wow, over reactive hyper sensitive posters on this site is shocking. Dwight is just coming back off of significant time off + a completely different rotation with the additions of Brewer and Smith. He will be fine. he is clearly not 100% yet because he is missing his explosiveness and appears to be just a little slower grabbing rebounds and blocking shots. 2-4 weeks and we will be juggernautic.
His post game is too calculated. No fluidity or flexibility, robotic and predictable. If it were me, I'm not feeding him in the post unless he has his man completely pinned, and to his credit he regularly does this but doesn't get the ball in time, or if he has it rolling with the hot hand. Other than that, score with offensive rebounds, alleys, or open dunks/layups or don't score at all.
Bit of over reaction, but Dwright need figure his offensive moves out quickly in order to win a title for the Rockets. At this point Dmo seems to have better offensive skills than Dwright.
This line of thinking is getting tired. Just don't see how fans can watch Harden night in and night out and think that his performance in all of 12 games, which not ALL were terrible, is enough for people to worry about future performance. Same thing but flipped with Dwight. He has played all of 6 games for us in the postseason and since they were good that's enough for people to be sure that he will never be bad.
Dwight has (pretty much) always been good in the playoffs, throughout his career, especially last season. Harden has not. If you're shooting 37% throughout the series, you're having a bad series, no matter how you twist it. I have no doubt that Dwight will show up, but Harden is a question mark 'till proven otherwise.
So you are saying his performance in 12 playoff games is strong enough evidence to outweigh 2 straight regular seasons of AT LEAST top 5 MVP caliber play when making assumptions of future playoff success? Dwight has played longer therefor has had more opportunities(especially as a lead dog) to prove himself more reliable than not in the playoffs. He has had sub par playoff performances. And despite what most think Harden has had good playoff seasons and despite his overall number with Houston, there have been very good games mixed in with terrible ones. If that's what you believe than that's what you believe, but I just don't see the logic. I guess it's possible for such an amazing regular season player to just fall off the planet in the playoffs for the majority of his career, but I don't think it's likely at all. Frankly if there is anyone I trust the most to show up in the playoffs this year it's Harden. He's just too good.
ha. knew this had to be wrong as soon as i read it. http://espn.go.com/nba/player/gamelog/_/id/2384/dwight-howard 6 blocks in 10 games. not great. but not 0. doubt he's gone 10 games without blocking a shot since he was 7. (and that was meant to be sarcastic, my bad. didn't get it.)
Harden has been mentally soft in the past. I think it is clear to this day that he struggles when he is not getting his foul calls. I always did laugh when he was scrutinized for his ability to get to the line as all great scorers do, but he is rather dependent on them. He has gotten less dependent on them this year, but there is still room for improvement mentally. We are lucky to have him.
