First Take wrote:I've made it clear on this thread before and I'll make it clear even more with more in depth analysis. As for the center position for the Los Angles Lakers, I am taking the 3x defensive player of the year in Dwight Howard. Dwight Howard for his entire career has been durable in comparison to Noah. Noah is a better passer however play making is not what the Lakers are in need of. The Lakers need someone who can bang with the other 7 footers. Dwight has been banging downlow for his entire career. In addition to this Dwight is built for the center position and look at his shoulders he can carry that position just like he carried the Orlando Magic to the final (Hot Take Alert). Noah can pass the ball well but between the 2/3 guys slated at the point guard, then with LeBron and AD we don't need another play maker/passer. We need someone who can get in the game, alter shots, block shots, rebound, hold down the paint and run up and down the court like the gazelle. That someone is the former #1 pick straight from high school, Dwight Howard.
I think the passing/playmaking aspect is very important, especially the veteran playmaking aspect.
The current bench squad has Caruso and then the second-best playmaker is Kuzma. They are the 2 most inexperienced players on the team (that get important minutes).
Furthermore, this stat looks to be one of the best at evaluating defense and offense: https://www.bball-index.com/18-pipm/
From this list the Lakers lineup is:
Name-- | Off | Def | Total
LeBron- | 3.5 | 1.2 | 4.7
Davis--- | 3.4 | 2.4 | 5.7
Green-- | 2.4 | 1.6 | 3.9
Cousins | -1.3 | 1.9 | 0.6
Kuzma- | 0.8 | -0.4 | 0.4
McGee- | -0.8 | 0.8 | 0
Caruso- | -0.6 | 0.5 | -0.1
Dudley- | -1.0 | 0.5 | -0.6
KCP----- | 0.1 | -2.0 | -1.9
Daniels | -0.8 | -1.3 | -2.1
Rondo-- | -1.2 | -1.2 | -2.4
Bradley | -2.0 | -1.2 | -3.2
Cook--- | -2.8 | -3.0 | -5.8
Noah--- | -0.5 | 1.5 | 1.1
Dwight- | -1.1 | 0.5 | -0.7
Gortat- | -2.3 | 0.4 | -1.9
Zubac-- | -1.0 | 2.1 | 1.1
You can see that Noah had similar value to Zubac last season, he's also the best available C by far (based on this metric).
Noah coming into the team would be the 4th/5th best player (depends on Kuzma's leap) and his impact stats were better than Boogie's.