Los Angeles Lakers' Title Hopes Too Big for Andrew Bynum's Shoulders

If there's one thing we can take away from the last week of games for the Los Angeles Lakers, it's that Andrew Bynum still has a long way to go.

In their last five matchups, only two (Orlando Magic and Los Angeles Clippers) featured a strong low post presence from the opponent (Dwight Howard and DeAndre Jordan).

The remaining games saw Bynum matched up against Roy Hibbert, Udonis Haslem and Ian Mahinmi. It's only natural for Lakers fans to assume the player receiving all the comparisons to Howard would dominate such lowly competition.

We were all sadly mistaken.

Bynum averaged only 13.6 points per game over that five-game stretch to go along with 12.6 rebounds per game. Now, I'm not saying Bynum isn't a good player, because he's definitely improved from previous years, but he's nowhere close to the dominating presence of a Dwight Howard.

In order to truly enter that arena, Bynum would need to be able to dominate at least one area of the game in terms of scoring, rebounding or defense. As the reigning four-time Defensive Player of the Year, Howard has already proved his skill on the defensive end of the floor as well as rebounding and has continued to improve on offense with the help of Magic assistant coach and Hall of Fame center Patrick Ewing.

If Bynum were able to become a 20-and-10 player for the Lakers this season, their chances of winning would greatly improve. The Lakers need to be able to take advantage of their size down low but the question remains if their current size is enough to contend for a title come April.