Dwight Howard to the Lakers: The Five Things You Need to Know

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It finally happened. Orlando got fleeced, the Lakers came out the huge winners, and the rest of the league can only stand back and watch.

Here are my 5 quick points of analysis. Really, it's all you need to know.

1. Freaking Lakers. They did it again. Pulled off an amazingly beneficial trade (that wasn't vetoed by Commissioner David Stern) and seem to be set for the next potential dynasty. Some teams just do it better. The Lakers have a lot of non-basketball related advantages (The beach, Hollywood, the weather) and they do not waste them by attracting non-Hall of Fame players. Really, this is just another in a long list of impactful big man pickups in Lakers' history. Wilt Chamberlain, Shaq, Pau Gasol, and now Dwight Howard. Essentially, I am not surprised that the Lakers got this deal done and that they got it done in a fashion that changes the complexion of the Western Conference. This is what the Lakers do.

2. Dwight Howard will not be vilified like LeBron was in his post-"The Decision" NBA tour. Part of it has to do with the fact that LeBron is the best player in the world by a large margin. Simply put, LeBron makes waves that Dwight, as great as he is, cannot. Also, Dwight is moving to the franchise that is the most widely despised in the NBA. Sure, a player like Kobe can carry the villain torch as well as anyone no matter which jersey he puts on, but by merely being on the Lakers, your villain torch is lit. They are a consistently successful, championship contending franchise. The Lakers at this point don't need the stars to be hated, they just happen to always have the stars. The vitriol direct toward Dwight will be two-fold: First, because of his gold-medal performance in wishie-washiness, Second, because he is a Laker. The Heat are/were hated because LeBron was leading the way, LeBron was/is hated because of "The Decision."

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3. How much better will the Lakers be? Compared to last year's squad: a lot better. Nevertheless, this great gathering of superstars is not unprecedented in Lakers history. In 2003, the Lakers added veterans Karl Malone and Gary Payton. Their starting lineup that year: Shaq, Malone, Rick Fox, Kobe, and Gary Payton. A brief, unscientific match-up analysis: Shaq v. Dwight - I'll call this a wash. Both in their prime, both the best center in the league, both are atrocious at free-throw shooting. Malone v. Gasol - Offensively, I would give the nod to present-day Gasol over 03-04, 40-year old Karl Malone. Defensively, 40-year old Malone has the edge. The old man still had it. Fox v. Artest - who cares? A wash. Though Fox wasn't the elbow-to-your-dome risk that Artest is. Young Kobe v. Old Kobe - clearly Young Kobe. While Old Kobe has the edge in maturity, Young Kobe was borderline unstoppable. Payton v. Nash - The toughest matchup to predict. Both are/were old. Both play different styles and have different strengths. I'll give the slight edge to Nash simply because I think he could have a greater affect on the team than Payton had. Defensively though, advantage Glove.

The 03-04 team, of course, lost to the Detroit Pistons in the NBA Finals. Injuries and bad chemistry did no favors to that iteration of Lakers superstars.

The point is, there is no reason to crown the 12-13 Lakers as Western Conference champions yet. Oklahoma City still has the best scorer in the NBA, and a host of other Western Conference teams are improving. An injury to one of the Big 4 on the Lakers roster complicates everything. Also, the team will need time to gel.

4. The current LA experiment can only last 2 years, i.e. when Kobe's current contract runs out. After that, it's Dwight's team. After those two years, Gasol will likely be gone, Nash will be retired, and the experiment will have run its course. This is not the start of a 5 year dynasty. This is a last ditch effort by Lakers to get a couple more championships out of Kobe. All other Western Conference teams just need to weather the storm, not make reactionary moves and keep things together. There is a lot of talent in the Western Conference capable of beating the Lakers in a 7-game series.

5. From a Utah Jazz perspective this does not really bump the ultimate plan out of its lane. No one within or without the Jazz organization expects them to contend for a Western Conference title in the next 2 years. With Derrick Favors, Gordon Hayward, and Alec Burks the Jazz possess talent, potential, and a lot of youth. It is a team built with an eye on the future. The aim of the next two years is positive growth that must include winning and playoff berths. There are no title runs on the horizon. After the Lakers experiment is over though, the Utah Jazz had better be ready to make their move. The best case scenario for the Jazz in the next two years is to make the playoffs and give one of the higher seeds an awesome, hard-fought, 6-7 game series. If the Jazz can do that, I like their chances of becoming a player in the Western Conference, after the Lakers experiment. This, of course, depends on the extent to which the young Utah Jazz core is able to develop as well as the ability of Jazz management to make wise additions and subtractions to the roster.

This trade is not a sign of the times for the NBA Armageddon. Chemistry and injuries are still a part of the game and necessary components in a championship team. Playing 82 games and then winning 16 in the playoffs are the requirement to win the NBA Finals for the foreseeable future (until the next lockout-shortened season). The Lakers deserve credit for handling their business and assembling their team via trades and not free agency a la the Miami Heat. Some teams are just better at it than others. Some markets have advantages that others do not. That's life. That's the NBA. I still love the NBA. I still do not like the Lakers.