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| Dwight Howard is finally headed to Los Angeles. (Credit: Getty Images) |
The national Dwightmare is
finally over. Last evening, Dwight Howard was finally sent elsewhere from his abode in Orlando. The hopeless
Magic sent him to Los Angeles, following in the footsteps of another former
Magic center, and is now a member of the Los Angeles Laker. As a part of the
trade, which was a four-team deal, Andrew
Bynum was sent to Philadelphia, Andre
Iguodala was sent to the Denver Nuggets, and Arron Afflalo among many other players were sent to Orlando. As we
usually do around here, it’s time to play everybody’s favorite Garden State
Sorts Guy affiliated game: Let’s Break it Down.
What This Means for Los Angeles
Simply put, it almost seemed
inevitable that the L.A. Lakers were going to haul in Dwight Howard eventually.
It had been rumored for months, and years at this point, that Dwight was going
to follow Shaquille O’Neal and don the purple and gold. And simply put, this
definitely helps the Lakers a great deal. They go from having the consensus
second-best center in the league to having the consensus best center in the
league. This helps them out so much because Andrew Bynum, for as good as he
was, is a guy that just sat in the paint, while Dwight is the perfect fit for
the pick and roll. Given that the Lakers expect to install a Princeton offense,
and with new point guard Steve Nash who
was acquired earlier in the offseason, it almost seemed like getting Dwight had
to happen. Dwight and Nash could become an absolutely deadly pick and roll
combination, possibly the best the league has seen since the days of Stockton
and Malone, and the Lakers definitely pose a big threat to the Oklahoma City
Thunder. What may end up hurting them of course, is the fact that Perkins is
notoriously a great defender of Howard, but we will see what happens. The Lakers
starting five of Nash, Kobe Bryant, Metta World Peace, Pau Gasol,
and Howard is one of the best starting fives on paper in the history of the
league in my opinion. The Lakers are definitely going all in for another title
run. The Lakers also received Chris
Duhon and Earl Clark, who are
some nice complimentary pieces.
What This Means for Philadelphia
Going to Philadelphia,
Andrew Bynum will find a young, budding team that he might not resign with when
it is all said and done, but I like this move for the 76ers. It gives them a
great presence inside the paint, and given that they play in a division and a
conference that doesn’t have many a lot of great big men, sans Tyson Chandler of the New York Knicks, Roy Hibbert of the Indiana Pacers and Al Horford of the Atlanta Hawks, this
definitely helps them out quite a bit. Bynum in his career has averaged 11.7
PPG, 7.8 PPG, and 0.3 BPG, and is coming off of a year where he scored 18.7
PPG, and had 11.8 RPG, both career highs. They did lose a good player in Andre Iguodala, a presence that is
tough to lose given that he has been around Philadelphia for quite a few years,
and was vastly underrated in a lot of spectrums in my opinion. Point is, I like
this move for Philly and they definitely get good marks for not giving up all
that much to get the second best center in the league. The Sixers also picked
up veteran Jason Richardson, who is
coming off of a season in which he averaged 11.6 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 1.3 APG and a
steal a game on 40.8% from the floor. Richardson brings some good veteran
presence to a youthful bunch in Philadelphia.
What This Means for Denver
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| Denver beefed up an already great unit with the acquisition of Andre Iguodala. (Credit: USA Today Sports) |
Given what they gave up and
received, I would argue that behind L.A., Denver makes out second-best in this
deal. The Nuggets picked up shooting guard Andre Iguodala who in my estimation
is a Top-5 shooting guard in the league, trailing Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade,
and hanging around with Eric Gordon (at
full strength), James Harden and Manu Ginobili. Iguodala might be better
than Manu and Harden if only for the fact that he is a strong perimeter defender.
Heck, he might be the best perimeter defender in basketball not named LeBron James. He’s a terrific passer
and a tremendously efficient scorer and a great teammate. He goes to a Denver
team that, for my estimation, made out so well in the infamous Carmelo Anthony trade two seasons ago,
and as they stand now could be a Top-4 team in the Western Conference. With Ty Lawson, Danilo Gallinari, Kenneth
Faried, and JaVale McGee,
Iguodala rounds out an impressive looking starting lineup and Denver possesses
a good deal of depth to go along with that lineup as well. The Nuggets
definitely beefed themselves up with this trade despite the loss of
sharpshooting assassin Arron Afflalo and Al
Harrington (who gets buckets, if you never knew that now you do, thank you
Gus Johnson for that little tidbit). I really love this trade for the Nuggets,
and I think they are a team to watch for next season.
What This Means for Orlando
Oh me, oh my. Orlando looks
great for finally getting rid of their personal Dwightmare, but come out
looking like total goofballs atht he end of the trade. How someone who worked
with the Thunder and Spurs in GM Rob
Henigan can come out looking so foolish and not have a great return, when
he had the main chip in the trade, is bewilderment at its finest. Sure, Arron
Afflalo, Al Harrington, Moe Harkless,
Nikola Vucevic, Christian Eyenga are all at best average players in the league, and
multiple protected first round picks, but these players and what will become
late-round NBA Draft picks will come up to almost absolutely nothing in the
end. Late round picks in the NBA Draft are extremely invaluable and, as stated,
the players they are getting do not boost them in any sort of way. I am totally
befuddled as to how Orlando passed on reported deals from Houston and Brooklyn,
in favor of this. It is one of the most lopsided deals in the history of
basketball and possibly professional sports at this point. Sure, if Orlando can
pull a rabbit out of a hat, and turn those picks into valuable pieces and if
Harkless can turn into a “lottery talent” like Henigan seemed to be confident in, then it can work out well. But this draft class won’t give them someone
like Howard, or even a franchise player. So at this point, I cannot like this
for the Magic. Things can change, but they do not appear to be improving soon
in any shape or form.
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