Lakers Rumors: 3-Man Team Wouldn't Bring Championship to Los Angeles

Can three men win an NBA Championship? If Chris Broussard of ESPN is right, we're going to find out soon. For now, let's be nice and say that it doesn't seem all that likely. 

Broussard is reporting that the Lakers are reportedly interested in acquiring both Dwight Howard and Chris Paul. It sounds nice. I mean, who wouldn't want a starting lineup that includes Howard, Paul, and Kobe Bryant?

It's a good start, right?

The problem is that it's not a good start. There is really no way that the team would be able to put any kind of real talent around those three. 

The Lakers were swept out of the 2011 NBA playoffs by the Mavericks because they lacked depth. I know that more specific flaws were exposed. I also know that Howard and Paul would mend those flaws.

The problem is that in having them do so, the Lakers would create other flaws and would make their biggest flaw even worse.

Broussard was not specific as to what the team would be giving up to get Paul and Howard, but one could only imagine that just about any significant player on the current roster not named Kobe Bryant would be involved. 

This top-heavy Lakers' team would walk into the playoffs against a team with depth and suffer the same fate that they suffered against the Mavericks a season ago.

In the NBA, you need eight players in a rotation to eat up significant minutes. You can survive with four players doing nothing more than mop-up time. But the kind of team that the Lakers would build around these three stars would give them no chance at competing for a title.

Los Angeles' focus needs to be on adding depth around the roster they have, not loading up with stars to put around Kobe Bryant.

Remember, this is largely the same team that reached the finals in 2008 and won it in 2009, and 2010. That wasn't that long ago. The foundation is there to win.

They need to find a way to get younger and deeper.

So, while Paul and Howard sounds nice, there's really no way that those moves wouldn't cripple the rest of the team.