Why will Dwight have a place in the great Houston legacy of centers

Where will Howard rank in the fine Houston legacy of dominant centers? Impossible to tell. So why should Howard fit into the legacy of dominant Houston centers?

To answer that question we have to look at why is a center included on Houston's legacy of great centers? I think that it comes down to the priorities of an opponent when scheming for a game against Houston. Does a team have to react to where the center is on the court for every minute of the game? Both on offense and defense? You might ask why this is important. The more players an opponent has to account for on the floor the more difficult defensive rotations become. For example on defense how do you switch a SG onto Howard when it completely opens up any remotely accurate lob pass for a dunk?

So let us look at the Dreams impact on the other team. Did they absolutely have to know where he was on the court every moment when playing defense? Yes of course they did. Give him a decent entry pass and it was going to be a bucket for Houston. Give the Dream a path to the ball on a rebound and you were not going to get a rebound. Basically the opponent had to dedicate an agile quick body to the Dream at all times. And many times he required a double team.

On offense the opponent had to know where the Dream was positioned for any shot within 10-15 feet of the basket. If the shot went up from anywhere Hakeem could get to, the shot many times were either altered or blocked. A powerful impact on any teams offense.

I would contend that Yao had a lesser, but similar effect on opponents game plans. On both sides of the ball.

Enter Sir Dwight Howard. Does he fit in the same mold as Yao and the Dream? I would say yes. On defense it is obvious. Howard has more impact on his teams defense than any other player in the last decade. With his incredible mobility and vertical leap Howard is arguable better than Yao on defense and perhaps approaches the lofty pinnacle of Hakeem.

On offense Dwight poses some interesting questions. He certainly is not cut from the same cloth as Yao and the Dream, who both excelled in scoring off of the entry pass. Dwight excels in opportunity points. Lobs, small temporary passing lanes, offensive put backs. Different? Yes. Less effective? I believe no to any great degree.

Maybe I am an optimist but I view next seasons Howard as a top 3 player in the NBA. I have only to look at the last 6 weeks of the previous season to gauge his progress off injury recovery. Is any player in the NBA equivalent or better on both sides of the ball? I will give you LBJ. I do not believe that there is any one else.

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Only if you have not proved yourself in industry as a great data analyst using predictive forest level statistical algorithms to predict future responses to defined inputs into a controlled population.

So no.