Dwight Howard: Lakers Center Primed for Career Season
Dwight Howard figures to be highly motivated next season with the Los Angeles Lakers.
It sets up what should be a career year for the best center in the NBA.
You look at what Howard did last season in Orlando, amid all the turmoil within the Magic organization, and the numbers are surprising.
Howard averaged 20.6 points, a career-high 14.5 rebounds and 2.1 blocks. He still managed to shoot 57.3 percent from the field, second-best in the league, per basketball-reference.com. And he did so while averaging 13.4 shot attempts without much talent around him.
The 26-year-old also registered a PER of 24.2, sixth in the NBA and best among centers.
Even after Andrew Bynum's breakout campaign last season, there should be no debating that Howard is the best center in the league.
Now, on a true title contender in L.A., Howard is entering his contract year with the potential to make a boatload of money as a free agent in 2013. It's going to take more than back problems to keep him off the floor.
There's been a lot made about Howard possibly playing second fiddle to Kobe Bryant in L.A. next season, which is why he may have been hesitant to join the Lakers this summer. But, remember, Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal had their fair share of problems, and they still rattled off three straight titles together before everything fell apart. Howard and Bryant are motivated to win a championship next season, and they have a guiding force in one of the greatest point guards of all time, Steve Nash.
And that brings me to my next point: what Nash can do for Howard.
Granted, Howard hasn't needed much help to be a dominant big man throughout his career, but he'll surely get more opportunities to create havoc with Nash drawing defenders and dishing. You give Howard more space in the interior and it's frightening what he could do on the hardwood.
Just look at what Nash meant to Amar'e Stoudemire. Stoudemire's field-goal percentage shot up by over eight percentage points in the 2004-2005 season when Nash left the Dallas Mavericks for the Phoenix Suns.
Sure, that could in part be attributed to Stoudemire developing in his third season in the league, but look at what happened to Stoudemire when he left the Suns for the New York Knicks in the summer of 2010. After shooting 55.7 percent from the field in 2009-2010, his field-goal percentage has dropped in each successive (and unsuccessful) season since.
You add the fact that Howard is a much better player than Stoudemire in every major category except free-throw percentage, and opponents will have a nightmare on their hands (and, no, I'm not going to call it a "Dwightmare").
The stars are aligned in Los Angeles for Howard, and there is no question that the defending champion Miami Heat should be worried about not having a defensive stopper in the post.
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