As Dwight Howard contemplates his next professional move, Laker Nation anxiously waits. While D12 didn’t fully grab the reins in L.A. this season, he is most certainly a franchise player that can take over as Kobe’s legendary career reaches its end.

It would seem that re-signing is the most lucrative and smart decision for the young center, however the Houston Rockets are mentioned as a tantalizing option. With a much younger core, no state taxation, and a willingness to focus on the low post game, Howard’s interest in Houston makes sense.

To properly assess the potential move, I present a statistical comparison of the two stars currently at the helm of their teams; James Harden and Kobe Bryant. Conveniently, both teams made the playoffs and the stars each played 78 games this season.

Below you’ll find the side by side of key statistics for the two stars:

While the Lakers clearly underachieved with their roster this season, injuries allowed only 19 games with the intended starting 5. Houston had the more productive roster with ascending Chandler Parsons (15.5ppg, 3.5apg, 5.3rpg) and solid big Omer Asik (10.1ppg, 11.7 rpg) among other contributors (Lin, Brooks, etc.)

To say Dwight would seamlessly integrate into the Rockets’ offense and become the focal point is naive. Harden finally has a chance to shine and has shown a penchant for shooting often. Parsons would not be a likely candidate to have his shots reduced either. With the aging Lakers roster it is clear that within 2 years Howard would get to take his place as the face of the franchise. In Houston, the young roster will have a chance to grow together, but Dwight will never get the true respect of superstar.

If his awkward departure from Orlando showed us anything, it’s that Dwight yearns to be considered one of the great centers to ever play the game. Can he achieve that as a second and possibly third option with the Rockets? Given the salary cap room the Lakers have set for 2014, this is clearly the best situation to meet Howard’s needs and desires.

By surviving a few more years with Kobe Bryant, the Lakers can tailor their roster to an inside-out game featuring the All-Star center.

It may seem like a match on paper, but the flighty Howard will quickly tire of Harden’s Kobe impression and struggle to shine amongst the improving youngsters already in place.

While not perfect bedfellows, the Lakers and Howard are the most logical match for each other. Let’s hope Dwight buys into the purple and gold legacy and becomes the next great Laker big.

This was an article by Wil Charters. You can follow him on Twitter here: @wilcharters

The Houston Rockets‘ desire to sign Dwight Howard this summer is well known. However, it seems that they may offer the Los Angeles Lakers a sign-and-trade scenario for Howard if he chooses to head to Texas.

According to ESPN, the Rockets hope to propose a trade of Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin in exchange for Dwight Howard:

The threat of the James Harden-led Rockets signing Howard away from L.A. is very real to the Lakers, sources said, which means the Lakers will eventually be getting a sign-and-trade pitch from Houston as well. The Rockets will have the cap space to sign Howard outright after the expected shedding of Thomas Robinson’s contract, but sources say that the Rockets will certainly attempt to convince the Lakers to take in return Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin in a sign-and-trade deal for Howard, thus theoretically keeping alive the possibility that Houston could preserve its cap space to pursue Chris Paul and possibly pair Howard with Paul.

Asik is a quality defensive anchor at roughly half Howard’s price. And Lin had the greatest success of his career under Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni. But sources maintain that the Lakers’ main priority this offseason — besides re-signing Howard — is getting their financial house in order. Which is why the overriding expectation persists that L.A. will rebuff sign-and-trade proposals to simply bank the cap space for the summer of 2014 if Howard bolts.

The Lakers would never accept this deal for two reasons: 1) Why should the Lakers help the Rockets get both Dwight Howard AND Chris Paul this summer when the Lakers are only being compensated by Asik and Lin? 2) The Lakers plan to have a vast amount of cap space in 2014 – and possibly 2015 – and they’ll use that space to sign the top free agent(s) that summer. Lin is owed nearly $20 million over the next two seasons, while Asik is due to earn the same amount. They were considered bad contracts last year when they signed them, and they’re still pretty horrible today.

In this situation, it would be best for the Lakers to just let Howard walk.

However, if the Los Angeles Clippers offered the rumored package of Blake Griffin and Eric Bledsoe for Dwight Howard – and D12 of course made it clear that he wanted to be a Clipper – then it would make sense for the Lakers to take part in a sign-and-trade.

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Kobe’s 2000 All-Star Ring:

This ring comes from Kobe Bryant’s second all-star game. He scored 15 points after going 7-16. The Western All-Stars were coached by Phil Jackson after the Lakers started the regular season with a dominating 37-11 record. Kobe would go on to win his first ring that year, which marked the beginning of an absolutely dominating decade.

NEXT PAGE: Home and away high school jerseys

It’s three years to the day since the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals. It’s a game that is too good to put into words, so your best bet is to check out the mini-movie of the game below and relive all those great memories.

If you’d rather watch the entire epic Game 7 in full, click here.

The Los Angeles Lakers have a new addition to their coaching staff.

According to Mark Medina, Mike D’Antoni is beginning to fill out his empty bench by hiring Larry Lewis as a player development coach:

Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni has made the first step in filling out his coaching staff.

He has recently hired Larry Lewis as a player development coach after spending the past two seasons on the D-Fenders coaching staff, the Lakers’ Development League affiliate. The hiring was later confirmed by Lakers spokesman John Black.

Lewis spent two years with the D-Fenders both as a player development coach (2011-12 season) and assistant coach (2012-13 season). Before that, Lewis played mostly overseas in Argentina (2011), Spain (2001-2011), Japan (1996-2001), Cyprus (1996), Great Britain (1993) and the Dominican Republic (1992). Lewis also won a silver medal with Team USA in the 1995 Pan American Games. And he had stints in the Continental Basketball Association with the Harrisburg Hammerheads and Rapid City Thrillers (1994-95), and for Team USA (1995) in the Pan American Games where he won a silver medal. A three-year collegiate basketball player and alumnus of Morehouse College, Lewis turned pro when he was selected by the Albany Patroons of the CBA in 1992.

Lewis, a Los Angeles native, played basketball at Morehouse College before playing for the Albany Platoons of the CBA in 1992. He then had stops in Harrisburg (1994) and Rapid City (1995) before playing one season with Sarasota in the United States Basketball League (1996).

Lewis will take on Phil Handy‘s role, who recently left the team to join Mike Brown’s staff in Cleveland as an assistant coach.

The move may set the ball rolling for the Lakers, who need to hire almost an entirely new coaching staff. With every other assistant coach leaving the team recently, only Dan D’Antoni – Mike’s brother – was left on the team.

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With Kobe Bryant reportedly wanting “two more cracks” to win “at least” seven NBA championships, he’ll need to work out a new contract with the Los Angeles Lakers at some point seeing as his current deal expires after next season.

According to ESPN, if Bryant hadn’t injured his Achilles back in April, the Lakers might’ve already agreed to a contract extension with the Black Mamba:

Bryant has always publicly maintained that he will play only while he’s able to perform at an elite level. Next season is his final one under contract with the Lakers. A source with knowledge of the Lakers’ thinking told ESPNLosAngeles.com that the team was planning to open extension talks with Bryant as soon as it was allowed to under NBA rules, which ironically came right after he ruptured his Achilles in a game against Golden State on April 12.

Both sides would love to see Bryant retire as a Laker, sources said. But the Achilles injury complicated the issue, especially the timing of talks about an extension.

It would be difficult for the Lakers to bring Bryant back at his current salary of $30 million a year with the salary-cap restrictions in the new collective bargaining agreement. But the team is determined to treat Bryant well and with the respect befitting his contributions to the franchise during his career, the source said.

While the Lakers could’ve engaged in contract extension talks with Kobe back in April, it’s possible that they wouldn’t have entertained an extension seeing as the salary owed to Bryant would still be a large amount. For the Lakers to have a considerable amount of cap space in 2014, they’d need Bryant to take a significant pay cut which would likely require him to sign a new deal instead of extending a current one.

As the report states, the Lakers want to “treat Bryant well and with the respect” so they likely will treat the talks with care and try not to offend Kobe.

The truth is, if Kobe wants to win another ring or two, the Lakers will likely need to bring in more talent in 2014 – and possibly 2015 – which would probably require Bryant to earn less than the $30 million he’ll make next season.

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Could the Los Angeles Lakers make a splash this summer and sign Monta Ellis?

According to Chris Broussard, the Lakers are one of the teams interested in Ellis, who is due to inform the Milwaukee Bucks that he’ll be opting out of his $11 million contract:

Monta Ellis has informed the Milwaukee Bucks that he will opt out of the last year of his deal, according to league sources.

Ellis, who had one year, $11 million left on his contract, will become one of the most coveted free agents on the market this summer.

Sources say the Atlanta Hawks, Dallas Mavericksand the Los Angeles Lakers have interest in Ellis, although the Lakers could get Ellis only via an unlikely sign-and-trade deal.

Ellis, who originally signed a six-year, $66 million deal with the Golden State Warriors, is close with Lakers free agent Dwight Howard. The two have long desired to play together.

The issue here for the Lakers is being able to pay Ellis the amount of money he deserves. Just as with Chris Paul, the Lakers wouldn’t be able to pull off a sign-and-trade without amnestying Kobe Bryant, and that’s not going to happen.

As with Paul, Ellis could always sign for the mini-MLE for one season, which will be worth around $3.2 million this summer, and then re-sign for more in the 2014 off-season. But also as with Paul, Ellis would never take such a pay cut even if it’s only for one year.

If Ellis and the Lakers had real interest in teaming up, the best thing for Ellis to do would be to not opt-out of the final year of his contract. That way, the Lakers would be able to pull off a trade with the Bucks – if both sides were interested, of course – and Ellis would still get his $11 million.

If Dwight Howard does indeed want to play with Ellis, it’ll be interesting to see if he asks Lakers management to pursue the scorer this off-season.

MWP got his shot against the two-year-old shooting phenomenon recently when he appeared on Jimmel Kimmel Live. The footage of Kobe facing Titus, accompanied by his father, aired last week, yet Bryant couldn’t beat the kid and the contest ended with a tied score.

Unfortunately for MWP, he couldn’t do any better and ended up falling short in his attempt to beat Titus. However, the whooping that Metta took at the hands of the toddler was pretty funny.

Check out the video below:

When Kobe Bryant ruptured his Achilles back in April, some people were questioning whether this would be the last time we’d see the Black Mamba. Some said he was too old to come back from such a devastating injury, while others felt that the Lakers may amnesty Bryant this summer and save themselves millions of dollars in luxury tax.

Bryant, as always, was – and is – thinking very differently.

While Kobe’s current contract expires in 2014, Bryant is said to be intent on having “two more cracks” at winning an NBA title, according to an ESPN report:

Bryant wants to be “back next season with a vengeance,” the source said. And he wants “two more cracks at it to win seven NBA titles at least.”

In other words, it’s highly unlikely next season will be his last. Bryant and Derek Fisher lead all active players with five NBA titles, although the Spurs’ Tim Duncan could tie them if San Antonio beats the Miami Heat in this year’s Finals.

Next season is the final year of Bryant’s contract, so he obviously has plans to play beyond 2014 if he wants to have two more tries at another ring.

The summer of 2014 is when the Lakers plan to be major players in the free agent market, which could be headlined by big names such as LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony.

Bryant will make $30 million next season, so he’d probably have to take less money in 2014 and beyond in order for the Lakers to fill the roster with top talent. If it meant that Bryant would have a chance to win another ring or two, it seems plausible that he may take a pay cut of some kind.

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While the Los Angeles Lakers remain confident that they can re-sign Dwight Howard this summer – and yes, bringing back Dwight is still their number one priority – they may entertain sign-and-trade offers for D12 this July, according to ESPN.

In a report on Sunday, Marc Stein and Ramona Shelburne expanded a little on the Lakers’ thought process this summer – re-signing Dwight is at the top of their “To Do” list, yet they’re apparently not totally ruling out sign-and-trade scenarios for the All-Star center:

Yet the Lakers also, according to sources, have not completely ruled out the idea of a sign-and-trade if they come to find next month that Howard is determined to leave. Sources say they are indeed leaning against sign-and-trade scenarios because they’d rather bank the resultant cap space from Howard’s departure for the summer of 2014. But sources say they’ve adopted a keep-all-options-open approach. So they’ll at least listen to just about anything.

As we discussed yesterday, if Dwight walks into Mitch Kupchak‘s office and basically lets him know that he wants to leave and join another team, the smart move for the Lakers would be to try and engineer a sign-and-trade of some kind. However, if a potential trade would hurt their cap space in 2014 (when LeBron James could be a free agent) then it makes no sense for L.A. to make such a move.

It’s hard to imagine that the Lakers would turn down Blake Griffin and Eric Bledsoe package for Howard, though. Would they be able to sign a player of Griffin’s caliber in 2014 if LeBron or Carmelo Anthony don’t end up joining the purple and gold? Would they get a good enough pick in 2014 to select a young player as talented as Bledsoe if they end up missing the playoffs? The answer is probably no to both of those questions.

It’s all going to come down to the circumstances of the situation. Sure, L.A. want to bring Howard back and make him their future franchise player, but if he makes it clear that he wants to move elsewhere, the Lakers need to be open to sign-and-trade possibilities, and it reportedly seems that they are.