Idiotic to say we are better without Dwight. These threads are so boring. (and yes, I'm bored.) Now, if you want to ask are we better off trading him; that's a different story.
If Dwight could accept his limitations and slide into his role on offense like Dorsey does or Black did, it'd be sick. They're basically the same guy except Dwight is 100 times better at everything. But no, we gotta post him up and have him rack up all kinds of abuse, turnovers and offensive fouls. Meh.
I feel that Dwight is trying to do more than he actually can. Dwight wasn't a traditional back to the basket post player in Orlando, he was freak athlete that was a beast on defense and on the boards. I always wondered when will people see that Dmo is a better back to the basket post player than Dwight? In regards to the post, the offense should go through DMo and allow Dwight to focus on cleaning up the boards and defense similar to Tyson Chandlers role on the Mavs.
There wouldn't be threads like this if there was no cap limit. The Rockets are one of the most profitable businesses and Leslie Alexander spits at the league policy of a cap limited every chance he gets......
Don't be surprised when DeAndre Jordan gets a max or near max deal when he hits UFA this summer. Rim protection is expensive, and Howard is an elite rim protector. Dwight Howard is a defensive center with limited offensive moves? Who would have guessed? </sarcasm>
in some ways on the offensive end rockets are better but overall no, especially on defense. but, warriors kept their best league record going mostly withouut bogut. we have smith and jones who are atheltic and can block shots, and dmo who's tall and positional defender. might be able to stay in the top 5 seeding w/o dwight till march.
Easy answer is No. But let me give you some knowledge as to why. Howard changes the way teams play defense, and the way teams play offense. He can't just be ignored. While true that the offense runs a lot smoother when he is out, it's not true that the team is better without him. I think the problem is the plays that are called for him. He isn't a great post player, why? Because he over thinks. When he is good is when he makes quick decisions, not when he tries to back a man down. He needs to fake one way go the other or commit and go strong. But what needs to be run, is a lot of pick and roll plays where he commands attention, not post plays. There is no way our team is better defensively without Dwight, just no way. He makes things easier for the whole team knowing you have him back there, and then you can run for the fast break. So no we aren't better without Dwight, plus he is playing hurt and you can tell with his performance as of late. Be patient people.
In terms of ORtg, the team is better on offense with Dwight on the floor: http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/howardw01/on-off/2015/#on-off::none I know on/off Ortg isn't the end-all be-all metric, but, what are you using that leads you to a different conclusion?
And check out the juggernaut schedule when we went 8-3 without DH that everyone always points to Where exactly is it that we did so great. Pretty much every person on this bbs would have predicted 8-3 (7-4 at worst) over that list of teams. We beat DAL, MEM and PHO, and got destroyed by LAC and GSW with an embarrassing defeat to LAL. That is no different than the rest of the season. We couldn't shake the freaking Knicks at Home in a game Melo got injured in the first half, until Harden closes out the last 4 minutes with 10 points???. We barely beat Minn. SAC takes us to overtime??? HOU LAL L (-6) Did Not Play HOU DAL W (+3) Did Not Play HOU NYK W (+5) Did Not Play HOU SAC W (+13) Did Not Play HOU LAC L (-17) Did Not Play HOU MIL W (+14) Did Not Play HOU MEM W (+9) Did Not Play HOU MIN W (+2) Did Not Play HOU PHO W (+5) Did Not Play HOU GSW L (-12) Did Not Play HOU SAC W (+4) Did Not Play Ppl using that run to make a case for Rockets without DH are reinventing history to their advantage. It's just lazy debating tactics.
