There was another 29yo center that we almost traded once upon a time... http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1992-09-05/sports/9201190877_1_salary-cap-rony-seikaly-rockets Apparently Olajuwon sat for prolonged periods through a nagging hamstring injury. If other people thought he could have played through it, does that mean he was coasting, or even dogging it? And his stats the previous year were 21.6 / 12.1. Not a crazy gap between Dwight's numbers for his career or the current year. Like Bill Simmons says, in the NBA you don't trade a dollar for four quarters. Please perish the thought of trading away Dwight Howard. I know it's frustrating to see Dwight not playing at his best. But everybody goes through these lulls, and right now our team is good enough to sustain it. Look, Dwight is not T-Mac. He has a heart. I've seen it, when he took his Magic team to the Finals by beating Lebron, and also when he carried us in the Portland series last year. So stick with Dwight. He will do his part in the end.
I mean that was Hakeem who was much better than Dwight BUT the people who want to get rid of Dwight are morons. We won't win a ring without him
He needs to stick to what he is good at, he doesn't have the footwork or Height for the post play he attempts.
The difference between Hakeem's physical health at that time, and Dwight's now, is about as wide as the Grand Canyon. A torn labrum, herniated disk, knee strain, and hamstring imbalances. Those are ingredients for a cocktail of faulty mechanics. Dream's issue could have simply been caused by a misstep. Completely different scenarios. The difference in the way they moved pretty much sums it up. I'm not saying we should trade him, but there's no way in hell Dwight will peak later, like Dream did, unless he gets some serious rehab and his joints aren't too far gone, which is unlikely with the NBA schedule and the length of his career. TMac 's body broke down, lack of heart didnt matter at the end. If Dwight breaks down, his heart wont matter either. They need to be careful with him..
Jesus, Hakeem is so much better than Dwight it is not even funny....Dwight is not even close to the dream. BTW - they never redacted the statement about Hakeem faking it, because apparently there was a tape recording where Hakeem said something like "I want to renegotiate" Patterson said no, and Hakeem said "Well then my leg hurts"..... It was not resolved until Charlie Thomas sat down with Dream on a trip to Japan in the preseason. DD
lol They are a bunch of yahoos here. They get on these jock riding for faves. I just shake my head a lot here and laugh at them. It is hard to believe that a few idiots want to get rid of what is maybe the DPOY...really. Just ignore the morons.
Problem is that Hakeem was a proven Batman. Dwight only needs to be Robin on this team but has rarely shown that ability, especially against the teams we need him to show up in (OKC, MEM, LAC). Dwight's inability to "show up" consistently against competition is probably the main reason why Morey is continually looking for a third star. You can win and be pretty successful with two superstars in this league but only if the superstars can be Batman.
Having said that, you don't trade Dwight unless you are getting KD, Davis, LeBron, possibly Cousins, Wall, or Westbrook.
Don't want to trade him, but it looks like Montiejunas benefited more from training with Hakeem last year. There was one rotation that McHale used that worked in the first quarter but I'm not sure if it was because we were playing the Jazz. DMo at center, J. Smith at PF, T. Ariza, Harden, Pat Bev. Howard off the bench till he fully heals, anybody?
Who wants to trade Dwight? He has given 100% effort at expanding his game, has fit in better and quicker than I ever thought possible (give the FO credit for quickly upgrading the depth of talent around him and Harden (Ariza, Terry, Brewer, Smith and the coaching staff for the development of Beverley, Motiejunas and occasional breakout showings from Canaan, TJ, Johnson and Kostas) Aside from that he's been the perfect teammate, loves the city, loves the Rockets.
Lol idc if Dwight averages 5 PPG during regular season. I know he'll show up in the playoffs, worry about Harden if you want that ring.
Dwight Howard only dominates against players that he's stronger than. If we play anyone like Memphis, OKC, Dallas I doubt he plays even close to how he did against Portland. Love Dwight and we can't trade him(what would we get back) but Dwight Howard didn't fall off, the center position got better.