I see what you're saying, but come on now. . . . You say: and So, Mr. Smiley smiled his way to 3 DPOY. I'm not really that offended about how he goes about his business.
Welp. Looks like Clutchfans are no better than Laker fans. If you are honestly sitting there complaining that Dwight is not sitting on the bench cutting himself and crying then you need to get some sense slapped into you. This is the same dumb crap I heard when he was in LA.
It's been said his entire career. It just rubs people the wrong way, that's all. And it isn't just an isolated thing, but in addition to other behaviors. Why is it only Dwight?
Yea, it's not a big deal, especially in street clothes. When I spent some time at the end of the bench, we always joked. Don't get me wrong, it's few and far between, but we could have been "caught" with a screen shot as well. I have joked around with the coaches as well (not HC). I spent a whole season in street clothes; all bets are off then. I would consider myself a serious-minded person and wanting to win. Take what you want from my personal testimony.
^This. This is my personal experience also. It's not like he smiles the WHOLE time. As I said I was there I saw him laughing a few times with Troy but there were parts when we lost the lead where he looked worried. Ofcourse they didn't show that I bet.
This is a very intelligent and informed take, I agree. I think it has to do with personality and upbringing.
The man is happy to be a Houston Rocket and he is exactly the center we all desperately wanted a couple years back. That's all I can ask
The point is, he achieved those things very early in his career, and he hasn't improved much in all these years since. If anything, he's been deteriorating in many areas. But I believe it's the lack of effort he sometimes displays and his overall inconsistency that bothers most people. Look, there are at least 20 ex-NBA players, current NBA players, and NBA coaches who are on the record in questioning Howard on these issues. If the opinions of these qualified professionals aren't enough to at least make some people question and examine these things about Howard... then I don't know what else will.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Houston's Dwight Howard is a "potential go," against New York tonight, league source tells Yahoo. He's missed two games with a knee strain.</p>— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/WojYahooNBA/status/536877406620233728">November 24, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I laughed when I saw him smiling about one of the skirmishes. Like he knew nobody was going to do anything. Thought it was funny.
Just one more interesting note: Here's an article I found on this subject, and I think this writer pretty much sums up everything that I was trying to say about Howard. "A pessimistic view on Dwight Howard and his impact on the Rockets' future", by Michael De Moor. Just an excerpt: "Howard, for all his physical gifts, is less evolved than both Gaosl and Noah, and less likely to be part of a winning team in the league's changing climate. Big guys who are simply stronger than almost everyone else or jump higher than everyone else are no longer the next big thing; now, they're lurking outside the top tier at their position (like Andre Drummond and DeAndre Jordan). Howard is a far superior player to both Jordan and Drummond, but the point is that you need some finesse and ball skills in today's game, even at the 5. The truth of the matter is this: Until Howard develops both a killer instinct and a better feel for the game (two things that are nearly impossible to teach at the pro level, especially when you're as old as he is), he'll never be as successful as he should be. Dwight was taught how to post up. He learned how to drop step and how to pin. He learned how to shoot over both shoulders, turning his hips on jump hooks and ripping the ball in front of him on face ups to create room. He learned how to set screens and open up to the basket afterwards, keeping the hedging defender on the wrong side of him. He learned all of those things from his coaches, but on the court, coaches can't help you. They can't make him read the rotating help defender, allowing him to make the optimal pass, not just the open pass. They aren't in his ear in the post telling him which shoulder to go over and which move to use according to the way the defense is playing him and where he is on the court. Most of all, no one can make Dwight smell blood. He simply isn't programmed the way Hakeem Olajuwon or Shaquille O'Neal were; he doesn't see Cole Aldrich step on the floor and decide "this guy's going back to the bench in two minutes with three fouls and I'm about to get a quick six points." He doesn't think like that, and even if he did, he doesn't have the on-court intelligence to get that done in any other way than calling for the ball on the block. This lack of a killer instinct also works against him as a leader, as it's hard to feed off the energy of a guy who's always laughing and who points to the bench after getting a block while losing down the stretch of a game (which is an offense punishable by death in both San Antonio and Chicago, and I hear that Detroit is contemplating it as well). Unfortunately for Rockets fans (like myself), Howard's deficiencies will probably make him an unfulfilled promise for the rest of his career. And sadly, he'll never fully understand why."
