Did anyone see the postgame interview where he said the two of them weren't on the same page and that Howard needs to adjust his priorities? The feelings must be pretty strong because the bluntness and detail of SVG's comments were unusual and personal.
What, in general, were they not seeing eye to eye on? And sorry, DaDa, Donovan is staying in Gainesville, right where he belongs.
He said Howard is getting frustrated on offense and it's affecting his play on both ends of the floor. Howard needs to focus on rebounding and defense, not offense. They showed stats where Howards rebounding and blocked shots have fallen a lot the last 10-11 games, including zero blocked shots the last two games, which is a shocker. ESPN showed a clip where LeBron went to the basket and Howard didn't even attempt to stop him. He also said they aren't on the same page and that Howard needed to adjust his priorities. What's shocking to me is SVG going public with this and zeroing in on one player, which isn't the typical way NBA coaches handle things.
Despite what Dwight Howard says in interviews he does not appear, at least to me, to be the humble, nice guy that he portrays himself as. He gets frustrated when the game isn't going his way or when he is getting outplayed by opposing big men. Have a look at his take down of Yao earlier this season. It was nothing more than a punk kid getting frustrated because he doesn't know how to react when he isn't the biggest guy on the court. I know he works hard but have also heard that he is a narcissist and focuses a bit too much on bodybuilding and not functional basketball strength (yes, there is a difference). I think he is going to become a real force in the league but something about his attitude from day one tells me there is a mental issue that is going to keep him from being on level of the legends of this game.
Magic fired Brain Hill because he didnt include Howard too much in the offense! Now Howard didnt see thing eye to eye with his new coach SVG because SVG asked him to play more defense? Hmm, how many coaches do the Magic need to hire in order to imporve Howard's offense?
DH can find some more offense from his free throw shooting. and i think that's more than enough offense he needs.
Going through the media to motivate a player is a real tricky thing. Phil Jackson is a master of this but he has a much better resume than SVG. Jackson also never picked the best player on his team to publicly call out, he called out Kobe, but never Shaq, not even when Shaq dogged it for most of the regular season.
The thing with Howard is his post moves aren't as polished as the so called "experts" make it out to be and he isn't a good passer out of the double. He is essentially a 7-foot dunk machine. Now when teams start to clog up the middle (ie the Rockets tonight against the Blazers), he is going to struggle because they don't have a great entry passer like T-Mac. Howard should focus on defense and rebounding and the offense will come to him as the game goes on. Or if he wants the offense to run through him, then he needs to practice his post moves outside of two-three feet.
This has been my impression of Dwight Howard, too. You've really pegged it: When he makes mistakes or gets outplayed for even a short stretch, he becomes frustrated, loses his temper, and puts some elbow grease on the fouls he commits, occasionally following through to pull or take down the defender. It's cheap and needlessly effusive. He could stand to learn how to channel that energy into useful means. I don't like his attitude in the above situations or his body language. Too often he appears to lack a conscience on defense unless it involves blocking someone's shot. He doesn't read opposing offenses as well as I expected he would this far into his career, and what's more, he doesn't seem to care. For someone who obviously has all the physical tools necessary to play basketball at the highest level, this disappoints me.
I think one of the reasons he shows frustration is because of all the fouling. And more often than anyone in the NBA (yes, even more than Yao), Howard gets mugged and chopped very hard. I can understand some of it because of the brutality. Then again, he should learn to make FTs and punish the other team. It's so easy to just hack him and put him on the line. He is a link if you want to learn more about last night. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/basketball/magic/orl-magic1208feb12,0,6551563.story
howard needs to develop some kind of shot, everyone thinks hakeem came into this league with raw athletecism but Hakeem could should 8 to 12 feet out when he came in the nba and even though he didn't feature it as much as he did later he could shoot a jump hook. even shaq had a jump hook. I like howard a lot and I love to see him just jump over people and over power but it didn't take long for teams just to figure to pack the lane. its not hard when a guy can't make a five foot shot.
That's way off. Dwight doesn't have a bad bone in his body. Other people beat him up, but he does not retaliate. He's more agressive this year, but he is not very physical. He's just so gifted that he doesn't have to wrestle for rebounds. He outjumps people, he rarely pushes them.
It's ironic this comes out....and he is supposed to be the best center in league at least by some columnist, ESPN, and a number of fans.
I respectfully disagree, but first off, let me clarify my position: I don't intend to say he's a bad person, or that even his actions in the given circumstances are bad per se, only that as the competition steadily increases, I’ve observed that his frustration becomes evident and at times, he becomes very "chippy." I've never seen him physically push someone down, but I have seen on numerous occasions instances in which Dwight has been unnecessarily demonstrative of his frustration toward his opponent after the whistle blows on a play. What's more, is that I can't recall a situation where this occurred in which it seemed to help his play. If anything, his game appears to suffer from it. And I may be wrong, but I think it has less to do with any contact he absorbs than with the sheer act of having someone not back down from him and attempt to compete with him. There’s no doubt he takes a lot of punishment, but so do many low-post players. It is not a new thing; I've observed this since his second year in the league. And though you may disagree, I can't pretend I find the behavior irksome, especially given the golden boy image conferred upon him so universally. What does this all mean? Well, obviously, very little. At the end of the day he's a great basketball player who has incredible strengths and advantages, and, of course, some areas he should pursue to work on. That which I've discussed is not one of them; he should play and react as he feels fit. But I don't have to like it.
Dwight is my favorite non Rockets player, but I have to agree with this, or at least say that I've noticed instances like this before. I'd be curious to see how many loose ball fouls he has in comparison to other big men.
