My apologies if a thread of this nature has already been started, but I think it's an important subject to discuss given Dwight's sensitivity to the matter and how important it is to him to find the right fit offensively when choosing his new team. My question: how do you convince Dwight to fall back in love with the PnR? Offensively, it's our bread-and-butter, much in the same way it was for Dwight during his Orlando days. In theory, we could add Dwight and not have to change a single thing about how our rotation or offense is currently constructed (mind you, we're talking about adding arguably a top five player to the core of a young 45-win basketball team). But now, all of a sudden, Shaq and a few critics make some comments about Dwight not being a traditional back-to-the-basket center and now he doesn't want to PnR anymore. He's clearly at his best as the roll man in a PnR. There's probably no better player in the league at setting a screen and exploding to the basket. He's huge, athletic and easily catches lob passes. He's an excellent finisher. His post-up game is only average. In a nutshell, Dwight's apprehension regarding his involvement in the PnR is both confusing and somewhat alarming to me. Moreover, he only shot 35% on hook shots last year! If Mike D'Antoni and Steve Nash, two players that have spent many years mastering the art of this particular offense, can't get Dwight to buy into it - should we be worried that we'll have the same problem? A possible solution is to try to integrate more roll post-ups (much like the Grizzlies do with Zach Randolph) where they often times catch the defense in the middle of a disadvantageous switch defensively. In theory, this could increase his post-up looks and put him in position to take some higher percentage looks at the basket while facing a defensive mismatch. But this is only one idea. Bottom line: Dwight needs to understand what his strengths/weaknesses are and that embracing the PnR is absolutely paramount. Which still begs the question, how do you convince D12 to fall back in love with the PnR?
Tell him what he wants to hear. When he signs, go right back to our same old offense. When we win our first ten games, everything will be fine.
I'm not sure Dwight is opposed to being in a pick&rolls at all. He just wants some post touches/post sets, which is fine. If he runs the floor, there'll be a lot of early post-up opportunities, which IMO is by far the best post-up there is, as you generally get pretty deep position in early post-up settings and the defense isn't quite set up yet and thus not able to dig or effectively help. It actually would have helped a great last year if there was a post option you could go/check down to, if the first or second got taken away. Oftentimes there were opportunities for deep post catches that the Rockets couldn't capitalize on because they had nobody who could simply seal his man and make a 2-5 foot shot. There are some nice post-up sets out there that you can use as a decoy to create some easy layups off curls or screens, which will also make it worthwhile to have Dwight post-up every now and then and you very easily can incorporate some nice post wrinkles into most of the stuff the Rockets did last years. You can also run post-up out of sideline out of bounds settings like this one: www.youtube.com/embed/VBvCf4E4w4I (Bulls & T-Wolves run the same set. Rockets used to rim this under Adelman as well.) Should be a pretty easy sell.
This is my biggest concern about Dwight Howard. Leslie & the coaching staff seem to be committed to having a fast-breaking offense with lots of motion in the halfcourt, so hopefully they will be able to convince him to go along with it.
Good take. I think Dwight is not so much opposed to p'n'r as he was just traumatized by the whole D'Antoni-Kobe experience where he felt under-utilized and disrespected. The talks of pick-and-roll is probably code for the BS that he felt like he had to put up with.
Im sure he wont be opposed to the P&R when he realizes him rolling to rim off of a Harden screen leads to highlight slam after highlight slam... Unless Howard prefers to wrestle for position in the post, get an elbow in the back for 10 seconds, and then get hammered in the shoulder to get sent to the line. Not sure what he thinks, but IMO playing the pick & roll with someone who will actually set me up for lob dunks sounds a whole lot more entertaining than the latter, but who knows. Had Nash been Nash of the Phoenix days past, and played with Dwight, he probably would LOVE playing in the pick and roll with that kind of player. He didn't have that very often in LA... especially with Kobe who isn't a pass first guard to say the least. Harden, and Lin are much better players in the P&R at setting up easy looks for their bigs. Just look at the jump in offensive production in Asik last year.
Some good input here. It's just mind-boggling to me that the best PnR big man in the game seemingly has any apprehension at all about our offense. We have plenty of shooters and we PnR on almost every possession. What more could a PnR big want?
If pick and roll means Kobe getting a pick and never passing to the roller I'd be pretty damn tired of pick and roll too!
You pick and roll right into a low block post-up. Pick, roll, post-up, quick ball swing to opposite side, boom, inside to the low block. a myriad of different options to roll right into post-up position and receive the ball low. The whole thing is if Dwight can receive the ball in the low block, with the triple threat, he is quite devastating. He needs to receive where he doesn't have to dribble into position to make his move. I think it's a no-brainer and I think the Rox have already set up as part of their presentation the Xs and Os to show Dwight how he will be used.
Well... Yeah, it would be nice to touch the ball once a while after setting a pick. The pick and rebound Kobe's miss thing probably gets a little old.
Systems are only effective if the team has the personnel to run them. We have the youth, vigor and morale to make P&R fun and effective, whereas the Lakers were a collection of older slower iso guys trying to play the kind of free flowing game that D'antoni probably coached day in day out.
I really don't even think it's that Howard dislikes being involved in pick and roll action. You have to keep in mind that the screen/rolls D'Antoni likes to run often take place in the middle of the floor where the big is expected to be able to move with the ball in space and make plays facing the basket. Howard likes to roll hard out of the screen, seal his man, and get the ball 2 feet away from the basket where he's basically unstoppable. We'll still see a ton of that if he comes here. But I think D'Antoni tried too hard to turn Dwight into Amare Stoudemire, and that's just not his game.
As others have mentioned, tell him what he wants to hear. If he wants to hear he will receive touches on the low block so be it. Once he signs the contract we do what is best for the team regardless of his feelings. If this guy is serious about winning he shouldn't care about nonsense like this.
beat me to it! he doesn't want to be just a screener and rebounder. he saw that he could lead a team to the nba finals in orlando as a PnR player, as well as playing an in and out game through the post and kicking it to shooters when doubled. in LA he was omer asik. the rockets have to convince him they we will use him like the magic did, like we did with yao. yao was featured in the post a lot, but the bread and butter was the yao/mac PnR. that's what we want with dwight/harden.
These players are not worried about their PnR people. Lol only spectators and number pushers are concerned about that. D12 wants the offense to run through him. Dude also wants to be the man in the 4th quarter. That was his problem with Stan in Orlando.
Dwight is a top notch worker bee. He does his job with excellence and is the best type of worker any employer would want. His issue is the he is NOT a leader. Dream was a leader! People assume that because your a great player, you're a leader..... This dude is NOT a leader and believes in the hype that he should be even though he has zero leadership attributes. If he accepted that he is a part of a larger thing (a team) and played like he can within a team structure....he would win chips for years.... But naw......me me me.....and me
