7 Reasons LA Lakers Should Be Favorites to Win the Western Conference

As you may have heard, some guy named Dwight Howard joined the Lakers recently.

Word is he's pretty good.

Now with Howard, Steve Nash, Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles has officially become a super team, if they weren't already.

The question is, just how super are they?

Enough to win the Pacific Division?  The Western Conference?  An NBA title?

While the defending champion Miami Heat should still be considered the best team in the league, there should be little doubt who will be meeting them in the Finals.

The Los Angeles Lakers will be the best in the West next season, and here's why.

Competition

One of the reasons the Lakers will win the West is a decline in their competition.

Teams like the Dallas Mavericks, winners of the 2011 NBA Finals, have already began their descent and nearly missed the playoffs last season.

The San Antonio Spurs have been a powerhouse for years but now see Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan all in their 30's with no stars set to take their places.

The only real competition for the Lakers will be the Oklahoma City Thunder, as most of the other playoff teams in the West (Memphis Grizzlies, L.A. Clippers, Denver Nuggets) are a few years away from being a serious title threat.

There may be 15 teams in the Western Conference, but only one should prove any sort of a threat to the Lakers.

Offseason Acquisitions

Even before the Howard trade, the Lakers were destined to be better in 2012-2013.

Los Angeles had already completed a sign-and-trade for two-time MVP Steve Nash and signed career 19.5 point-per-game scorer Antawn Jamison.

Nash and Jamison, besides being serious basketball talents, are also some of the game's best people and locker room influences.  They bring so much to a team in terms of basketball I.Q., professionalism and leadership.

LA also has added some nice, young pieces as well.  They drafted Marquette guard Darius Johnson-Odom and Gonzaga center Robert Sacre while picking up Earl Clark in the Howard trade.

For the Thunder, their biggest free-agent move was signing draft bust Hasheem Thabeet.

Los Angeles brought in a ton of talent to make their team better.  Any improvements from OKC will have to come from within.

Learning from the Playoff Series

Before the Lakers added Nash, Howard and others, they played the Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals back in May.

The Thunder won the series four games to one, advancing to the Western finals to play the San Antonio Spurs.

While on the outside the series looked like a blowout, it was actually quite close.

Down 1-0 in the best of seven series, the Lakers were in control for most of Game 2.  Owning a 75-68 lead with two minutes left to play in what looked like a soon-to-be tied series heading back to LA, the Lakers folded and watched OKC reel off the next nine points.

The game ended at 77-75, with Los Angeles suddenly in an 0-2 hole.

They hung tough however, winning Game 3 by a score of 99-96 before dropping another close one in Game 4, 103-100.

While two of the games were decisive victories by the Thunder, the series could have easily been 3-2 and going into a Game 6 rather than a 4-1 OKC series win.

The Lakers were already close to beating the Thunder, adding Nash and Howard will put them over the top.

Moving the Ball

Passing, assists and turnovers are all major components of a team's success/failure.

For the Lakers, they added one of the best point guards of all time to a team that was already sixth in the entire NBA in assists per game last season (22.5).

The Thunder made no moves to improve their ball-handling, and instead have watched Derek Fisher leave via free agency.  This could be trouble for OKC, as they already ranked dead last in assists last season at only 18.5 a game as a team.

For LA, the rich get richer as Nash will be the best point guard Kobe Bryant has ever played along.  OKC will once again generously list Russell Westbrook as their "point" guard, despite his 3.7 turnovers a game to only 5.5 assists.

Experience

The Thunder are good, but they're also very young.

The Lakers roster is full of veterans, many with playoff and championship experience.

Here is a look at the Lakers top six players, with total years of experience in the league and in the playoffs compared to the Thunder:

Player:	Experience	Playoffs
Kobe Bryant	16	15
Steve Nash	16	11
Antawn Jamison	14	6
Metta World Peace	13	8
Pau Gasol	11	8
Dwight Howard	8	5

That's 78 seasons and 53 trips to the playoffs between only six players.  The experience each have gained is invaluable, especially when playing against a younger team.  For comparison, here's how the Thunder stack up:

Player:	Experience	Playoffs
Kevin Durant	5	3
Russell Westbrook	4	3
James Harden	3	3
Kendrick Perkins	9	6
Serge Ibaka	3	3
Thabo Sefolosha	6	4

The results aren't even close.  OKC is very young, athletic and talented, but they're also inexperienced.

The Thunder bring 30 years of playing experience to the Lakers 78, and only 22 playoff trips to LA's 53.

The Lakers are the more experienced team, something that often shows in close playoff games.

Post Play

Adding Howard means LA now has arguably the best power froward-center combination in the league.  While the Lakers post play has inevitably gotten stronger, the Thunder's remains an area of concern.

Kendrick Perkins has quietly been a big disappointment ever since coming over in a trade from the Boston Celtics.  Last season was especially bad, as Perkins averaged just 5.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and a career low PER of 8.69.

His production in the NBA Finals was non-existent, as he averaged 4.8 points on 42.9 percent shooting despite the Heat's poor center play themselves.

As Perkins appears to be getting worse, Howard only gets better.

His 14.5 rebounds per game last season not only led the NBA, but it was a career high was well.  Combined with Pau Gasol, LA has 38 points, 25 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game from their two-headed paint monster alone.

The Lakers have a superior advantage to the Thunder when it comes to scoring inside and defending the paint.

Hunger

As many NBA fans already know, Kobe Bryant is the proud owner of five championship rings.

Five is nice, but the magic number remains to be six, the number Michael Jordan had the privilege of slipping on his fingers with the Chicago Bulls.

Needless to say, Kobe may be a little hungry.

Nearing 34 years of age, Bryant has to realize his window for a title is closing.  An elite supporting cast only comes around so often, and when it does you've got to take advantage. 

Adding two future Hall of Famers in one offseason would qualify as an elite supporting cast.

While the talent level is undeniable, the longevity is not. 

Nash is 38, Gasol 32 and Jamison 36.  While they all have plenty of good basketball left in them, the Lakers' best chance to win is now.

Bryant knows this, and his hunger for a sixth championship could be undeniable.