During the NBA off-season last summer, the Los Angeles Lakers were determined to acquire superstar center Dwight Howard in a blockbuster trade. Howard let it be known that he wasn’t all that fond of being traded to the Lakers in a potential blockbuster, but wasn’t going to be dealt by the Orlando Magic one way or another.

As a result of the Magic being intent on trading Howard and the Lakers wanting to acquire him, Orlando pulled the trigger on the deal, but needed two other teams to get involved in order to make it happen.

The two other teams ended up being the Denver Nuggets and Philadelphia 76ers. The Nuggets dealt Arron Afflalo and Al Harrington to the Magic in order to acquire Andre Igoudala. The 76ers sent Igoudala to Denver receiving All-Star center Andrew Bynum in return.

The deal was thought to work in favor of all four teams involved. The Magic began an extensive rebuilding process with talented youngsters while the Lakers landed their main target in Howard, 76ers brought in a potential superstar in Bynum and the Nuggets found a perimeter defender with Igoudala.

Everyone appeared to be happy and seemingly found missing pieces to the potential championship puzzle moving forward. Although most of the teams were happy about what they received in the deal, the 76ers aren’t as thrilled with Bynum failing to play a single game during the 2012-13 NBA season.

76ers legend Julius Erving, also known as Dr. J, wasn’t happy about the deal in retrospect saying the Lakers traded Bynum knowing they were giving away damaged goods in exchange for arguably the best center in the league.

Although it seems as though Dr. J is right on the money with his comments, the verdict on Bynum isn’t out just yet with no telling whether or not it was truly a bad deal for the long-term. Bynum will become an unrestricted free agent in July.

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