I love Dwight! Without him, we would still be like PHX Suns. Battling for #8 spot. Only thing I would like to see is if Dwight can move his left foot forward during shooting Free throws. I truly believe this would help him shoot better percentage overall.
Didn't stuff the boxscore his last game but being one of the team's leaders in +/- tells me he was at least very useful for the team vs the Nets.
remember when we all said...if howard plays to his strenghts : defense/rebounding and quits trying to be Hakeem in the post..it's best for the team? Well that is what he is doing. As well as taking it a bit easy because of his knee. We are winning, I respect it. need him FRESH for the playoffs.
I enjoy watching Rockets games, but I'm by no means as savvy an observer as many of the excellent posters here. I was wondering if anybody could put together a list of stats and comparisons with other league players that highlight Dwight's dirty work and other contributions. I feel like there's probably a lot of advanced data out there that shows that he's having a major effect on defense and in many other ways, but the most obvious thing everybody sees is his muted offensive presence this season. I would love to see some numbers that show the true story. Thanks in advance.
I have a slightly different take... Spoiler Only thing I would like to see is if Dwight can <strike>move his left foot forward</strike> make his free throws <strike>during</strike> when shooting Free throws. I truly believe this would help him shoot a better percentage overall... ....... ....... .......
Disagree. With the current roster, replace Dwight with Asik and we should have at least the same or better record
I don't think without Dwight we would have a great roster. People want to play with superstar and Dwight is a superstar in today's league of pathetic centers. With free throws. I feel like bringing his left foot forward will straighten his shoulders and allow him a little more arc on free throws and hence stop those back iron hitting free throws that he most of the time shoots
Except for jsmith, I think harden was enough for ariza, papa, terry, and brewer to get on board. Dwight himself joined the rockets to play with one in ten years star harden I guess my point it, the first year harden was here, even without Howard, the rockets made 8th seed So not having Howard the next year does not necessarily mean the rockets will be stuck at 8th seed. And we are going to assume roster is set and we simply replace Howard with Asik then I'm pretty sure we will still have similar or even better record with the way bone on bone and coasting dwert is playing
Right because those are so easy to come by and they won't ask for talent to give back Thank you Dwight, for coming to Houston when the national media was telling you not to. For trying your best to carry us through that POR series. For continuing to be a defensive anchor for one of the elite defenses in the league. No one could replace your role, even the younger and more talented guys. You don't take bad shots on offense, your post hooks are still high %. You just need to knock them down, DMo was where you're at last year. I think you just need to keep shooting them. It's not like our team is suffering from it. He'll start hitting them soon, I believe.
I think it's debatable, especially since most of those pieces were trades that we obtained, with the exception of J-Smoove of course. With that being said, if Howard was not on this team, we'd be struggling to be 8th seed. He's the defensive anchor for our elite defense that got us to a successful start in the season. If his post hooks start dropping come playoff time, then we're going to win a championship!
I think On/Off numbers are interesting to look at, but I tend to take them with a grain of salt because the sample size isn't great and there are various factors in play. But because Dwight missed so many games I think his On/Off numbers hold more water than the typical star's. Dwight's only played 46% of the total minutes the Rockets have played this year (Harden's at 75% for comparison). So let's see what the numbers say... Dwight On/Off: ON ---- 107.9 ORtg --- 97.3 DRtg ---- +10 OFF --- 104.8 ORtg --- 104.8 DRtg --- 0 For perspective... 97.3 DRtg would rank #1 in the league 104.8 DRtg would rank #10 in the league 105.9 DRtg is the league average So without Dwight, the defense is still solid. But they go from "a little better than average" to "BEST IN THE LEAGUE" when Dwight is playing. 11.3 RPG -- 1.6 BPG... Not quite the 14/3 he was putting up at his peak in Orlando. But he's still making a big impact defensively. Even if his offense will never be consistently elite anymore, his two-way impact certainly is. He's also a guy you can tell isn't 100% healthy and is going harder some nights more than others. But a healthy Dwight Howard in the playoffs is still a total gamebreaker. Without him, this is a 40-45 win team out West that would be depending on Harden to do way too much.
My opinion is that it is not his posture or is shooting mechanics. It's the tempo. His shots are mostly straight but it is either short or too long. Recently, I have been able to tell if he will miss/make the shot based on the tempo on how he releases the ball. Remember last year when he said he was singing a song in his head? That was for tempo. He seems to have gone away from that.
