http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/ian_thomsen/11/14/howard.shaq/index.html Now, I have nothing against Howard, and think he will be a really good player. But I really despise articles like this. They hype him up far too high, especially considering his slightly underwhelming performance so far this year, and in EVERY SINGLE ONE of these articles the writer takes swipes at Yao, openly and underhanded. I can see that here too.
A couple things: Yes, writers who aren't paying attention usually come too late to the party and overhype certain players. That said, I don't this is an example of such. I saw Ian at that C's game on TV, it's obvious he went there to write about Howard. I don't know how you could OVERhype a 20-year old that is doing what Dwight is doing, especially without the touches he's getting. Yes, writers who aren't paying attention usually saw stupid things about Yao, but I don't think this is the case here, either. Yao does look like he's shooting in a Nerf hoop because of his height and wingspan. It's remarkable he makes as many "jumpers" as he does. I don't think that was a rip, underhanded or otherwise. There's nothing inherently wrong about Yao looking like that. The only thing I'm ticked about is, I was calling Howard "the real Baby Shaq" back in 2004, and NOW everyone's hopping on. Thanks a lot!
Howard is going to be a beast in the paint for a long time in the league. He's going to have a lot more 20/20 games before he's done.
Howard is going to end up going down as one of the best PFs of all time as long as he keeps it up and doesn't suffer any kind of injury like what Amare is going through. The scary thing is, he's only going to get better. LeBron James is the guy who is overhyped. Not Dwight.
I didn't see any swipe at Yao - it seemed more like a compliment and a way of pointing out contrasting styles of play.
Somebody PLEASE tell me why Turkoglu has the most shot attempts for the Magic. Dwight Howard should be the #1 option on offense every time down the court.
D Ho has no near the arsenal of low post moves needed to become the number one option. Give him a couple more years.
Lebron James? Overhyped?? He's the one guy whose hype was spot on. He's the best guard/forward in the league (well, I still haven't given up on T-Mac).
He can only go over one shoulder at this point. Also, Hedo's not big on what the kids call "the re-entry pass."
Dwight is still very raw offensively...he's not a number 1 option yet. Most people just look at his body, go all gaga about it, and then assume he is pre-injury Amare+30 pounds and an inch on offense. He is really more of a garbage guy at this point in his career. I have never seen man-love like I have seen it for Dwight Howard. Heterosexual grown men practically drool over him, it's odd. BTW, Emeka Okafor is a stud low-block player under 25, he should get some credit.
Kelly, what you may have missed was a thread in the GARM about a month ago entitled "DHoward > Yao". IIRC, only the thread starter made that crazy proposition. However, some of us (me included) predicted that Howard will surpass Yao within 3-6 years as the best center in the NBA. Some of the Yao-zealots were offended by such a thought and blasted away. This may explain the sensitivity to the article. For some here, praising Howard equates to dissing Yao. I've been a HUGE Howard fan since the middle of his rookie year. On offense he is so unrefined it is amazing he scores 15ppg and shoots 60%. But his lack of skills causes him to disappear some games because he isn't versatile (yet). And what can you say about someone who is 20 years old and already averaging 13 rpg? I hate to think what he will do at age 25/26. I don't know if Baby Shaq is the right way to describe him. He will never be that big and strong but if he continues working hard and taking care of his body (unlike you know who), he could end up being just as dominant a player. He has a loooooong way to go but don't put it past him.
Unless he can walk on water and bring people back from the dead, Lebron is overhyped. We are all witnesses?
It's a very fine line with most of the articles. For the record, I THINK HE IS A FINE PLAYER AND HAS UNLIMITED POTENTIAL. This is NOT an Erick Dampier situation, where I'd bash him no matter if he deserves the bashing or not. Praising Howard is OK with me. Praising Howard and at the same time taking subtle and not so subtle swipes at Yao (let's not kid ourselves, saying Yao has a "feathery jumper" in this context is equivalent to calling him soft and weak) is what I hate. Every time people write articles praising Howard WITHOUT FAIL there will be subtle Yao-bashing. Sometimes it's saying that Yao isn't mentally tough. Sometimes (like this one) it's saying that Yao is soft. Sometimes they even resort to the silly "Yao is injury-prone" argument. Can't people praise Howard without dissing Yao in the process? Apparently it can't be done by the media people. And it might make me a Howard hater, when I shouldn't be one. I have no good reason to hate Howard except the fact that the media can't praise Howard without bashing Yao.
I think you are being overly sensitive and reading something into the article that is not there. If you think this bashes Yao, what about KG? Any article about an up and coming center will draw comparisons/contrasts to Yao and Shaq, who are the measuring sticks people use now. Shaq is the ultimate bruiser of all-time. Yao is the anti-Shaq that can actually shoot the ball and score without plowing through his man. No disrepect of Yao is intended or made when this is pointed out. I've said this several times recently, but the sensitivity on the forum about "respect" of the Rockets themselves or of specific players on the team is almost out of control. For every Greg Anthony there is a Bill Walton; it just seems like everyone prefers to hate on Greg Anthony and emphasize the negative. This may surprise you: Houston isn't the only sports town that feels neglected and dissed by the national media. Maybe more of us need to read other NBA forums and newspapers to get a more rounded perspective.
Howard can drive baseline, and he has a decent spin move. What he needs is more touches, which it looks like he's not getting right now. Orlando has taken advantage of an easy schedule so far, but it gets pretty brutal in December. They seem to have a different high scorer every night. I think the faster Howard develops, the better. They'll probably take a few lumps early on, especially with December's schedule, but any team in the East can make the playoffs this year...
Howard had 9 points and 8 rebounds tonight, not overly impressive, but the Magic won. I can understand the reasons for optimism in Orlando, when Shaq left for L.A. the franchise was turned on its ear, then last year the organization had to watch their in-state rival win a championship with their player. Howard seems like the type of player who could make that all go away. Honestly I don't know if Howard will ever be a truely great offensive player, it becomes hard to imagine when you see him airball hookshots with frequency. Shaq had similiar problems in that he never really developed a "touch" around the rim. He managed to get his shots up on the rim and they either rolled around and fell in or he managed to use his bulk to get the rebounds and put backs to become an insanely efficient scorer. I really don't think that Howard will be able to enjoy the same type of success without the bulk advantage Shaq had, but only the future will tell. Kelly, I don't doubt that you were the first to dub Howard the real baby Shaq or whatever, maybe its that you have that "soulpatch". There's this guy at work who no one really listens to, I think a big reason is because its hard to take someone seriously when they have one of those things on their face.
Don't you just love the unequal treatment that Yao and Howard have received? -Both are #1 picks. -Both came into the league with huge potential. Yao had the size and skill, Howard had the freakish athleticism. However, Yao's game has been ridiculously nitpicked ever since he came into this league, while Howard has been hyped up to be the next Robinson/Shaq/basketball god. We've had to put up with "why isn't Yao averaging 20 and 10," "Yao can't block shots, he should be getting 2-3 a game" etc. for years. Never mind that per-game stats are stupid, because they don't consider game pace (the Rockets have been very slow in recent years) or playing time (yao's stats have been very efficient for a guy who only played around 30 mpg in previous seasons). The question is, why isn't Howard subjected to the same kind of scrutiny that Yao has been under? In almost 37 mpg last season (significantly more than what Yao has gotten in some of his seasons), Howard averaged a whopping...15.8 ppg and 1.4 bpg. HARDLY eye-popping numbers. Don't you just love the myths that have been spread about Howard's defensive prowess? Sportswriters have called him an excellent shotblocker, although as I showed above, he's not. The Magic were a bad defensive team last season (22nd in points per possession defense), and according to 82games.com, the team's defense was better without Howard on the court. To be fair his defensive +/- has been good so far this season, but the Magic are still mediocre defensively, and the season is still very young. Of course, stats are poorly understood (if even KNOWN) by the common sportswriter, and defense is an especially hard area to understand and measure. Basically, sportswriters have been free to make up whatever they want regarding Howard's defense. The Shaq comparisons are idiotic. They're both athletic, and can dunk hard. The comparison basically ends there. Howard is 6'11, 265 lbs - a good size for a PF, but tiny in comparsion to Shaq's gargantuan 7'1, 325 lbs (supposedly, many people have said that Shaq actually weighed a lot more). Shaq had a well-developed post-up game. While he may not have the versatile arsenal of Hakeem or Tim Duncan, Shaq knew how to established position, and had his hare of devastating low-post moves. Howard is not yet a go-to scorer on offense. He'll get his transition points or putbacks and make some other baskets, but his game isn't versatile enough that he can be just handed the ball and expected to score. Because of that, his measured usage rate (and therefore his point production) is quite modest in comparison to guys like Shaq, or even Yao. Over 8 games so far this season, Howard's PER is 21.56. Solid, All-Star worthy efficiency, but NOTHING compared to Yao's league-leading 29.65 (which, if Yao maintains, is superstar/MVP worthy). I don't have a problem with Dwight himself, and of course he has a lot of time to develop. But the hype and overexxagerated praise he has received, as well as the unequal treatment compared to Yao, is very annoying.
im happy i traded okur for howard...now if he'll just give me some more pts, less to's and a better ft % illl be happy...
Dwight Howard is absolutely sick. He's, what, 20? The only thing that keeps him from 25/15/3 territory before his 25th birthday is microfracture surgery. That is it. He is already one of the elite big men in the league. He will soon be one of the top five players in the league. So what if his ceiling is higher than Yao's? Yao is a bad ass. Appreciation of another player isn't disrespect for our resident superstar.
