Why Dwight Howard's Success in L.A. Won't Mean Superiority over Andrew Bynum

Everybody has to have heard by now, but in case you haven't, ESPN has reported that Dwight Howard is on his way to Los Angeles as soon as the league approves a four-team deal between Los Angeles, Orlando, Denver and Philadelphia.

Los Angeles will end up with Howard, Philadelphia gets Andrew Bynum and Jason Richardson, Denver lands Andre Iguodala while Orlando will land Al Harrington, Arron Afflalo, Nikola Vucevic and Maurice Harkless along with a future protected first-round pick from each team involved.

Now, there very well could be a few more players thrown in the mix, but it's likely cap jetsam thrown overboard by Orlando, not making a huge difference in any other team involved.

There are two things clear with this trade as far as the Lakers are concerned; Los Angeles is an even better team and the fact that they traded for him doesn't mean Dwight Howard is far better than Andrew Bynum.

Howard works better with this Lakers team, there's no doubt about that. Instead of having Pau Gasol and Bynum as skilled post players with defensive holes, they've got Gasol as their skilled post player and Howard as their overpowering post player, opposites that compliment each other well. Plus they now have a vastly superior defender, there's no arguing that.

A lot of people are going to look at this trade and see it as the Lakers getting rid of the second-best center in the NBA for the best center in the NBA, a guy who is ahead of his counterpart by a head and maybe some shoulders, but the distance between the two players is still a lot closer than you think.

Where Howard excels more than Bynum is and always will be on defense, which is where the Lakers are the weakest.

Los Angeles gave up just about 96 points per game last season, putting them smack dab in the middle of the NBA in that sense. In fact, ever since Pau Gasol came over from Memphis and rejuvenated L.A., they've never been better than the league's eighth-best defense.

If there's one area where the Lakers were noticeably bad on defense, it was with the pick-and-roll and keeping guys out of the paint. They gave up nearly 42 points per game in the paint last season, whereas Orlando gave up fewer than 38 points per game.

I'll give you one guess as to which player deserves the most credit for Orlando's defensive domination in the paint.

Bynum isn't a bad defender, but he's nowhere near Howard, who's got the stats and the hardware to prove it. 

However, the skill that Bynum shows off in the post is something that Howard lacks. Bynum could very well show off this difference in a big way with Philadelphia. 

The 76ers could suit Bynum even better than Los Angeles did. Among guys who'll play big minutes, Philly's most experienced player is, well, now it's Bynum (unless you want to count Kwame Brown). Otherwise, you've got a bunch of guys who've only been around the league for a few years.

Bynum is suddenly the centerpiece of this team's offense, and being surrounded by guys who can hit threes, drive into the lane and take care of the ball is going to make things easy for him. He should be able to get plenty of one-on-one post situations with defenses too afraid of getting burned on a ball-reversal should they double-team him.

He's going to be more important to the 76ers than he was to the Lakers over the past few years, and while Philadelphia probably won't go as far as the Lakers in the playoffs next season, it's not because Dwight is so much better than Bynum.

Los Angeles may favor Howard, but it makes sense for them to favor him. All the while Bynum is continuing to slowly narrow the gap between himself and Howard. All that's left to be seen is how small he can make it.