Lakers Rumors: Jim Buss Must Come Back to Reality and Trade for Dwight Howard

Jim Buss lives in euphoria.  Negative events don’t exist in Buss’ magical world.

If the head of the Los Angeles Lakers doesn’t wake up and come back to reality, this team has absolutely no shot to jump-start the last dynasty of the Kobe Bryant era.

No, this isn’t a fan pressing the panic button after an 0-2 start.  Without Andrew Bynum in the lineup during their rocky start, there’s no need to fear that the Lakers couldn’t contend for a championship in 2011.   

Without Andrew Bynum in the lineup. That’s the key, though, that Buss is missing, and what is the true threat to LA’s title aspirations.

This Lakers team without Bynum has no shot to win a championship—odds at zero percent. 

Sure, Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol at the top of the games are All-World, but they aren’t surrounded by enough talent to put the team on their backs.  Maybe the 2009 or 2010 Lakers could’ve done so, but since then, Metta World Peace and Derek Fisher have turned into shells of their former selves, and their two most productive bench players in Lamar Odom and Shannon Brown are gone.

Forget Brown even, if Bynum went down with a knee injury in the past, the Lakers held the luxury of simply being able to slide Pau over to center and insert Odom into the starting lineup. 

Not only is the Candy Man a more than capable starter, but he arguably played better alongside Gasol than Bynum did.  That luxury is now history, though, and if Bynum lands awkwardly yet again, not only is his season over, but so is the Lakers’.

Buss told T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times that he believes his team can still win a championship without Odom.  I don’t doubt that statement, but unlike in years past, there’s no Plan B if Bynum were to go down.  And with his cursed knees, there always needs to be a Plan B, but Buss, the man who drafted Bynum, can’t comprehend that in his little euphoria.

Trading for Dwight Howard eliminates the need for a Plan B. 

The Lakers wouldn’t need to give up Gasol and Bynum like so many rumors would suggest.  As long as Bynum can stay healthy, Los Angeles has no competition for Howard whatsoever.

As the Orlando Magic's only option, Howard is the Lakers’ for the taking.  But that’s the thing—Buss’ contentment with the team’s current roster puts his willingness for a major shakeup in doubt. 

What may be this franchise’s only hope is if Bryant goes into Buss’ office, sticks out his lower-jaw putting on the angry Kobe face and demands that the Lakers deal Bynum for Dwight like No. 24 did back in 2007 with Jason Kidd.

David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer. Follow him on Twitter.