For those flaming the OP, he's being legit. Howard is 6'9 w/o shoes. That has been mentioned a lot of times by various analysts, etc. the last few days. He also played PF throughout high school and the first yr he was in the nba. Seeing as how he is athletic enough to play the PF (fast enough), I think it is a viable question. I certainly see him at the 4 more than the 5 for the limited minutes when he and Asik are on the court together...
And before people start taking my comment wrong, I think Howard should and will play the 5 on our team. His game has changed a lot over the last few yrs, and he loses a lot of his advantages if he goes to the 4. Furthermore, I don't know if he's quick enough to contest perimeter stretch 4's as well. That being said, I don't think the question of whether Howard would be at the 4 is that weird...for when we are playing Asik with him (for however many minutes). Makes more sense than Asik being there, who is much too slow-footed. Both lack midrange shots anyways. Besides, we needn't get so stuck up on traditional labeling of some of the positions in today's nba.
Believe it or not, but maybe you all don't remember that down the stretch Asik guarded many of the other team's better PF's because Jones and DMo could not. It wasn't just Memphis. Guess who guarded for example LeMarcus Aldridge, or Blake Griffin, or Al Jefferson? It was Asik; and he did a damn good job of it too! Defensively Howard and Asik could work; on offense it might work if Asik can develop that 15 footer of his which he does make in practice. McHale has said that he has "plans" for Asik in offensive sets with Dwight. Prepare for a few surprises...! Anyway I think Asik will come off the bench and that having the #1 interior defense in the league for 48 minutes will be better than having a PF who will only steal shots away from Dwight and Harden. The starting lineup is fine with or without a PF like Anderson. It's the bench--and particularly Bench Defense--that was the Rox's problem last year and lost them games.
He has power forward size being that he's really 6'8" 6'9" with shoes on, but he can play that position because be has a centers skill set. The fact that he has long arms and athletic ability, makes up for it.
dwight and lebron arent the same height. I have seen them stand side by side so i dont believe these " he is 6,9" rumors. No one said this until he joined the rockets to downplay him
LeBron's 6'7", 6'8" my dude. They always list players taller than they really are. They listed Barkley at 6'8" when he was really 6'4"
D12 at the 4???? Consider Indiana, whom we lost to twice last season. Indiana was just too big for us. Starting for Indiana in the middle were Hibbert and David West. This year Howard would be on Hibbert, but then who would guard West? Terrence Jones? DMo? Yeah right! C'mon, West would abuse Jones, and also Jones isn't tall enough to affect West's jump shot. Jones would be on the bench with foul trouble in the space of four minutes. Defensively this would then be one instance where D12 and Asik together would in fact work--at least on Defense. Offense? That's another question. Another team we struggled against was New Orleans. We simply couldn't match up with them inside...Anthony Davis and Robin Lopez were too much. In fact there are a slew of teams that are like this: San Antonio being another (i.e. Duncan and Splitter). Also and in regards smaller teams...do you think drivers like Chris Paul or Tony Parker will attack the basket knowing that D12 and Asik were waiting for them? Ha! Instead they will take jump shots. So yes...D12 could work at the 4, on the defensive end at least.
Dwight was originally a skinny PF that was the no.1 pick out of HS... and had a good looking jumpshot if you look at his draft video and workouts. He has commented about being an undersized 6'10" center before. He worked so hard in his first two off-seasons that he bulked up and became so powerful at moving people off the low-post block and just being able to out jump most centers that they moved him to that position temporarily. Of course temporarily became more permanent the more he dominated that position and became the the best center in the league and probable at one point the top 2-3 player in the league. He pretty much put the team on his back and brought them to the NBA finals. He eventually became very peeved at having to do all the work by himself underneath for Orlando (they surrounded him with shooters), he told them he wanted them to change the system or he was leaving. Of course this resulted in Dwightmare 1.0 when SVG was fired as coach, Dwight opted in, Dwight got traded to the Lakers, Dwight had back surgery... etc. Lakers really didn't understand him or treat him well, he came back months early from back surgery and tore his Labrum muscle. MDA was hired as coach over Phil Jackson and the system was MDA's PNR offense with no post play at all. Now he's in Houston, I'm sure he let the Rocket's couching staff and management know what he wants and they said they will build the system around him. One of the things he wants (from the Orlando experience) is not to have to do all the work by himself down low. Hence the rumors about Dwight wanting Asik there. I think Dwight is happy to go back to playing PF if it allows him to post-up (ala Greg Smith). I think only 2-3 touches a quarter to start off until his post game improves. He is much quicker laterally than Asik and can defend the 4 better. Dwight is also the best PNR big man in the league and can do that more easily from the 4 position. Having said Dwight is the better 4. Aisk and Dwight Twin Tower combination will only see limited minutes as an experiment. How much they play the twin towers really depends on match-ups. I think against Marc Gasol and Z-Bo they could probably go the whole game.
Let's face it--DMo and Jones probably won't start until they are more NBA ready. Which means...that we either go big (Asik, Howard) or we go small (Howard, Garcia). Last year in the playoffs we went small, starting Garcia at the PF. However there are a lot of teams where that just won't work; and in which case it would probably be good to keep Lin at PF with his fast break, full-court-pass style of play. We're gonna need it, because Garcia will have a hard time guarding Al Jefferson!
WHO CARES NBA PLAYERS ARE NOT MEASURED BY THEIR HEIGHT WITHOUT SHOES Some other players who are less than 6'10" without shoes: DeAndre Jordan Amare Stoudemire* Dirk Nowitzki* Kevin Love* Al Jefferson* Hakeem Olajuwon Greg Monroe Anderson Varejao* Kendrick Perkins* Emeka Okafor* Al Horford* Nene *Asterik signifies SHORTER THAN DWIGHT HOWARD I could go on with this all day. Most centers in the NBA are actually 6'10.5" or shorter without shoes. But guess what, we don't LIST them that way because we use their height WITH SHOES, because that is the NBA's standard! Jesus Christ.
LOL C all the way. No joke but their were people saying he would be a SF in the NBA when he was in high school.
