Is Dwight Howard the most overrated Center in NBA history?

Yes. He's only shining because the league lack good centers.

 

My biggest problem with Dwight, is that- despite being such a big man in an age with few and far quality big men- he has yet to dominate on a Hakeem, Kareem, or Shaq like level. If Dwight had been polishing his offensive game all these years, he'd be unstoppable. There's no reason, aside from an apparent lack of work ethic, that Dwight isn't putting up monster numbers and demolishing teams.

 

The Magic realized that he is overrated because he never really add a new arsenal to his game. Shaq was more powerful, bigger, but also quicker than Howard. Plus, Shaq has a great post game where he can easily spins around his opponents and score whenever he wants. Dwight Howard on the other hand, has trouble when an opponent is strong enough to push him out of his comfort zone.

Hakeem was always a matchup nightmare every single night. Either Hakeem was bigger and stronger than his opponents or he was much quicker and more agile. If Hakeem was overpowered, he simply uses his quickness to get around them, either way, Hakeem always dominates. Shaq on the other hand, was always bigger and stronger than his opponents. But what made Shaq special was that even with his size, he was amazingly quick and he is a fierce competitor even when he clowns around off court.

At the end, Dwight doesn't have the same ability as the great centers nor does he have the same work ethic as well as competitiveness.

 

Howard hasn't really developed at all, the last cpl years, there was expectation he'd continue to get better, he hasn't.

He seems to have become more focused on where he plays, getting rings, being in the public spotlight, and no focus on actually being a better basketball player.

 

It just pisses me off when some kids that never watch basketball back then, thinks that just because Dwight Howard makes it in the highlight reel in Sportscenter, that he's just as good if not better than Hakeem. That shows you that a lot of viewers today lacks knowledge and fundamentals of the game.

 

Dwight is fantastic... He is no Dream, but he is fantastic...

 

I've never met an Asian/South Pacific with high arches regardless of height, we have low arches to flat feet as a people. The high arches and racial biased officiating ended Yao for good.

 

Ditto... His back is ****ed, so its easy to say he stinks right now... He will be in HOF... So that makes him great IMO... Not Hakeem or Shaq great, but still a great talent that was the best at his position during his era

 

No one ever rated him above Hakeem, Shaq, Wilt, Kareem, etc.

 

I don't hear folks saying he is better than the great Centers in the 90's and please stop saying "an healthy Yao".

Orlando never built around him like they should. Not to mention he has gotten his team to finals appearance before

 

yeah... that team catered to his needs... 23 raining threes in a game is just surreal....

 

He needed a playmaker on the perimeter not just a bunch of spot up shooters. His best playmaker was Hedo Turkoglu

One thing about Shaq is he has always played with an elite playmaker in the perimeter.

Dwight never in Orlando

 

you call Kobe an elite playmaker? DFish?
If you'd call Nash... that's another story

 

Um, what?

Let's look at a few of these statements a bit closer shall we?

OK, go look at the video of Howard working out with Dream. A 50 year old Dream is way more athletic, more fluid, and more balanced than a young Howard. Howard looks good dunking with minimal resistance. Dream looked good dunking on legends and destroyed a Hall of Fame front line during the finals his second year. There is absolutely no comparison between the athleticism of Dream and Howard. When Howard gets close to the blocks records or finishes in the Top 10 is steals, let me know.

Olajuwon's numbers include the decline in his later years. So far, through 8 and part of a 9th season, Dwight is averaging 18.4 PPG while through his first nine years, Olajuwon went for 23.1 PPG, and that does not include the three 27 PPG seasons starting in his 10th year. I'm going out on a limb here, but I don't think Howard will top his current average by 4 points each of the next three years, and even if he did, it would only be 22.5 PPG which is very good, but not at all great.

All that said, the offense ran through Dream all the time, including crunch time. The respect he was given by double teams and triple teams would make Dwight pee himself. Dream welcomed the challenge, Dwight does not.

Speaking of crunch time, Dwight has been in the playoffs 5 times and exceeded his seasonal scoring average once. Dream did it 11 times and his playoff scoring average is higher than all but 4 of his seasons.

Through 8 and part of a 9th, Howard averages 12.9 RBG. Through 9 seasons, Dream averaged 12.6 RBG, a negligible difference particularly when you consider that Dream almost doubled Howard's numbers for blocks and steals during that time.

Oh, and Dream played against better competition.

No, it is not.

If you took the all-time great centers and Howard, it wouldn't matter who was guarding Dream. It could be Russell or Jabbar or Wilt. Whoever it is, if you're the opposing coach and it is crunch time, you are going to double team Dream. No question. Nobody is going to double team Howard. On the other end, you could afford to let Dream guard all those guys one-on-one hoping he would get a steal, a block, alter a shot, get the rebound. Nobody is going to let Howard go one-on-one with Jabbar or Wilt or Shaq (or even Yao).

 

That Dwight squad was good offensively... but they could not get stops to halt the better offensive Lakers at that time....

Neither team had great playmakers.... triangle did not need one.....

 

Seriously true. As of now he is...IF he can somehow improve his post game and dominate again for at least 3 years in a role, then probably not.

Decent centers are hard to come by, and Howard is a decent center. He's just not an elite one like everyone seems to believe. Yao was so much better, but in today's league, it's all about hype and image.

IMO Howard is a product of the system, but for some reason he irks me less than Griffin, who I can't stand watching.

 

should remove the center position from basketball lol
its a disgrace
no skills at all, just plain tall

 

Kobe is a playmaker selfish rep maybe but yes he is a playmaker something Dwight wasn't close to having in Orlando.

 

Point is Kobe was a superstar Dwight never even played with another star player in Orlando.

The guy averaged 30 and 18 one series and they lost.


He is the best Center in the league. Name one Center the year that he got to the finals that you could replace Dwight with and they still make the finals?

 

dont think he is overrated. post moves are nice but if u can score as easily, then why do you need post moves?