Dwight's averages: 13.2 pts, 12.2 rebs, 1.2 blcks, 1.2 assists on 62.4% TS while anchoring the Atlanta defense. Guess why Atlanta swept the Rockets this year? It's cuz Dwight carved up our bigs on D and dunked all over them on O. He's even hitting his fts over 50% this year so teams can't do hack a dwight anymore. He's not getting paid like Harden, Dwight is making just 2M more than Ryan Anderson which is like elite role player money. If Anderson put up these numbers Rockets would be the no 1 seed in the league but I guess let's just blame Dwight for everything wrong on the Hawks.
I think it's too late, Atlanta made a huge mistake by giving Bazemore all that money (sucks to be them) and now they are compensating by running Dwight ragged in the regular season when he really should be getting Nene treatment to preserve whatever is left of his knees. I honestly don't get the hate on Dwight, people just routinely look down on him because he doesn't growl or scowl on the court. Kobe legitimately broke up a dynasty and then cried and demanded trades when he couldn't hack it on his own, he even quit on his team in the playoffs but I guess it's fine for him to be like that but Dwight can't even pout when Houston went back on their verbal agreements regarding his touches. And then you have people like DD who love Parsons who totally screwed over the team that saved him from a career in Europe and even let him out of his rookie deal a year early but call Dwight a loser when he was the guy who took a chance on Houston and brought Rockets to its best finish since the Hakeem era. People always complain about entitled jerks in the NBA but the fans themselves are the ones who love these types of players in the first place.
Only 13.2 points for a person who considers himself an elite scorer? You also are conveniently ignoring the fact Dwight hasn't chucked his mandatory tantrum wherever he goes demanding the ball from the better teammates and reducing moral. Unless you think it's a big coincidence the Rockets moral last year was..... well no one knew the meaning of the word. Yet this season they all love playing with each other.. Team's aren't employing hack-a-dwight because the Hawks are just not a threat to serious teams. You can bet if they're in a tight playoff series then they'll be hacking him. Comparing Anderson and Howard is kind of apples and oranges considering Anderson happily came here knowing he'd play a specific role, and has been full of nothing but praise for the league MVP. Whereas.... well I think I covered it pretty well in the first part of my post.
The Hawks had the best ball movement in the league with SA and GS in the last two/three years, if you take out Horford and bring in Dwight, that is obviously going to take a huge it...less/worse ball movement -> lower quality shots -> lower %
I tend to agree on the Dwight hate. I'm not saying Dwight doesnt have on-court flaws, cuz he has plenty. He does get share of blame for Rockets regression for being pouty. I just think the Rockets DID over-sell Dwight on things impressionable to him on being a dominant force, told him whatever they could to get him to sign. But later they adjusted away from him just enough where it wasnt the terms he signed up for. I fault Dwight for being a baby about it because he simply didnt become that force and the Rockets needed to show his post-ups werent effective. But I wont pretend that the Rockets didnt change away from that. Dwight came for post-up touches & dominance, he didnt dominate, they didnt give him touches, so it was time to move on, simple as that.
It's not Horford and Dwight, it's their 3 pt shooting. http://soaringdownsouth.com/2016/12/30/poor-three-point-shooting-team-dont-mix/ Current Season 3 pt Percentage: 33.9% Current Season Opponent Percentage: 36% Last Season 3 pt Percentage: 35% Last Season Opponent 3 pt Percentage: 33.8% So last year Hawks were shooting better AND outshooting their opponent. Now it's the opposite. It doesn't matter if it's Dwight or Horford neither of them are in charge of defending the 3 pt line or making 3 pt shots so why should that affect ball movement and quality of shots? Lots of people just hate Dwight and want him to fail, so they look at Atlanta and automatically blame him. And I'm not even a Dwight fan, I only paid attention to him since he became a Rocket but the hate on the guy is ridiculous.
Honestly for me last year was everyone's fault, but if I were to blame anyone it would be Rockets FO. First of all they hired a dumb coach who didn't know wtf he was doing and then they fired him too quickly and replaced him with someone even more inept. Secondly they should have put down the fire in the locker room between Dwight and Harden instead of taking sides. Dwight and Harden aren't the first dominant big and wing to play together, in fact Tmac and Yao had problems playing together initially to the point that they were taking turns on the court but JVG always made sure his two stars didn't have any beef with each other and had the two of them stick to it until they clicked. I think at the end of the day Dwight just wanted to feel valued by the organization, I mean look at him in Atlanta he's not demanding post touches. Rockets FO should have realized that need instead of freezing him out and telling him to shut up and keep rebounding. Tmac was the same, JVG mentioned that Tmac would be moody and depressed so he always made sure to give positive comments. Someone who is pouty like Dwight can definitely perform lower than expected, but when motivated he can also perform way better than other people expect him to. Dude was the only guy in the Lebron era besides Lebron who took a crappy team to the Finals. He was a big asset for the Rockets and I think if they were managed properly HnH era would have produced more than a WCF appearance.
Are you serious? Horford is A LOT better than Dwight when it comes to passing and moving (with or without the ball), but also switching on defense and having the ability to stay in front of smaller guys...it definitely has something to do with them having Dwight and not more Horford...and yeah, those are also two big reasons why the Rockets wanted to sign Horford. And just to be clear, it was not a post against Dwight, i really don't care about him at this point, but the differences in those two players are very clear.
and so what? They are going to make the playoffs anyway since Detroit and Chicago are inconsistent and a mess. 5th or 8th seed doesn't matter they aren't going to win anyway without Millsap.
How anyone can defend Dwight at this point is amazing. He's on the downside of a career that should have been soooo much better. I'm still waiting for one go to move in the post and a 65% FT shooting year. He was an amazing physical talent that never fine tuned his basketball skills.
Playoff Dwight is going to unleash that mid-range shot he worked on all summer. How about those soon-to-be free agents Ilyasova, Millsap, Sefolosha, and Hardaway Jr. (RFA), though? You've got some explaining to do, Bud. Will he get better at his non-coaching job if he looks in the mirror and threatens to fire himself?
67% first year in the league. By all metrics, this is a "bounce-back" year for him. Nobody expected him to be the Orlando Dwight in Atlanta. He's doing his job.
9 minutes left, losing to BROOKLYN by double digits. They need to pull out this game or they could miss the playoffs. And they better hope Indiana, Miami and Chicago lose tonight.
This was my thing. I appreciate Harden's skill over Dwight's genetic fortune anyday. Dwight hasn't gained any skill since high school. He should be embarrassed. He spends all this time around the court and has less skill than the average fan. No surprise, because he's a complete clown. I found it harder to root for him than most any other Rocket I've watched.
