Dwight Howard: Analyzing Impact Superman Will Have on Lakers Stars

With Dwight Howard delivered to the Los Angeles Lakers as part of a four-team trade last week and the saga finally behind the NBA world, it's time to start focusing on the seven-footer's on-court impact.

Following the trade, fans and pundits alike instantly anointed the Lakers as Western Conference favorites and the most-likely challenger to the defending NBA champion Miami Heat. In the past week the L.A. title odds (via Bovada.lv) have gone down from 10/1 all the way to 11/4.

And considering Howard is the NBA's third-best player, it's not hard to see why.

With Howard in the lineup last season, the Orlando Magic went 32-21 and had the fifth-best record in the NBA. Without Howard, the Magic plummeted to a paltry 5-12 (including playoffs).

In L.A., the 26-year-old center will have far more talent than in Orlando, but his impact will still certainly be massive.

With that in mind, let's take a look at the impact Howard will have on his fellow Lakers stars.

Steve Nash

Pairing Nash, one of the all-time great pick-and-roll passers, with Howard, the NBA's top scorer in terms of points per possession in 2011-12, seems almost unfair.

Last season Howard shot 73.6 percent (via Synergy Sports, subscription required) as the roll man during pick-and-roll situations, and that was with a below-average point guard in Jameer Nelson feeding him the ball.

With Nash dropping dimes, it's possible that Howard will break the career-best 61.2 shooting percentage he set in 2009-10.

On Nash's side of things, adding D12 to the Lakers' mix should lead to a cavalcade of open outside jumpers. And considering Nash is one of the NBA's best shooting point guards (he shot 53.2 percent from the field last season), this should do nothing but help the L.A. offense.

From a non-basketball perspective, Howard's acquisition also takes the "new guy" spotlight off the notoriously private point guard. After spending years as a media and fan darling in Phoenix, Nash is stepping into a whole new market in Los Angeles. Had the Lakers kept Andrew Bynum, the 39-year-old would have been the focus of an inordinate amount of "Can Nash and Kobe co-exist" columns if things went wrong.

Howard eliminates (most) of that by usurping the sports tabloids.

Kobe Bryant

Don't get me wrong, Bynum is a great player who will make the 2012-13 Philadelphia 76ers team far superior to its predecessor.

But Howard is a transcendent talent who can dominate an entire game by the sheer force of his physicality and athleticism.

The last time Kobe Bryant had a teammate this talented, it was Shaquille O'Neal. And despite their personal differences, the Shaqobe Lakers were a thing of beauty to watch on the court as L.A. became the NBA's first post-Jordan dynasty.

If Bryant realizes that this L.A. nucleus is "his" in name only and allows Howard to become the team's focal point, there is no more talented team in the league.

That fact also opens up the messy legacy debate for Bryant again. Coming into this offseason, it was widely assumed that the Lakers were closer to rebuilding than reloading.

But bringing in Howard re-opens the Lakers' championship window and a myriad of all-time questions for Bryant. If Bryant nabs that elusive sixth championship (and maybe even a seventh), the legendary guard will vault into top-five of all time discussion.

Pau Gasol

With Howard assuredly becoming the Lakers' No. 1 option in the post, this will force power forward Pau Gasol into an initial adjustment period.

But with the Lakers switching to the Princeton offense (via Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski), that adjustment might just be the thing to revive Gasol's L.A. reputation.

The Princeton thrives on players with versatile players who can move without the ball while having the ability to pass or shoot from anywhere on the floor. There is no more versatile seven-footer in the NBA than Gasol.

Howard taking the lion's share of the low-post opportunities should open up Gasol on the high-post, where he thrives both spotting up and cutting.

If Gasol is able to adjust (and he should be able to), Howard's presence, like with Nash and Bryant, can do nothing but good things for the 32-year-old forward.