Did Mark Jackson teach Howard how to intentionally foul when you can't take being beat to badly from outside the arc? #hand down man down
Dwight Howard has apparently had some issues with his former coaches. First there was the debacle in his latter days in Orlando, when his coach volunteered to the media that his star player sought to have him sacked. Then just a couple of days before the start of free agency on Friday, word began to circulate that the Lakers' chances of keeping Howard were precarious due to his aversion to Mike D'Antoni's offense. Howard, of course, doesn't put any of these comments on the record, which is the way of the world in contemporary sports media. Still, the whispers make you wonder just want kind of coach, and what kind of offense, does Howard actually believe is in his best interests? His best option might be to sign with either the Boston Celtics or Philadelphia 76ers -- the two teams that currently have coaching vacancies -- because then Howard can just run things himself. But any fan who says he wouldn't want Howard on his team is either lying, willfully ignorant, engaged in self-deception, or all the above. Howard is just that good, and that much we can quantify. Figuring out the ideal kind of offense for him is more complicated. Last season, the worst since Howard's rookie year, he still put up 9.7 WARP in 76 games, which ranked 20th in the league, putting him in the 96th percentile of all NBA players. He was hobbled by recovery from back surgery and played in two unfamiliar offensive systems with two new coaches, all with a brand-new set of teammates. Yet he rated right in the cluster of the top centers of last season with Marc Gasol, Joakim Noah and Brook Lopez. My early projections have Howard bouncing back to about 14.0 WARP this season, and remaining roughly at that level for the next half-decade. Every season at that level makes him likely to be considered the best center in the game. Value like that is awfully hard to find, especially at the NBA's biggest position of scarcity. Centers used to rule the roost in the league, back in the days before the 3-pointer and when illegal defense rules made guarding a premier post scorer like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar virtually impossible. In the first four years after the adoption of the 3-pointer for the 1979-80 season, the league leader in WARP was a center: Abdul-Jabbar or Moses Malone; from 1991 to 2002, before the current defensive rules were implemented, centers such as David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal and Tim Duncan led the league a combined eight times. But no center has led the league in WARP since illegal defense rules were eliminated prior to the 2002-03 season. Howard came close with 20.5 WARP in 2010-11, second in the league behind perennial leader LeBron James. Evolution of the NBA offense The evolution of the game over the past 10 years has been stark. Most teams no longer play inside-out, though certain coaches such as Tom Thibodeau still instruct their teams to do so. Floor spacing, a term that used to be reserved strictly for the practice floor, is now a staple of even mainstream basketball analysis. The pick-and-roll has become more prominent than ever thanks to the rise of point guards, who now enjoy more space to operate against defenders who can no longer manhandle them with hand checks. Smart teams now emphasize the 3-point shot, and the action inside the arc often sets up the clean looks behind it. [+] Enlarge AP Photo/John Raoux Dwight Howard was effective in Orlando. This evolution is reflected on how often centers are used in today's offensive systems. Patrick Ewing, Olajuwon, Robinson and especially O'Neal once put up usage rates north of 30 percent, with Shaq doing it 10 times; Howard has never reached 28 percent, and last season was at 22. The makeover has been so complete that for the first time last season, the NBA deleted the center position from its All-Star ballots. What kind of offense is Howard looking for? All this makes you wonder just what sort of offense Howard thinks he will find. In Orlando, Stan Van Gundy -- who is the only coach who ranks in the top 10 in career efficiency on both ends of the floor since the ABA-NBA merger in 1976 -- fashioned his offense around Howard. He was exceedingly adept at running the pick-and-roll action that Howard now seems to find so distasteful. In the two seasons prior to last season, Howard rated in the 99th percentile of all players as a finisher on the pick-and-roll, per Synergy Sports Technologies. Even last season, in the Lakers' often dysfunctional attack, he was in the 96th percentile. Like it or not, it's what he does best. Nevertheless, the pick-and-roll was not the staple of Orlando's system. During Howard's best season, the Magic ranked 21st in total pick-and-rolls with the screener finishing the play. They led the league in efficiency on those plays, just ahead of Steve Nash's Phoenix Suns, who led the league in quantity. The Magic offense relied on the post-up, with Howard getting 269 more plays on those sets than any other player in the league. In fact, his 1,019 post-ups were more than any other team in the league, save for the Lakers and Grizzlies. The Magic's system also had other traits that were telling. First, Orlando ranked 24th in total plays that were resolved in the last four seconds of the shot clock. In other words, there was a heavy reliance on early offense, which fit with Howard's ability to run the floor. Just five teams had fewer sets resolved in transition, so Van Gundy was running a half-court-heavy attack. But the Magic were getting into their sets quickly, which is essential in today's NBA. You can no longer walk the ball up the court and dump the ball into the block, because coaches such as Thibodeau have mastered schemes that clog the lane and bring help defenders down on slow-moving post scorers. You can run an offense through the post in today's NBA, but you have to do it quickly. That's why Gregg Popovich harped on his team repeatedly to push the ball down the floor during the Spurs-Heat Finals matchup. Last season, the Lakers were third in the league in total post-ups and just 13th in pick-and-rolls finished by the screener, and just two teams had fewer possessions resolved in the last four seconds of the shot clock. In other words, even though D'Antoni inherited a roster that didn't fit together, he managed to run in general terms a scheme very similar to the one in which Howard flourished for Van Gundy. There have been suggestions that the problem wasn't the pick-and-roll set per se -- it was where Howard received the ball on those plays. There might be something to that -- Howard is not at all skilled when it comes to putting the ball on the floor -- but again, let's not forget that he was extremely efficient on pick-and-rolls anyway. D'Antoni has a reputation as an offensive guru for a reason: He's coached four different NBA teams and since the merger, only K.C. Jones and Scott Brooks have put up a higher aggregate career offensive efficiency. The bottom line is that the last thing Howard should be concerning himself with is his coach's offensive system. Teams will build their schemes and skew their play calling to accommodate him. The Lakers did it last season and will continue to refocus toward Howard as their ability to churn the roster increases over the next couple of years. But the Houston Rockets would do the same thing, as would the Dallas Mavericks, Atlanta Hawks or Golden State Warriors. However, if Howard is looking for the kind of old-school center-centric offense that his forerunners used to dominate, he's going to be looking long and hard -- because it no longer exists.
Mark Jackson impressed Dwight by repeatedly shouting "Hand down, man down!" and causing Dwight to giggle uncontrollably.
Barnes is overrated. He had an 11.08 per rating which was the near the bottom of the rookie class. If Howard ends up in GS, then I hope ya'll get Barnes for sure. What about Klay Thompson? 12.7 per which dipped to 10.1 in the playoffs. Good luck if you get one of these guys. You will need it. P.S. LAKERS SUCK
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I think I'd rather have Josh Smith, Tony Allen, and Chase Budinger (some combination of JSmith and other good players that fit a need) rather than just Howard, especially if you keep Asik. Lin, Beverley Harden, Tony Allen Parsons, Budinger JSmith, TJones, DMo Asik I don't think that's quite championship caliber right away but it might be enough to get to the conference final. In two or three years they might improve and be title caliber.
Does this Dwight Howard situation remind anyone else of Kobe Bryant to the clippers back in 04? There were real talks that Kobe was very very close to joining a younger, more talented clippers team. But la apparently did some under the table promise (rumors) to keep Kobe in LA?
You know, i'v been thinking about how upset i would be if we didn't get Howard. Surprisingly, not that upset, well not that upset compared to when we were loosing out on melo and bosh. Here's why, unlike the other times we lost out...this time we have a 23 year old superstar with one hell of a beard. We have a great young center in Asik, who is a rebounding maniac that plays great D. Then we have parsons...yummy. To top it off we would still have plenty of cap space next year to try and go after another star and still have a super bright future.
The Dallas and Golden State situations seem like a tough sale. They can't talk about what they will do if he says yes, they can only offer conjecture. He wants to win and his choices are Houston, LA Lakers and Atlanta. Even if we screw this up and don't get Dwight, we'll still be major players with our money. #WIN-WIN-IN-HTOWN
Kobe got a huge payday as it was from the old CBA from the Lakers. Plus he was given the reins to a premier sports franchise at the age of 25-26. Even then he was close but Jerry Buss changed his mind. Dwight wouldn't be given the keys nor will he get the much larger payday Kobe did. Plus the team is far more limited in moves now than it was in 2004. Everything is for 2014
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Dwight Howard has met with the Rockets, Warriors and Hawks. He'll meet with the Mavs and Lakers tomorrow. Then, we'll get a decision. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23recap&src=hash">#recap</a></p>— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlexKennedyNBA/statuses/351943294563008514">July 2, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Not sure if he means the day after or right after the LAL meeting..
Just like a lineup of Kobe Metta Nash Howard Gasol was good too right? I dont know about Barnes, but the rest of the lineup sucks defensively and with Kobe and melo.....lol two chuckers
