Lakers Better Championship Chance for Juwan Howard?

Ryan and Matt discuss which place is a better championship chance for Juwan Howard: Michigan or the Lakers

Ryan Griffin: I don’t know that he has that same level of attachment to Michigan that Jim Harbaugh has, I know they both played there, but if you’re going to tell me Harbaugh was Michigan for 20 years, I’d say, okay, it doesn’t seem like that’s really going to be the case, with Jim Harbaugh. And I know the Lakers basketball-wise are a mess right now, but like it’s still the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers man.

That only comes around once every so often, a little bit more often now than it used to. But I think that’s an offer that Juwan is really going to have to take seriously, considering that you would obviously have LeBron James, you would have Anthony Davis who was broke, might get moved in.

Not that those two guys, Davis specifically, are always healthy but it’s still the coach of the Lakers. You’re still coaching LeBron James. And you still get to come out to Hollywood, to LA. And if you’re the guy that can turn the Lakers around you’re going to be king of the world.

Matt Bassin: I don’t know. Like normally I would jump at that chance. But the Lakers don’t have their own first-round pick until 2025, at the earliest. That’s without any moves, they’re going to have to make this upcoming off-season to try and make a team that’s in contention. All right. It is not a healthy culture right now. You saw the way, all the stuff went down with Frank Vogel, they made this man a scapegoat for LeBron’s team.

For LeBron team decisions then made Frank Vogel the absolute scapegoat, and now you got all the stuff with it. And him sitting there just dumping all over his now-former head coach as well, throwing that man well under the bus. You got old heads, they’re old names, big names, but they’re old now. And no chemistry, no health, and a complete disappointment.

For most of the years that LeBron has been in LA, they have a bubble championship and you are hard-pressed to find real basketball fans that consider that a real championship, for the way it went down. If that was a regular season, they don’t think the Lakers are winning that championship. 

So if you’re Juwan, where things are pretty good at Michigan. Three years, 61 and 32 NCAA tournaments, a decent tournament run this past year on a team that disappointed through the regular season, but you’re back home. You are at your university, your Alma mater. Like I get it’s the Lakers, but these ain’t the Lakers. This is not the way the Lakers do things.

For my entire life being a Laker fan, this is not the way my team did things. All of a sudden the Lakers looking like the Cavs, looking like the heat, looking like every other LeBron destination, where it just looks like a mess above LeBron. 

Ryan Griffin: See, I get all that but it’s still the Lakers. If Juwan’s goal is to win a championship, whether it’s college or pro, he’s going to have a better chance to win one with the Lakers in LA than at Michigan.

Just my opinion, of course. But I think it’s something that we’ve seen played out. Michigan’s had great coaches, they had John Beilein and he wasn’t able to get it done. Then the Lakers were able to get it done when you don’t really have such a great coach. 

LA is still a draw, so I know they don’t have their first-round pick, but say you can flip Anthony Davis or Anthony Davis comes off the book. I don’t really think that the Lakers are going to be really bearing talent for so many years, like they were in those final Kobe years and then, between Koby and the LeBron years.

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