[RealGM] Dwight Howard Regains Commanding Locker Room Voice With Rockets

Nice to see Howard being a leader. I admit I was very concerned when we signed him that his back could cause problems or he could still have "Dwightmarish" tendencies but he has been a model citizen so far and I applaud him for it. His back seems to be healthy too. I hope he stays happy and we avoid a "Dwightmare" on the back end of his contract.

 

During this win streak Rockets look like a completely different team. This must be that "push" Dwight was talking about... You know what the means though: They were definitely loafing it in the beginning! Truly terrible basketball was played during the beginning of the season. shockingly bad ball.

 

I was a big skeptic too, but Howard has been proving me wrong all year. One of the most consistent players on the roster right now, and it sounds like he's taken his leadership role to heart as well.

 

They still are playing bad ball in spurts now. Our leads are always evaporating.

But hey, at least they can hold on for the win.

 

Entry passes and communication has improved a lot, also in his last game Dwight had 5 Assists.

 

I really love all the feel-good Dwight stories coming out of the media now a days. It's like they got tired of writing about the Dwightmare and have reversed course.

 

Exactly

 

Dwight will lead us to the promised land

 

Dwert pls...

 

Ever since James sat out those two games, the team has totally been Howard's. As it should be if this team wants to complete for championships in the future.

Harden is a fantastic player but when the season started, it was obvious he was pushing too hard to be a clear cut number 1 option. I think this is what Dwight was talking about with players wanting to accomplish individual accolades. But if James continued to push to be the number 1 option, this team is doom for failure.

This isn't a knock on Harden at all, but on this team, he doesn't need and shouldn't be the number one option. In order for this Rockets team to be successful they are going to need Howard and Harden to both be number 1 options almost equally. A two headed monster and not a hero and sidekick tandem. And I applaud Harden for taking a few steps back and allowing Howard to get more touches ever since he came back from injury. And for Howard having patience to see this team grow. He has been everything good for us since he signed.

 

Every team give up big leads. The game is all about runs and who has the last run in them. Just like u stated, we still won because we had the final run to seal the deal.

 

Howard > Harden for championship chances. Not even close. Harden is a first or second round exit, howard will take you to the final dance.

 

Good for Dwight and for the team! finally someone stepping up to be a proper leader for the team!

 

Same team bro.

 

The inverse is also true... Howard isn't a proven champion, and both guys will need to be at their peaks throughout the playoffs to even have a chance for a title this season.

 

no it means, it takes time for the team to click when adding new players

 

But they're building big leads the way they were doing earlier in the season which not coincidentally is that last time they won 5 in a row. At least now we don't see them come out and struggle against even the crappy teams. They've only had one truly bad overall game recently and that was at Memphis(OKC was horrible, but only one half).

 

Stop being so defensive.

This is a fair analysis. The first month of the season, Howard wasn't getting any touches. It looked like we upgraded Asik with Howard and stuck with the same game plan with Harden largely driving the plays and the front court cleaning up the misses. We already know from last season where this type of system will go, a first round exit.

This past month, we've seen Howard dominating the game instead of Harden. His FGAs have gone up. We see more inside out plays. This is a more consistent playing style than jacking up 3s, because it's been proven that running & 3s won't carry you far in the playoffs.

 

Both OKC games were awful, the start of the LAL game was bad, and one of the games at SAC was pretty bad.

Sure it's good we can hold on better to leads now but we can't just caugh up a lead to a crappy team, we need to take care of business just like most elite teams do early and put them away by the start/middle of the fourth quarter.