal alongside him. A reenergized Pau Gasol will make a great complement, and Steve Nash will try to keep everybody happy as his own time in the NBA winds down. The good news is that recently, Bryant has been more magnanimous, even pulling back and taking on a supportive role on USA Basketball, for example. If that Kobe Bryant realizes that he could essentially go out on top and appear statesmanly if he gets along with the most sought-after big man in recent years, then he will have exceeded Michael Jordan at least in that respect.

Going back to the question of how much Howard will score, it appears that his rebounding numbers will go up, at least in the short term. The Lakers are adjusting to a new point guard and new support players, so it’s likely they will miss more shots than usual, particularly in the first half of the season. Secondly, Howard will have to improve his medium-range jump shot to get the respect of Bryant and Gasol and become a more viable threat. There are less outside shooters on the Lakers, but there are more scorers. Howard will have to demand the ball to get his offensive numbers.

Will the Lakers win championships with Dwight Howard? Definitely, but not this coming season. The Miami Heat have added talent, the Oklahoma City Thunder are still rising, other teams are rebuilding, and there is the issue of chemistry, which takes time. The challenge is for Kobe to not take too many shots when the offense isn’t flowing, or else it would stunt the growth of the new additions. Howard, for his part, has been engaging, patient and not so abrasive in the media when things haven’t gone his way. The second coming of Superman to Hollywood may be better than the first, if they can keep their squabbles out of the media.

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Follow this writer on Twitter@BillVelasco.