Dwight doesn't need more post moves...All he needs to do to be dominant is

At a recent data science conference, I met the guy that founded www.94fifty.com. They develop these basketballs which have a built-in tracker that tracks your form and everything. He claims that they are responsible for having improved Mike Conley's free-throw shooting from .733 to .861 in one season.

I asked him if he thinks he could fix Dwight Howard's free-throw shooting.

He said yes, without any doubt, if given the chance.

I asked him if he knows Daryl Morey. He said yes.

Shouldn't this be right down Daryl's alley? Analytics, data, etc.? I wonder if they have been working with something like this?

 

link:: @dmorey. I myself am not a fan of newage stuff but crazier things have worked.

What about dwight's footwork? It shld be much more impressive in the games he's had 30+ points than the usual ones with less FGA. His numbers are identical to last year with the Lakers despite all that was going on, there is plenty of potential for him to be a more consistent offensive threat.

 

nah, he actually needs post moves. FT% is obvious though.

 

His FT% in December was excellent but it fell of a cliff entering this year. 57% down to 52%.

 

Needs a back up center to shoulder some of the load, & his perimeter guys to make their shots to keep defences honest.

It would also help if we could feed the post properly, or make accurate lob passes.

 

I don't see Dwight battling for low post position the way Hakeem used to battle for position. I realize it's the responsibility of Dwight's teammates to pass him the ball. But many times Dwight hasn't worked himself into position to receive the pass.

 

Even if Morey wanted to hire this guy to change Howard's FT shooting technique, it doesn't mean that Howard will be receptive to the change. I think the franchise has been a little weary of forcing Dwight into making fundamental changes to his shot for whatever reason.

I think over time thats just the type of thing that has to come from someone in a trusted relationship... like the coach, or a mentor like Hakeem.

You have one of the greatest free throw shooting coaches of all time in Calvin Murphy just a few feet away from the basketball court and he hasn't even been asked to work with Dwight yet... and there is probably a reason for that.

IMO, Dwight most likely thinks that because he makes all of his free throws in practice that its just mental.... which might be true. But if you have a form and a technique for shooting free throws that can be thrown off by mental focus than maybe you do need to adjust the technique to be something that takes much less mental focus to accomplish. Find ways to simply his stance and release to the point where he doesn't have to focus as hard to be accurate with his shot, and just lob it up there with muscle memory.

I dunno, but I do think over time with the relationships building in the organization with Dwight, they will find a way to address this with Dwight and make a change whether it be drastic or subtle. Its too big of a weakness to be ignored long term by the organization.

 

I agree however, our post entry passes are terrible. Most of our wing players do not try to make a good pass. Often they do not get to the right position in order to give a good post entry pass (and throw it from bad angles) or they throw the pass very bored, as a result Dwight often had to take a step away from the basket and loose precious space. Almost all our players do this. it seems like they get bored with a play when they have to pass it in the post.

 

That'd be great and all but this problem is blown out of proportion. At the end of the day Dwight Howard makes 2 more free throws per game than Mike Conley. Dwight wins.

 

57% is excellent?

 

Howard needs to accept that he is a BEAST in the pick and roll, playing with two of the best PnR guards in the league. Adding post moves should only be done to complement this main arsenal, which I hope will be on full display during the playoffs.

And yeah, making a few more free throws couldn't hurt either.

 

I agree, but it depends on how the refs are calling the game. Sometimes battling for position results in an offensive foul. Who needs to play post defense when you can just get tangled with Dwight and get the foul called on him when he overpowers you?

 

Teams don't double team Howard? Really?

 

If Dwight hit 75% of his freethrows, he would be illegal lol

 

Worse thing about Howard I have been seeing is when he gets the ball he goes into iso mode without even thinking about kicking out. He should use more energy on D and take the lobs and easy dunks at this point at least till Akeem comes back with a reminder.

 

I agree completely. I just don't understand him not wanting to do more PnR. Every game that he runs it well, he scores easily and over 20 points. It then opens up his game to get some easy post touches because the defense is not then set/focused on stopping his post up.

I think someone needs to show him the game film results from when he runs PnR and hopefully they can start the games by setting the tone using PnR. Then after they have established this, then he can get his post ups throughout the game.

Dwight should run PnR 70% of the time or more, and post up 30% or less. I think he would easily average 20+ points a game doing this, and have more energy to even increase his rebounds. Does anyone notice how much he smiles more after making a dunk on the PnR? Does he even notice this himself?

 

Is it just me or does Dwight PnR not work as well as I thought it would? I feel like he doesn't really roll hard to the basket, he just kinds of jog towards the rim.

 

Nope. You're assuming Dwight's post moves are as good as say...Yao's. Dwight shoots more free throws than average because of his low % resulting in hack-a-Dwight. Obviously. Also, hack-a-Dwight is either employed full on (after inbounding the ball) or when Dwight gets deep, dunk-right-away positioning. When playing good centers, Dwight is almost never hacked when he has to back in. Looking at Dwight's stats, he averages about 9-10 attempts per game over his career. Yao averaged only 6-7 (plus he shot the technical foul ones, so even a little less than 6). Say he had Yao's FT% (83% (sigh...oh Yao)). Hack-a-Dwight ends, but Dwight's post skills remain the same. I would even say he would average LESS points than if he was allowed to shoot a bunch of FT with hack-a-Dwight because he would have to solely depend on his current post skills.

So, what's the solution? Face it, Dwight's FT% isn't changing anytime soon. Almost nobody who has had hack-a-something performed on them improved their FT shooting that much. So the only solution is: play better in the post. This won't solve late half/game situations, but it will turn him into Shaq/Yao-light.

Sidenote: When is the last time everybody has been impressed with Dwight's scoring? Boston game? 32 points right? But, wasn't that mostly from a whole lot of alley-oops and playing against that one dude (uhhh...Fiberoni?)

 

For his standards, yes. 57% in December compared to 44% in January is a big drop off.