Los Angeles Lakers: Ship out Old and Bring in Exact Same?

While the NBA may be in lockout mode, and while they may be there for quite some time, there are still plenty of rumblings about what next season will look like. The biggest rumble of them all might possibly be the talk of sending Dwight Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers.

First of all, let me get this out of the way: If they can get Dwight Howard, GO GET HIM!

He would give the Lakers at least another decade of title contention, but with that said, Dwight Howard is not the only answer. Sure having the Black Mamba and D-12 on the same court would at times make their victories look too easy, but there would be far too many instances when the Lakers would be taken advantage of because they are missing one thing.

But first, let's look at the past champions in the league. The Celtics took the court with Kendrick Perkins, the Pistons had an inefficient offensive player in Ben Wallace, the Mavericks just won with Tyson Chandler doing nothing but rebounding and blocking shots, and the Lakers manned the floor with Andrew Bynum.

No team in the last decade has had the center position dominate like the Heat and Lakers with Shaquille. It is a plus? Of course it is. Who wouldn't want Dwight and Kobe playing together, but all I'm saying is that wouldn't fix a whole lot.

If Kobe took a sidekick role, like he did with Shaq—although this one would be less athletic—and helped Dwight with his game, then sure the Lakers would be as good as anyone, but teams would take advantage of them on the defensive end, and this is where the Lakers need to improve.

And I don't mean improve as in hire a defensive coach in Mike Brown and teach these guys how to defend. No, I mean ship some guys out and send in some new, athletic, younger guys.

Look at the Dallas Mavericks series and you will see that having a Dwight Howard defending the middle of the paint wouldn't have changed that series at all. You'd have to trade Pau and Bynum, probably, to get Howard, and he would have collected more rebounds and roughly the same amount of points as those two combined, and he would have affected more shots at the rim.

But the Mavs didn't shoot at the rim!

They dominated the perimeter game. They hit threes from all over the court and then hit some more just for fun. It was embarrassing what the Mavs did to the Lakers, and Dwight wouldn't have changed that.

Shaq and Kobe worked because Shaq took care of everything inside 15 feet, and Kobe took care of the rest of the floor. It was magical, but Kobe might be too old to take care of everything on the perimeter and would leave Dwight too vulnerable on the inside, so the Lakers need to get some youth.

Artest is done. Barnes, when healthy, is decent, but they need younger. Blake can't get it done. Fisher will be coming off the bench in no time. Walton needs to go, because all he is doing is eating up money. And unfortunately, Brown will not be back, most likely.

Go get a Tony Allen or a Kyle Lowry, someone that plays hard but has room to improve. Jackson is gone and so is the triangle, so bring in some people that will start a new era.

And even if Superman II doesn't follow the path of the Original Superman and come to L.A., surround Bynum, Pau and Kobe with that youth and athleticism. The formula will still work and they will be hanging banner 17.

In this case, inexperience is good and will bring some Showtime back to Hollywood.