Blog: Bynum, Not Howard, Is The Lakers Best Bet At Center
Rahshaun Haylock (CBS) -- He's back. And more importantly, effective. In the two games since his return from a 4-game suspension, Andrew Bynum has averaged 23.5 points, and 14.5 rebounds, while shooting 66.7% from the field.
He gave the Clippers 26 and 11 –albeit in a preseason game. He's on a roll. Trade him. Right?
Proper business is striking while the iron is hot. Bynum's stock may not ever be any higher than it is right now. If the move is going to be made to put Dwight Howard in a Lakers uniform, now is the time for Bynum to go.
We all knew Bynum could roll out of the bed and grab a double-double, but he's never had the chance to prove he could be a dominant scorer. The Lakers feel he can be --with more touches --which played a pivotal role in the organization being able to get rid of Lamar Odom so easily.
There's no secret the affinity Jim Buss has for Bynum. With Buss' golden boy now having a larger role in the offense he's showing what he can do. At best, he was the 4th option on the Phil Jackson-led Lakers. The Zen Master heavily emphasized defense and rebounding with him.
Not that he couldn't shoot or wasn't allowed to take shots before, but clearly he's featured more with Brown in control.
Which brings us to the elephant in the room –his health.
It's been well documented, Bynum hasn't played an entire season since 2006. Since then, he's missed 206 regular season games, including his most recent four-game suspension to start this season. In that same span, Howard has missed four games.
There's no getting around the fact that he's missed a ton of games in the past, but let's take a look at his impact in the past.
It was Bynum that helped the Lakers turn the corner from the team that couldn't get past Phoenix in the first round, to the team that went to three straight NBA finals --it wasn't for anything he did offensively. It was his defense that helped the Lakers turn the corner. He gave them a presence in the middle that even if guards were getting blown by, Bynum was there to protect the rim.
That's why the Pau Gasol trade was so huge. The Lakers were already and 25-11 when Bynum went down and a half a game out of the top spot in the Western Conference. The loss of Bynum was a huge blow and it was crucial that the team picked up some type of skilled big man to fill the void, so to speak.
Something else that is often overlooked is Bynum in the 2010 NBA Finals. The big fella gutted it out during that playoff run to the point that in game 7, he was playing on just one leg.
While his numbers won't wow you, a huge factor in the decisive game was Kendrick Perkins was unfortunately unable to play for the Celtics. Andrew Bynum did. The argument can surely be made that Bynum was the reason (along with the shooting heroics of the then-Ron Artest) that the Lakers were able to get through that 7th and decisive game.
I'll take a healthy Bynum over Howard.
Howard is all-world defensively and Bynum will never be the defensive power that Howard is. But, as mentioned earlier, his presence alone is enough to alter and block shots, as well as protect the rim, making him an above average defender.
He won't wow you with the leaping ability like Howard or the Clippers' DeAndre Jordan, while swatting shots into the third and fourth row but he's agile enough to give help as a weakside defender.
Offensively, it seems like we've been waiting forever for Howard to turn the corner and develop a legit post game. And while he can jump out of the gym, he hasn't become that dominant post presence offensively, where you could just dump it down to him and he'll consistently be able to get you 20-25 points a night.
With Kareem Abdul-Jabbar no longer on the Lakers staff, what leads me to believe he'll turn the corner once putting on a Lakers uniform?
