Step-by-Step Guide for How L.A. Lakers Can Retain Dwight Howard Long-Term

Enough time has passed since the Los Angeles Lakers traded for Dwight Howard that everyone who has some sort of stake in the team can start to look toward the future. Obviously, it's beneficial to have Howard on the Lakers, him being the best big man in the NBA.

There is a little problem, however. Howard is only signed with the Lakers through the end of this season, and there's no guarantee that he will re-sign with the Lakers after the season ends.

Howard expressed interest to go to Brooklyn and join the Nets, plus he stated that he would be content to join the Mavericks, but he never really publicly supported a trade to the Lakers until after they went ahead and traded for him.

The addition of the best center in the league is going to be a boon to the Lakers defense this season, but they need to take the right steps moving forward in order to keep him in Los Angeles for the long haul.

If he ends up wriggling away from Los Angeles for some reason, we will see some of the worst Lakers teams since the Slava Medvedenko Era.

Don't Worry, Initially

At this point it seems that there's little to be concerned about when it comes to the Lakers being able to re-sign Dwight Howard after his contract runs out this year. There are a handful of good signs already.

The biggest sign coming in the form of Howard spending stacks of racks on a humble abode a hop, skip and a jump away from the ocean, and Kobe Bryant for that matter. Howard threw down $20 million on a Newport Beach mansion.

His new house is less than 50 miles away from Staples Center and is in the same city as his new teammate, Bryant. Plus, it's kind of hard to imagine a dude shelling out $20 million for a place to live for the next eight months.

Other than that, the biggest bright sign for the Lakers is Howard's new Twitter avatar, a really cool portrait of him in front of a background with the jerseys of the four famous big men in Lakers history.

Howard's twitter account might be used for little besides shameless promotions of whatever product he may be hawking, but it seems meaningful, however insignificant it may be.

Get Kobe to Play Buddy-Buddy with Him

In the historical sense of the word, Kobe Bryant is not a great teammate. He's an excellent basketball player and when he's working at his peak it's a sight to behold, but at his best as an amiable guy who makes his teammates better, Kobe is average as far as star players through history go.

As a younger man, Kobe had his clashes with Shaq, even earning the blame for driving him out of Los Angeles for a time. As time went by, that story flattened out and Shaq earned a bigger share of the blame for himself, but it's undeniable that Kobe had an unhealthy relationship with the big fellow near the end of their time together.

Moving forward, Kobe had a hard time trusting teammates, especially during the worst years that the Lakers had, but it carried over into his later years. During their playoff series with the Nuggets, Kobe went as far as to call out his teammates for not matching his heart, creating an awkward situation in L.A. 

If Kobe ends up calling out the already fragile Howard, it could have an adverse effect on whether he wants to stick around for another five years in Los Angeles, most of which he'll be playing alongside Kobe. If they end up friends, or at least cheerful acquaintances, then it could make all the difference in the world.

Give Him Some Media Shelter

Obviously, most basketball players would be giddy with excitement if they got to play in a city where the media attention is pointed toward enough that he can easily become a "brand," but the fans grow disinterested rather than livid (for the most part) if the team should falter.

It's not like playing in New York or Chicago where both media scrutiny and fans get a bit out of control in tense situations.

However, the media will continue to be hawks for the remainder of this season, which is really Howard's fault in the first place.

Still, if Howard takes the media scrutiny in any way similar to the way that LeBron James took it in his first year with the Heat, things could go sour for Howard.

What's worse, he could look at it as a Los Angeles thing and think that the media is that way all the time.

In order to keep things from getting too hairy in interviews, the Lakers should go out of their way to keep him out of any situations in which he would have to face a mob of microphones by himself.

Rather, Howard should take press conferences alongside teammates in order to get some moral support from his friends when the inevitable questions about Orlando come flying at him again and again and again.

Don't Bother with an Extension Offer

The days of the maximum extension for superstar players are long dead. In fact, the new collective bargaining agreement has come together in such a way that it's nearly insulting to offer a maximum extension to a player who deserves a maximum deal.

What makes the difference between the two is the number of years that can be offered in an extension compared to if a player were to become a free agent. A maximum extension is a four-year deal whereas a team can re-sign their own free agent for a maximum of five years.

This may not seem like such a big deal, but it works out to a difference of over $20 million, which is about what a mansion in Newport Beach is going for these days.

They need to show Howard the respect that he deserves as a basketball player. There's no way he's going to sign that maximum extension, so don't even bother to offer it, just plan on throwing the entire toolshed at him once the season ends.

Keep Him Involved on Offense

One of the most baffling things about Dwight Howard's tenure with the Orlando Magic was just how little he was involved with the team's offense.

Sure, Howard always averaged around 20 points per game, and the league isn't as dominated by low-post offensive players as it once could be, but he ended up with just 13.4 field goal attempts per game for the past two seasons.

That's the kind of shot attempts reserved for guys like Paul Millsap or Luis Scola, not the best center in the NBA.

It's a lot of fun to block shots and play hard-nosed defense, but it's even more fun to score a lot of points and just dominate a basketball game on the offensive end. Plus, I can only imagine that it's an absolute adrenaline rush to finish an alley-oop in front of 20,000 people.

In the end, if he has fun in L.A. on and off the basketball court, then he's going to have more of a desire to stay put. 

Force Him to Make a Tough Decision

If, when Howard has to decide on whether to sign that maximum contract with the Lakers or take his show on the road and he ends up picking the latter, don't play ball with him.

Howard's first intentions were to end up in Brooklyn, but they can't afford him next season, meaning the only way he could go there would be for the Lakers to agree to a sign-and-trade with the Nets.

Otherwise, he's expressed interest in Dallas, who can afford him, but can't give him nearly as much money as the Lakers.

That's why the Lakers front office needs to push him to the brink before they go trading away one of the best players in the NBA. Force him to decide whether leaving is worth giving up nearly $30 million. 

Let him get so close to signing with another team for the smaller four-year deal that Mitch Kupchak literally has to knock the pen out of his hand. If he gets that close, agree to ship him wherever he wants to go via sign-and-trade.

Rely on the Luck of the Lakers

When the season ended, nobody thought that Steve Nash would end up putting on a purple and gold jersey in 2012. It surely meant the final sign of the impending apocalypse. Actually, it was just another case of crazy luck that Los Angeles has become known for.

Whether it be the fact that people want to play there (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain), stupid general managers trade ridiculously high draft picks to L.A. (Magic Johnson, James Worthy), free agents digging L.A. in hopes of making connections that will allow them to star in a movie as a 5,000-year-old genie (that was either Shaq or Ron Artest, I can't recall), or teams drafting guys who actively rebel against their team the second they're drafted (Kobe Bryant), Los Angeles just always seems to end up with the best players in the league.

In the end, just throw caution to the wind, make pragmatic steps when necessary and believe that the basketball gods have to be good to the Lakers for another 50 years after one bad thing happened to them to keep them from putting another superstar on their team (basketball reasons).

It's the Lakers, not the Clippers. We might as well start Photoshopping Dwight's jersey up in the rafters of Staples Center.

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