The Los Angeles Lakers won the 2020 championship with an incredibly balanced squad that had multiple veterans across the roster buying into a role to make a championship push.
One of those veterans was Dwight Howard, who went from signing a non-guaranteed deal to playing his way into the rotation and winning the title with the franchise that season. He and many other pieces were let go in the summer for a roster overhaul, something that stings the center to this day.
“But I do love the Lakers, man. We had the championship run there and I wish we would’ve had a chance to keep going because that was the squad right there. We had everything. We had everything.”
Howard averaged 7.5 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks in 69 games played for the Lakers in the 2019-20 season. He won the only championship of his career on that Lakers squad. He rejoined them for the ill-fated 2021-22 season, which ultimately was Howard’s final season in the NBA. He averaged 6.2 points and 5.9 rebounds that year and moved to Taiwan after not getting offers last summer.
Should The Lakers Have Kept Their Core Together?
The 2019-20 Lakers ended up winning the title and having some incredible pieces they could have built around. The changes they made actually were promising, as the additions of Dennis Schroder and Marc Gasol made the team better in the short term. Unfortunately, both Anthony Davis and LeBron James were wracked with injuries that year as the Lakers fell to a first-round elimination.
That disastrous season led to the Russell Westbrook trade, which essentially killed one-and-a-half seasons worth of competitive basketball on the Lakers. Getting rid of him has allowed the Lakers to regain their position as contenders, and next season may be the year they climb right back to the top.
Keeping players like Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Alex Caruso would’ve helped, but the Lakers have found enough replacements to be competitive still.
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