Look, he would have killed Ewing,Sabonis,Daughtery,Divac, and Smits.....It would have been a wash with Alonzo,Mutombo, and Robinson.....Only one that would have game him hell would have been Dream and Shaq....And honestly I think he would have held his own with Dream....Shaq would have been too much for him though .......BUT on the contrary , none of those guys could have impacted the game defensively like Howard ....maybe except Dream.....
I agree with the first part of your post (although I do not believe he would have killed Ewing). But MAYBE except dream? Are you suggesting Howard is a better defensive player then Hakeem? To compare the career high average per season in rebounds, blocks and steals Dwight Rebound 14.2 Block 2.9 Steal 1.4 Hakeem Rebound 14 Block 4.59 (his career average of blocks per game is higher than Dwights best year) Steal 2.6 (his career average of steals per game is higher than Dwights best year) And that is just by looking at stats, anybody who has seen them both play knows Hakeem was the better defensive player. Top 5 centers of all time are probably Wilt Russel O'neal Abdul-Jabbar Hakeem Dwight is below that list, and in the list with players like Robinson, Moses Malone etc. Also a great list but not close to top 5.
You said: That implies that you doubt whether Hakeem is clearly the better defensive Center. But if you meant to say that Hakeem is clearly the better defensive center than we agree.
Lord the grammar police on here is frightening.........Yes Hakeem is the better defensive center but Howard in 5 years will be a very close 2nd if not better.......
It's not grammar, it's your sentence articulation. There is a difference between Dwight "might" be better than Hakeem defensively and Dwight "is" better than Hakeem defensively. You can't mix the two up and blame others for being picky. And Howard will never be the defensive player Hakeem will be. In fact, I don't think he will even sniff Hakeem's blocked shot record.
I don't know what Shaq has to do with DPOY Anybody who watches the magic and sees the effect Howard has on a game defensively will no how great he is .. And dont compare him to previous bigs, because of different reasons like the 3 second rule, players are more athletic these days and the fact that today you're not allowed to use your body strength or physicality (I.e. going straight up with contact and not blocking the ball would mean a foul 60% of the time) .. So stats cant be compared .. We can argue about Howard much improved offensive games but arguing about his defense is a loosing argument .. I dont know y older people are so hardcore about defending players from there generation .. So insecure An OP just said the Sabonis and Rick Smits are better than Dwight how do you respond to a guy like that ?? I really think he's as good as the Dream (Suicide attempt by me) even the Dream himself acknowledges that ..
You do mean defensively right? because on offense there is about 0% possibility Dwight Howard is even close to Dream. Even defensively Dwight Howard is not that good of a one on one defender.
OFFCOURSE I meant Defensively I think its I blatantly meant defensively .. But even as a one on one defender there isnt much competition to evaluate Howard on fairly .. There is more talented post centers in the NBA today than people think but not as much as the 90s ..
We can't really evaluate his one vs one defense, but post plays from pure centers these days are pretty much gone. We have a bunch of Pf-C hybrids that likes to stretch the floor and take jumpers instead back to the basket post games.
Does it matter? At least Dwight stays healthy. Yao Ming goes down with a foot something every ******* season.
Centers are more athletic today? Robinson is on par athletically with Howard, and Shaq and Olajuwon were superior to him. You could even argue that Mourning wasn't too far behind Howard. Which current centers do you consider to be on par with centers from the 90's? What does the 3 second rule have to do with anything? It just means that defenders can't camp the lane. Back in the 90's, they couldn't do that anyway b/c zone wasn't allowed. Don't be obtuse. Of course stats can be compared. Dwight came into the league only a few years after the legends left. You just don't want to compare stats b/c statistically, there's no way Dwight can win. That's the same reason Kobe lovers say that Jordan's stats can't be compared to Kobe's. You think we're insecure. We think you're an idiot. What's tougher...guarding Ewing, Robinson, Mourning, Shaq, and Mutombo or guarding Yao, Bynum, Lopez, Shaq's corpse, and a myriad of PF's masquerading as centers. To put things in their proper perspective, Jamaal Magloire was an all-star the year before Dwight came into the league. Jamaal Magloire. How ironic.
Like flamingdts said it is not grammar it is the use of words. But let's get past that. You think Howardwill be the second best center of all time in the nba in vife years (if not the best)? Please explain me why. Which part of his game do you expect him to improve so drastically that he will be better then Hakeem? He doesn't block shots as well as most great defensive centers in the NBA (Russel, Hakeem, Mutombo). I see Howard as a similar defensive player as Mourning. That is very good, but not close to the great defensive players. Hakeem was always in the top of the league in Steals, Howard is not. How will he ever be close to or even better than Hakeem?
lol.. i would actually like you to tell me 15 nba starting centers that chuck is better offensively than. LIKELY defensively... but not close offensive (not putting down his improvement though)
Above average post centers would be Brook Lopez & LaMarcus Aldridge & Andrew Bynum & The Gasols & Nene & this year Dwight Howard But in general what in the past the 4 was the garbage man who does the dirty work now its the 5
Go read what I said I said players not centers and I meant players in general wing players So youre saying it doesnt have any effect what so ever .. then why did they insert the rule .. You can still hang in the paint without playing zone (if youre covering a player that has no shooting range) I think you're being childish no need to say things like that .. made you look stone aged so stop whining .. I dont Idolize players like you do to you they'll never be anyone better than the Dream even if the Dream himself started his career today and achieved what he achieved So ?? How's that relevant
