Great physical attributes.... The greatest physical specimen since Shaquille O'neal in terms of size and strength.
I think he got officiated much tougher in Houston and LA. He is back in the east now, but you could see he quit on both LA and Houston and he hated the way the officials treated him.
Howard was awesome when he first showed up here, too. Well, maybe not awesome, but hopes were very high. He will have issues in Atlanta. He just will. He's not ready to be happy with 11 ppg.
Like someone posted earlier. Dwight just wanted to get paid. Is he worth the 20 something million he wanted... maybe not. Is ryan anderson? Definitely not!
Maybe there is some small chance that he's finally been humbled and realized he's not a go to offensive option. If so, so be it. I'm sure people will be laughing at us for being wrong but really three teams were. It apparently took three tries for him to get it if that does happen.
New agent.....seems like they promised to get him paid and repair his image, play at home etc....basically make Dwight happy. You can already see the new articles popping up in his favor.
I don't believe he's turned a new leaf myself. I think as soon as any bit of adversity pops up (and it always does. Even with the best of teams) he'll start demanding touches and that's the start of it all really because he demands these touches even though anyone with even a bit of basketall sense sees it hurts the teams offense. For me 3rd time's the charm (That 3rd time was Houston) and 3 strikes your out. There is a reason after all he didn't get the huge deal he thought he could get and wasn't even that sought after in FA.
I don't think he's necessarily turned a new leaf, I just don't think he was a cancer causing all the problems in Houston.
Didn't he get what he wanted, which was more than the Rockets thought he was worth? Portland, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas were after him i believe...maybe more.... Remember that he didn't complain the other years about touches...it wasn't until his contract year that he started pouting...before that he'd chill during the season and then want the ball during the playoffs....some people hype that up as him stepping it up another level, but it seems to me that he was also playing the system to increase his value, since teams want guys who bring it during the playoffs, so they'll pay more for them.
I appreciated Mutombo a lot. And we all miss him. Too bad Howard doesn't appreciate that Mutombo dirty work guy, he'd be so good in that role, but alas, he wants the superman role.
Dwight was a b**** at times, but I don't blame him too. He quit on the Rockets, sure, but I think he just got sick of all the hack-as not only when it was intentional, but every foul on him was a hard foul to send him to the line and prevent him from dunking/laying it in. It made him play soft/scared. Teams knew how to take him out and this is the method that works against him.
I think it's all a matter of expectation. Dwight was a free agent dream, lots of teams courted him and promised him the world, so unlike others here who expect players to be perfect, as a normal human being I can understand him being pouty and pissed off in Houston. I mean put yourself in his shoes, what if you left your old job for a new one who promised you all sorts of things and then suddenly found yourself marginalized at the office and blamed for everything that goes wrong? I think Dwight made it clear during the recruitment process that he wants to be Superman rather than Ben Wallace, so if Houston agreed they would make him Superman then its their fault for not sticking with it or at least making him understand why it's necessary to change his role. Now I don't know what happened in Atlanta but I think if the expectation was that he would focus more on defense and rebounding then it's possible this is the reason why Dwight has now accepted his role as a ben wallace type of player. It probably also helps that the coach is defensive oriented and would hold no D players accountable unlike last year when Harden basically got a pass for his bad defense, I mean the Rockets were asking Dwight to focus on D and rebounding but at the same time they were giving Harden a pass on bad defense that's like a joke. And the other poster was right, we're basically paying Ryan Anderson Dwight Howard money at this point, if Anderson played like he did in preseason that would be fine but if he reverted to his role player level than this sucks, it would have been better to keep Dwight instead of running him out of town. I think Dwight unnecessarily gets a bad rap, he is high maintenance but lots of players are like that and he's nowhere near Kobe or Melo levels of ego massaging. People make a big deal out of his "quitting" last season but honestly everybody quit even Harden quit by not even trying on D and coming into the season out of shape why is no one raising a fuss about that? Now that he's back in the much easier Leastern conference I think he'll be back to his old productive self, hopefully he can stay healthy, I wish him the best.
Lakers with Kobe and Rockets with Harden. Two teams with 2-guards that hoards the ball (admittedly Harden not as bad as Kobe).
I don't think Ryan Anderson is a justification for what happened with Dwight. They are each their own person/asset/liability/CBA... I think there are some interesting points in this thread, but there's also a bit too much hate. I think Dwight/Harden/Morey/McHale and JB all shoulda/coulda/woulda done some things differently, but I hope they all figure it out and improve as they walk their own paths. It looks pretty bad on this community to think too negatively about Dwight. Dude probably put in blood, sweat and tears for the rockets -- more than any of us can say -- I hope. It's sort of disrespectful to all the other guys in the league who are working to say Dwight should have just dominated. That being said, having Dwight's physical tools and not trying maximally is also really disrespectful to everyone. But hate - we should not go there. Another poster in this thread pointed to how differently we think of Harden and Howard. "Harden is too tired to play D cuz he scores/drives for kickouts for so many minutes. Dwight should set picks and get rebounds because DMo's grandmother likely has a better hook shot and dropstep." I think both viewpoints are pretty valid, but we really need to try to focus on balancing our players' development. Should also be a focus during player acquisition. Seems like the only way to fix this going forward. James can focus on defense and breathing more if all the other perimeter players can penetrate and dish, or also hit the open spot-up shot. I like Eric Gordon in that sense (please stay healthy), but I worry about Ryan Anderson (and his contract). I think the lesson the Rockets need to take from Dwight's time here is that every player should always: give their all to help the team on both ends of the court, be aware of their flaws, and work to fix their flaws. If all the players do this, we will start hitting our free throws, closing out on shooters under control, and rebounding. We would win a lot. If you take a hard look at Dwight's career, there's a lot of lessons there for a young Capela.
Because the narrative that all he cares about is post touches is wrong? Only 2 points today, but he has 7 rebounds and 3 blocks in 16 minutes. He's in foul trouble. More importantly, the Hawks are dominating a bad Philly team.
Because he barely got any touches period, even out of the post. At least that's my theory. And he probably just wanted to leave this mess. We beat the mavs but we have a long way to go IMO
