Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images Los Angeles Lakers Dwight Howard
What a difference a year could make for Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard. This time last season, Howard was injured in Washington and dealing with a piriformis injury, which is a muscle in your buttock, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Sources on @TheAthleticNBA @WatchStadium: Washington Wizards center Dwight Howard visited a specialist in New York and has piriformis injury, which is a muscle in the buttocks. The injury isn’t serious and Howard will continue treatment.
Per Charania, the injury wasn’t series at the time, and Howard would continue treatment. However, according to the Washington Post, it was an injury that could keep Howard out of the Wizard rotation for two to three months because of the rehab process.
Last June, the Wizards would decide to flip Howard to Memphis Grizzles in exchange for C.J. Miles. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Grizzlies intended to waive or trade the eight-time All-Star, saving them $3.1 million.
The Grizzlies are trading CJ Miles to Washington for Dwight Howard, league source tells ESPN. Deal saves Memphis $3.1M. Grizzles will waive or trade Howard, per source.
The Grizzlies would later make the decision to waive Howard. During his time in Washington, he only played in nine games, ad averaged 12.8 points and 9.2 rebounds while shooting 62.3 percent from the field.
After DeMarcus Cousins went down with an ACL injury and the Lakers needed someone to replace Cousins on the active roster. The Lakers were cautious about bringing Howard back due to the way both sides departed in 2013. According to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne via Heavy’s
“The reason that Dwight is a Laker is because Anthony Davis doesn’t want to play the five. He doesn’t want to play against the big centers in the Western Conference.
He needs a big dude next to him that can eat up some of those minutes and take some of that physical pounding from Nikola Jokic or (Jusuf) Nurkic or any of the centers you want to name out West … Anthony Davis doesn’t want to be that guy, and so he had a big say in whether or not Dwight was going to be cast in this role for them.”
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Dwight Howard Receives Praise From Lakers’ fan Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg recently appeared on the All the Smoke Podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. The trio discussed a variety of topics including the rivalry between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers. Snoop revealed that he like players on the Clippers despite it being a rivalry and he also praised Dwight Howard on the season he is having with the Lakers this year.
“I gotta give him a shoutout. The new Dwight Howard, he’s a comeback player of the year [Most improved]…The way he looked last year to now, he looks good…He looks amazing right now. His spirit, his look, his rebounding, his defense…I watch the Lakers. That’s my squad.”
Howard is averaging 7.5 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 0.7 assists per game through 62 games for the Lakers this season off the bench.