I dont get it every1 complains about Juwan, but Swift was the dissapoint,ent last season at PF, he is lazy, terrible, late for practice, skips team meetings, gets suspended for games, and eveyr1 is crying about losing Swift. (note im not attacking any1 here, just curious why some Rocket fans hate on Howard)
i dont hate howard..but he is definately a liability...he cant play D, he's slow, not athletic, old, doesnt hustle..or his lack of athletic ability makes it appears like he doesnt hustle... some pros: Hes a veteran, he has a decent stroke from the freethrow range, and noone questions his work ethic. bottom line..we'll need an upgrade at the 4 if not this season..the next
Howard wasn't any better on the court than Swift, and yet the coach and the commentators continually praised him like he was the team's MVP or something. I'm sure he's a great character guy, a hard worker, but that doesn't mean he should get a pass for ineffective play.
Stromile is NOT lazy.. Yao even quoted himself about how he likes Stromile b/c he works hard but the media doesn't see it. I like Yao, so i'll take his word for it.
you know... stromile has taught us this much: athleticism or potential or ability means NOTHING if you don't play with your head. stromile could jump out of a gym, but got beat on defense more than anyone i've seen, and misses easy shots because his offensive technique is to DUNK IT every time. i agree that he was the main failure at PF. having said that, juwon at least plays smart and hard, which you cannot say for stro. i agree that juwon gets more hate than deserved, but he is not the ideal power forward for us. we need a bruiser next to yao, not finesse. everyone was in love with what stro COULD'VE been for us.
People would be crying about losing Howard too if he was thrown into a trade where nothing was gotten in return for him. Howard is slow, unathletic, and a liability on defense. I don't care how nice he is, he doesn't cut it as an NBA starter, especially on a team with championship aspirations. Swift and Howard are both terrible. To say otherwise would mean that you're a complete homer. Name me 5 starting PFs worse than Howard.
juwan is too old. hes supposed to be the backup scorer next to tmac and yao. hes just not cutting it and stromile is just playing like how he did in memphis.
Everyone loves him because he is a " savy veteran". With age comes wisdom and he is supposed to bring locker room leadership. All that is crap.. he is a power forward who can just score about 10 pts a game and not much more. Not that swift did better last year but he didnt have a chance to show his potential along side mcgrady and yao for a full season but on the contrast howard has. O well can't do much now can we.
stro was completely inept ont he court. atleast juwan somewhat understands what's going on and can nail that open top of the key jumper.
Combine what everybody else has said and add the fact that he is extremely well paid with several years left on his contract, and you realize why most are annoyed with him. He's a decent player, but his contract helps to limit the Rockets finacially.
Wasn't Howard our leading scorer when YAO and TMAC were both out? He can still score but is certainly a liability on defense. Hopefully he will only be a backup this season. I do respect him as a player but ideally we would move him this offseason. the man is on his way to scoring 15k points in his career, so he does not deserve any hate, he loves the game and wants to keep playing. I just hope it's somewhere else.
When T-Mac & Yao were on the court as well, he sure looked good to me. All Juwan does is hit that mid-range, and that's not a guarantee everynight. With Stro, you'd get a dunk, put back, or a mid-range shot.
He's a terrible fit next to Yao. Slow PF plus slow C in a help and rotation defensive scheme is pure suicide. For all the grief that Stro gets, his plus/minus numbers next to Yao are much, much better than Juwan's. And with three more years on his contract he's only going to get worse and worse. At least with Stro, there's a chance that he'll get marginally better just through repetition and familiarity. But Juwan's only going to get older and slower.
Howard > Stro Sure, Stro is the better athlete, but he's just not a very good basketball player. I think Juwan is okay. He just doesn't defend and rebound as much as you'd like from your PF. He's a bit of a tweener - not skilled enough to play SF, not physical enough to play PF. He's not bad, but you'd like to pair him with someone more physical. Stro was supposed to be that guy, but he's awful. I actually think Chuck Hayes compliments Juwan very well. If Chuck could develop a 15ft jumper, he could really make a difference for this team.
A lot of the Howard haters are the same guys who were b****ing about Kenny Smith when he was here. They just gotta have a scapegoat.....
Howard can give you 11 ppg and 6 rpg, while shooting a high percentage. He also sets solid screens and knows where to be at all times. Question: the "knowledgeable" fans on here claim Howard stinks defensively---well, who did he get burned by this year? As I recall, the Rockets never had to worry about an opponent's power forward hurting them because they knew Juwan gives his all defensively, contests every shot and boxes out 24/7. So, really, oh wise Clutch fans, tell me how he's so bad defensively?
I don't think many people hate Howard, we just think he's absolutely horrible. He's a defensive liability and only seems to be effective with the ball in his hands.
