One thing that has been made clear in the aftermath of the Lakers adding Dwight Howard and DeAndre Jordan this summer is that the team wanted to get back to the longer, more athletic and lob-happy identity they had at the 5 position when they won the 2020 championship than they did during the 2020-21 season, when they started the year with Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell as their two centers.
But the signs that the Lakers were missing that element actually started even earlier, when the team brought in Damian Jones on a pair of 10-day contracts, and later signed Andre Drummond and attempted to get him to play that role at midseason.