After just one day of the new “Stay Dwight” banners being posted all around Los Angeles, the Dwight Howard saga takes a turn that leaves Laker fans with their arms in the air.
According to Chris Broussard, Dwight Howard is strongly considering leaving the Lakers, and will not be returning next season. The Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks are the two favorites to land the All-Star center.
Sources: Dwight Howard unlikely to re-sign with the Lakers. Dallas and Houston the favorites. Main issue w/Lakers is Mike D’Antoni’s system
— Chris Broussard (@Chris_Broussard) June 27, 2013
We cannot completely rule out Los Angeles because allegedly Dwight loves living here in L.A. and he is notoriously indecisive, but as of right now Dwight’s future as a Laker is definitely up in the air.
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So now who can the Lakers blame for Dwight wanting to leave the greatest NBA franchise? It comes down to two people.
The first one is obvious. Head coach Mike D’Antoni has lived and died by his stubborn approach to coaching his teams. He believes in one system and one system only — and that is that he is going to run his “seven seconds or less” offense and try to outscore teams.
As we all saw last year, this system is flat out not going to work with the big man. Howard wants touches in the post and to be the main focal point in the offense. And to be quite honest, if the Lakers were to even have a dying chance at making the playoffs next year, he would have to be since Kobe Bryant will not be playing until sometime in late November or early December.
The next person to blame for this may come as a surprise to most and although most will disagree, there is some substance behind this.
Bryant has installed a type of attitude to the Lakers franchise ever since Shaq left that this is his team and will be until he decides to end his Hall of Fame career. He has also come out and said that he is in fact a tough teammate to play with because of the way he pushes players to play at their top potential and that is exactly what he did to Dwight this past season.
Howard was never pushed as hard as Kobe pushed him last year and it is obvious that that did not sit well with him. If Kobe really wants Dwight back for next season — and I think he does — it would be time to tell Dwight that the Lakers, the biggest franchise in the NBA, will be his team after next season. Kobe needs to hand Dwight the keys to the car and let him drive the Lakers for the foreseeable future.
Many may disagree but the Lakers, Mike D’Antoni, and yes Kobe Bryant need to let Dwight be focal point of this team. Kobe may still have a few years left in the tank, but there is no certainty that he can return to the form that we saw last year, and the best security blanket for the Lakers is give Dwight what he wants.
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