That was a tremendous post. Being a super fat white dude with no athletic knowledge, I can't say I'm versed enough to read it critically, but you make very good points to a lamen in the field such as myself.
Dwight's steep decline this season has been so depressing, he started off the season so well, after he missed time with the knee injury it seems like he's not even the same guy out there, idk who I'm watching, sigh.
http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/...eles-lakers-says-left-leg-felt-dead-last-year The reason why he's mentally pushing on his right knee and why his game is so dependable on current injury
That is good and all, but why have his minutes not been limited, why hasn't he asked to be subbed out more, why does nobody talk about it? As long as they act like everything's alright, why can I then not expect nothing but 100% effort and production from Dwight?
I know you didn't. But how many have there been recently? I can't even count. everytime I log in recently it seems like there is a new one. "We should trade Dwight for....." "What's wrong with Dwight?" "We need to dump Dwight" "Why is Dwight getting more post touches than D-Mo?" etc. Your original post was well thought out and I bet it took some time looking all of that up. It's just that I have become frustrated reading the same thing from different posters on here who seem to be using Dwight as the main scapegoat for our problems over and over again. I know he has been below our expectations, but he isn't the only problem on this team right now
If Dwight is hobbled, then he should focus on the areas he can help the team in like defense and rebounds. For the love of God, Dwight, don't keep posting up only to turn the ball over.
Dwight needs to sit out a couple of weeks. It could do him and by extension the team a whole lot of good.
Because sports teams usually don't like to publicize chronic injuries, things like that are on a need to know basis. I'm fine if Dwight rests or "coasts" some during the regular season Spurs-style, if he brings it in the playoffs like he did last year during the Portland series.
RV6 obviously works in risk assessment for a health insurance or specialty insurance company or something.
Very thoughtful post, and it definitely makes me feel sad for him. Having not watched him intently until he started playing for us, I'd be interested in more experience opinions on the matter of how this all came to be. Is he just unlucky? Has he had some sort of bad physical play habits that might have led to him wearing himself out prematurely? Did he just rely on his Superman physical gifts too much over the years to be successful instead of developing a more efficient game? I mean, he's a big guy, and big guys obviously have a ton of stress on their bodies playing this game, but he's not as big as many centers, and he always looks like he's in excellent shape and not carrying any extra weight. And there are a lot of big men that do have longevity, so I just wonder what's going on here.
Thanks for that link..I don't remember ever reading this. Definitely would put a lot of his weight on his right leg and create that imbalance McHale mentioned. They might be gambling...considering the race in the west, they can't afford to go on losing streaks, even short ones..They could easily wake up to the 8 seed in a matter of days. They may have agreed to trust Dwight will pace himself and take it easy, as well as continuing treatment in the side.
Hard to say what led to the back surgery..could have been one bad accident or poor movement over a long time. My guess is, if he can't recall one specific time where he screwed up his back, then it's probably bad movement over time. The cause of that also varies....maybe he neglected hips/legs in the gym, they weakened and his body compensated...maybe sitting too much (seems to have some forward head posture)...or maybe the nerve issue came first, snowballed.
This is an awesome post! My only worry at this point is whether it is correctable and if not, we may need to move on ASAP. DD
You know what I really find interesting? In the 6 years prior to that back injury, Dwight posted an essentially constant 59% free throw percentage while missing only 8 career games. He had never shot below .586 in a season before. He gets hurt and starts dealing with nagging injuries, and suddenly his free throw percentage plummets to 49% and has not crossed the 55% mark again since. There is very little reason for a player's physical health to affect their free throw shooting. This is not a "Dwight is mentally weak" post. I think it could very easily be pure coincidence and even if it wasn't, sports psychology is way more subtle than "weak-minded or strong-minded". This is a casual question to everyone here...do you think Dwight's injuries chronicled in this OP got him to a place mentally where maintaining his free throw consistency became more difficult?
There actually could be. We're not just talking about health in terms of pain, but also ability to move and move well/correctly. Howard could have gone from being in a more relaxed and stable posture at the free throw line to being stiff and unbalanced. I know he doesn't look like the latter, when he's up there, but that's why they say the body compensates. It'll shift around to find a way to "fake" that stability. Of course, the problem here is that he makes them in practice, which points back to it likely being mental. Would you like to expand on that? The majority of my posts are simply what was reported and what we're all seeing out there. I did wonder if he could miss extended time or the playoffs, but also if he'd get better. It's all possible. I don't have reason to believe he's definitely done. But hey, if people would rather believe he's just not trying and is just a Mario Elie pep talk away from turning it on....
Seems to me that his freethrow posture is explained by his unusually wide shoulders. Dwight has pretty broad shoulders and a tiny head, when you grip a ball to shoot, obviously he is going to be pulling his shoulders in, as the ball isn't as wide as his shoulders. Unless I misunderstanding what that picture is showing.
Also, people who talk about Dwight's free throw shooting being a mental issue.... I think it's very difficult for players who play down low to go to the line and shoot jumpers. That's not what they're used to and they don't shoot ANY jumpers in a game, so when they go to the line, they have no rhythm. Even if you're shooting 10 FT a game, you don't get the same rhythm you would if you were shooting jumpers in a game. Couple that with the fact that you are banging around and having to go up strong every time, it's just not a normal feeling for Dwight. I noticed this a lot in Yao. When Yao would go strong and dunk, he would miss the free throw more often it seemed. I think this is because it throws off your rhythm going in strong at the rim and I think this definitely affects Dwight's shot.
