Los Angeles Lakers: Three reasons why Dwight Howard will be great

2. Dwight Howard is actually playing on a title-contender

It might seem trivial, but there absolutely is a negative impact that comes with not playing on a title-contending team. There are guys that can put together great years playing in meaningless games, such as Kemba Walker, but it can be hard, especially for an older player, to really summon the best of himself when the games don’t even matter.

Heck, even in Walker’s case, he was playing in a contract year before the biggest payday of his life. Of course, he is going to ball out and try and get a massive contract from an actual contender, which is what he did with the Boston Celtics.

It might seem like a knock on Howard if he was not giving 100 percent in the past few years but the reality is that this is absolutely something that happens in sports. Does he still want to be successful? Absolutely. But it can be hard getting that extra 10 percent out of yourself in a February basketball game when your team has 25 wins.

Howard’s last three seasons have all been on mediocre teams and even when he was on the Houston Rockets it was before James Harden hit his prime and the fit was disastrous.

Now, for the first time since he was on the Orlando Magic and they made the NBA Finals, Howard is playing on one of the top-four title-contending teams that actually compliment his play style.

If that doesn’t get a little extra motivation out of Howard then nothing will.