Agreed... I like Dwights personality off the court, but man he has become a liability on defense... No lateral quickness what so ever, looks like he's never worked on his foot work in his life. Gets an annoying goaltend every single game even when the shot might not go in. His post moves are average barely and predictable. Honestly as of now Dwight is barely a starter. He be my back up center of I were the coach because that's the reality, he is not a max contract player, his work ethic when it comes to improving crucial aspects of his game (jumpshot, freethrows, hook shot.) is just not there. I won't flinch of he leaves next year, so be it.
You do have a point there. We played far better last year when Dwight was out and even in this year, Our record is 6-0 when Dwight did not play. I think we would be doing ourselves a favor by letting him go after this season.
Firstly, Drummond and Gobert don't belong on your list at all. They're both subpar rim protectors. Secondly, if you switched Dwight and each of those players and put Dwight on their team and them on our team you'd find out that Dwight was far superior to them. Duncan is a good rim protector. No question. He's not better than Dwight. DeAndre has his moments of grandeur. He's great once-in-a-while. Dwight is better than him overall. Bogut is a good position defender and he's got a strong base but virtually no athleticism. Dwight is the superior defender to him. Mahinmi is an up-and-coming improved defender. I actually prefer him very much to Drummond and Gobert in the middle. He's simply a better defender than they are. But not better than Dwight. Our defensive scheme sucks right now. And our perimeter defense is the absolute worst in the league despite having Ariza and Bev running around out there. We are atrocious on the perimeter. None of the guys you named would do better with this mess than Dwight is. Draymond woudl refuse to play and demand to be traded. This may be the worst combination of defensive scheme and personnel that I've ever seen. I dunno.
I think Dwight is in the top 10 of rim protectors in this league but I absolutely do not think he's #1. He's lost a major step. I also see no scenario in which Gobert is not superior as a rim protector. His rim protection metrics are better in almost every sense. Lower FG% allowed, higher contest rate, etc... He erases shots. Dwight can't do that.
I think some of you are overblowing how much he has declined, he's still a very effective paint defender. I will however agree that he's not a very good fit for this team anymore and it probably would be worth letting him walk so long as we can get another superstar level player with the money Dwight would have wanted. He's been one of the best role models in terms of how to handle yourself off the court, so it's a shame to see it get to this. I kinda hope he'll consider signing for less and maybe even becoming a bench player in order to try and win a championship, but I don't think you go from being 'Superman' 3-4 years ago to accepting that big of a demotion.
To beat Gobert all you have to do is go straight into his body. He collapses like a cheap umbrella in a tornado. You go into Dwight like that and you lose plain and simple. Until Gobert fixes this part of his defensive game he is nowhere close to being as good as Dwight. And Gobert has the luxury of playing next to Favors, a bruising, athletic, long, and highly skilled defensive post presence that takes the defensive load on the inside away from Gobert and allows Gobert to roam and help in space. Scheme and personnel. Gobert not in same class as Dwight at this point in his career. Gotta watch the games.
I watch the games and I see Gobert erase shots consistently, though not as well as last year. But you're right, Favors helps a lot.
How many people attended this meeting? Do some of the members of the team actually qualify as "players"?
And it's a shame Morey failed to recognize him and not trade him. Even if it was 10 cents on the dollar you do it.
Why should he? He's a 'cornerstone' on the Houston Rockets... that means you don't have to play defense - or protect the ball... If you let one guy be lazy... it spreads... like a cancer... you may not like it, but it is what it is...
This team was never gonna beat GS, SA, OKC this year. We overachieved last year. We actually got lucky IMO against the Clips although I enjoyed the hell out of it. I think everyone knows we're probably a one and done team this year from the 12th man on the bench to Les. On the bright side, we did get Beasley who I like. He's exactly what we needed from TJones. I'm also hoping AG can hit his 3's and tear drops and all the sudden we have a formidable bench.
