NBA Rumors: Why Lakers Made Right Choice Keeping Andrew Bynum over Dwight Howard

The Los Angeles Lakers nearly traded Andrew Bynum to the Orlando Magic in a package for Dwight Howard just before the March 15 NBA trade deadline.

According to Fred Kerber of the New York Post, Howard was on the "verge" of being traded to Los Angeles and it would have gone down "if the Magic hierarchy had gone through with its threat of playing hardball with the indecisive superstar center."

According to league sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Orlando brass got fed up with Howard’s yes-no-maybe posturing and threatened to trade him to the Lakers, not his desired location, if he did not sign an agreement to waive the opt-out clause for the final season of his contract. Howard eventually signed the papers, but only after he was told “he would be a Laker by the end of the day,” according to one source.

Fortunately for the Lakers and fans of the team, that disaster scenario never played out and the potential crisis was averted.

Before the season began, most Lakers fans would have jumped at the opportunity to trade Bynum for Howard, but that sentiment simply doesn't ring true any longer.

Howard, averaging 20.6 points, 14.4 rebounds and 2.2 blocks on 57.9 percent shooting, isn't performing leaps and bounds ahead of Bynum, who is averaging 18.3 points, 11.9 rebounds and 2.0 blocks on a solid 58.3 percent shooting.



Despite the perceived headaches that Bynum has caused this season, it's been nothing compared to the saga that has surrounded Howard for the entire year.

If Kerber's story holds true, Howard agreed to waive his early termination option upon learning that he would have been traded to the Lakers—clearly, that is not a team Howard wanted to go to despite Los Angeles being on his "list."

Furthermore, Howard's desire to be "the man" in Los Angeles wouldn't have worked alongside Kobe Bryant and under Mike Brown in Los Angeles...

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