NBA Rumors: Dwight Howard is LA Lakers' Only Hope to Return to Finals

Mike Brown broke the purple and gold championship puzzle.

He may be a defensive mastermind, but the Los Angeles Lakers’ offense is in the bottom third in the NBA without Phil Jackson’s triangle scheme. No excuse exists for such mediocrity and change, in the form of Dwight Howard, must be made.

With Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum in the starting lineup, LA shouldn’t have the slightest problem putting the ball in the basket. A problem lives, though, and the only way to kill it is with a blockbuster trade. This isn’t the core that won two out of the last three league titles. Lamar Odom is gone and it’s time for even more roster moves.

Los Angeles went into Sunday night with a 10-7 record after a 1-3-skid in their last four. Earlier in the season, Kobe and company looked talented enough to compete for a championship, but against other top teams, LA is failing to rise to the challenge.

Anyone who still believes that dealing Bynum for Howard is a bad idea is absolutely out of their mind. The hot streak is over; Bynum has only scored more than 15 points in just one game in the past nine.  Howard, on the other hand, has recorded at least 20 points in four out of the last five, including a 45-point effort.

Mike Bresnahan and Broderick Turner of the LA Times reported that Howard and Bryant have had at least one “in-depth” phone call that included talk about how D12 would fit into the Lakers’ scheme.

Even more than simply talent, though, Howard would add much-needed athleticism to the Lakers.  They failed to keep pace with the Los Angeles Clippers and Miami Heat. That should be no surprise with a pair of 7-footers on the floor being complemented by a trio of aging perimeter players.

Throw in the fact that the Lakers would be forced to take on Hedo Turkoglu’s contract in a swap and a trade is even more of a no-brainer. Los Angeles is the worst three-point shooting team in the entire league. Turkoglu is shooting 47.8 percent from downtown this season: simple math.

Los Angeles lacks the pieces to fix that broken puzzle, and unless they acquire them by March 15, that puzzle might as well just be thrown into the fire.

David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.

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