The Philadelphia 76ers are in the minds of the Los Angeles Lakers as the Lakers most recent free agent signing has made that clear.
Like the Philadelphia 76ers, the Los Angeles Lakers have championship aspirations this upcoming season. Despite the Lakers losing key big man DeMarcus Cousins to an ACL tear, Los Angeles has already found a replacement in former All-Star Dwight Howard. During this process of bringing the former Laker back to L.A., it was revealed that the Sixers, more specifically Joel Embiid, was on the mind of the Western Conference team, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.
“Can we trust you to guard the likes of Joel Embiid? Can we trust you to embrace your role?”
— Stadium (@Stadium) August 24, 2019
Our NBA insider @ShamsCharania reveals the Lakers' decision-making process that resulted in a surprising reunion with Dwight Howard. pic.twitter.com/7NjJE0hZ1p
This inquirer doesn’t come as much as a surprise, the Lakers pursued Howard because as Charania articulated in the Twitter video above, Anthony Davis doesn’t like to play the center spot. Getting a bigger body to do the dirty work to preserve Davis for the postseason makes sense. I’ve even written about resting Embiid for at least 10 games this upcoming season. However, the fact still remains that Embiid and the Sixers are a concern for the Lakers, as they should be.
I’ve written about how awesome it would be for fans if L.A.L. and Philly were to meet up in the 2020 NBA Finals. It appears that the Lakers are considering that the 76ers could be their finals opponent, assuming they make it out of the Western Conference playoff bracket.
If the Lakers thought that Howard would slow down Embiid, then they are surely mistaken. When Howard signed with the Washington Wizards last offseason, I wrote on how Howard wouldn’t be able to stop Embiid and like in that article, below are stats that prove that point.
| Player | G | W | L | GS | MP | FG% | 3P% | FT% | ORB | DRB | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PF | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joel Embiid | 4 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 26.7 | .508 | .429 | .632 | 1.8 | 8.8 | 10.5 | 2.8 | 0.3 | 2.3 | 4.8 | 3.8 | 20.0 |
| Dwight Howard | 4 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 25.5 | .514 | 1.000 | .529 | 1.0 | 4.8 | 5.8 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 4.0 | 12.0 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 8/24/2019.
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The biggest take away is that Embiid has a winning record when he plays against Howard. Sure Embiid’s scoring averages are down from his career numbers and turnovers are slightly higher, however he still wins the matchups. If Howard was in his prime, this might be a completely different conversation, but he’s not and has shown not to be capable of playing winning defense against Embiid.
If the Lakers were interested in finding a player to cause Embiid issue in a playoff series, then they should have pursued Al Horford in free agency or traded for Marc Gasol. Both have a history of giving Embiid problems, yet given the available talent, Howard was the best option.
The move to acquire Howard shows that the Lakers see the Philadelphia 76ers as a legit threat to a NBA Championship. However, adding the former All-Star won’t help the Lakers in stopping Embiid.