With a long double-digit lead, the Los Angeles Lakers once again bore a good game, they lost to the Memphis Grizzlies, and while watching their opponents consolidate their fourth position in the West, the Lakers are still in the mud. LeBron James also exploded a quasi-triple-double with 37 points, 13 rebounds and 7 assists on the occasion of his 37th birthday, but in this case, he still failed to help the Lakers win.
Despite the problem of injuries and the large number of people triggering health and safety agreements, the Lakers' current deficiencies are all-round, Anthony Davis has been absent for a long time due to injury, and the Lakers, whose internal strength is mediocre, can be said to be worse. In this game, veteran Dwight Howard tried his best, he scored 6 points on 2-of-3 shooting, and the plus-minus was the team's highest +17. But in this case, the Lakers coaching staff only gave Howard 16 minutes of playing time, which is really puzzling.
Howard was the league's no. 1 center at his peak, and he was elected several times for awards such as best defensive player, rebounding king and block king, which everyone already knows very well, and it is not too much to repeat. Affected by the injury in the twilight of his career, Howard can be said to have experienced ups and downs, and in the summer of 2019, he was once unnoticed, and the outside world even thought that Howard would leave the league. However, Cousins' injury has changed everything, and the Lakers, who urgently need to strengthen the depth of the interior lineup, chose to give Howard another chance, and in order to show his sincerity, Howard even took the initiative to sign an insecure contract to motivate himself. We all know the story behind, the Lakers won the championship again after ten years, the whole team held the O'Brien Cup, Howard also provided considerable help in the Lakers' championship journey, he completed his self-redemption, and thus became a real championship player.
However, last summer, the Lakers' lineup changed dramatically, and the market of many championship players also rose, and the Lakers did not renew their contract with Howard at the first time, so the latter joined the Philadelphia 76ers. Howard was still a substitute center for the team last season, and his performance was decent, and he provided strong support when Embiid was resting or even absent, but unfortunately, the 76ers fought seven hard in the Eastern Conference semifinals, lost to the dark Horse Atlanta Eagles, and once again fell outside the gate of the divisional finals.
So wait until this summer, Howard returned to the Lakers, to say that the Purple and Gold Legion really love to eat back grass, this is the third time in Howard's career wearing a Lakers shirt, becoming a player in the Purple and Gold Army. In addition to Howard, many players, including Kent Bazemore, Trevo Ariza, Vin Ellington, Avery Bradley and Rajan Rondo, have all played for the Lakers. However, Howard has not played a lot of time this season, according to the Lakers coaching staff, the team tends to put on a five-small lineup for a long time, so usually only one of the two centers on the team will enter the rotation lineup. So compared to Howard, another former All-Star center, Jordan Jr., is even more miserable, he basically sits on the bench and rarely plays.
However, combined with the current situation of the Lakers, it is obvious that there is a big problem with compressing Dwight Howard's playing time. Because as we all know, the Lakers originally only had three interior players, and now Jordan Jr. can't play most of the time, Anthony Davis is also injured, and the only thing that can be counted on is Howard. Basketball is a game of giants, even if the pace of this era is accelerating, the status and role of traditional centers are declining, but it will not be completely replaced. Although Howard's performance and form are certainly not the same compared to the peak, it is no problem to occasionally top twenty or thirty minutes. Some people may say that because Howard received 4 fouls early this time, his playing time was compressed. But don't forget that the two defenders in the starting lineup, Russell Westbrook and Avery Bradley, each had five fouls, and they played much longer than Howard, so simply saying that too many fouls will affect Howard's play, or be frequently targeted by the other side, is certainly untenable.
There is obviously a big problem with such a platooning, although the two veterans of LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, who are swinging upwards, still have excellent performances, but they are old after all, and the consumption is too great. And the Remaining Players of the Lakers are either small guards like Darren Collison and Malik Munch, or even forward players, but they only have a standard height and weight, and are not good at defensive and rebounding protection. Therefore, the Lakers' small lineup, many times not only did not kill and injure the opponent, but also did not fortify at all, saying that it was the existence of killing eight hundred and losing a thousand, I am afraid it is not an exaggeration.