Dwight Howard was asked about his all-time starting five of former teammates while on a podcast alongside Goran Dragic. Howard named an interesting group of five players, though the panel was left surprised as they weren’t the biggest names Howard had shared a locker room with.
“Jameer Nelson, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Hedo Turkoglu, and Rashard Lewis. I am the sixth man. I’m an energy guy on the bench now, I’m a role-player. We ain’t beating anybody but we’ll have a good conservation.”
Howard thought he was naming his five favorite teammates, not an actual team to win games. This led to Howard redoing his lineup, adding himself to the starting five alongside Anthony Davis and Rajon Rondo.
“LeBron, Kobe, AD, Myself, and Rondo. Me and AD holding down the paint. We’d win a lot of games. We got five shooters out there, all-time.”
Who want smoke 💨 👀😂 pic.twitter.com/O3j5qfGb5t
— Dwight Howard (@DwightHoward) May 10, 2024
Both these teams are quite interesting. Even Howard’s first team would be an absolute terror if you had to think of that lineup in the late-2000s.
Nelson might be the perfect guard on a team where LeBron James and Kobe Bryant will have the ball a lot while Turkoglu is deployed as their sharpshooter alongside Rashard Lewis. It’s a legitimate five-out lineup in the 2000s, with a defensive menace in Howard off the bench when required.
The second team is competent. Funnily, when Howard had to make a team that could win games, he named all the players he played alongside on the Lakers. He won a title with Rondo, LeBron, and Davis, so he knows what they can achieve together. While Howard and Kobe didn’t get along as teammates, a mature Dwight can recognize how that winning intensity is required.
Dwight Howard Had Shared A Different 5-Man Lineup In December 2023
Howard was asked this exact question in December 2023 on social media and he had named quite an incredible lineup. The difference is that he hadn’t included Davis in his team when he shared it on social media, electing to go with Grant Hill instead.
If we had to compare the three variations of teams Howard has named, including his former teammates, it seems the lineup with Rondo-Kobe-LeBron-Davis-Howard would be the most successful. We don’t know what version of Grant Hill we would get if we went with the lineup he gave in December, with Davis just being a surer bet especially defensively.
The lineup with Nelson-Kobe-LeBron-Turkoglu-Lewis is the most fascinating lineup, as it actually makes a lot of sense looking at the modern NBA. While this team would get smoked in most all-time matchups, it replicates how a modern GM would build a team around two ball-dominant wing players. Maybe you can upgrade Nelson for a more astute defender than Nelson, but these five would wreck teams offensively.
Thinking about lineups like this is always an interesting thought experiment. James and Kobe feature across all lineups and that sort of a star duo could carry any team to a championship. When you add someone like Dwight who was one of the most dominant defenders in NBA history, it really doesn’t matter who you add around him.
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