Is Deandre Jordan Really Better than Current Dwight Howard??

Jon Barry said he voted for deandre over Howard for all NBA team.

 

No way. Howard has much bigger expectations. Deandre goes 12/15/3 blocks and it's a "big" night. For Dwight, that's hohum.

 

He mentioned Dwight and Cousins missing games...

 

I think DeAndre has played incredibly well this series and is a big reason why they're tied. When Dwight has big game this team tends to win and Dwight has put up the better stats by far though.

I don't think DeAndre is a better defender but he does have the more defensive impact in this series. The Rockets don't take midrange shots and the Clippers (especially Paul) do. This allows DeAndre to literally camp the area under the basket until there is a player that blows by their man. Its simple and effective. There are times when the fast breaks and switches get DeAndre to guard closer to the perimeter. The difference is that almost all of our guys minus Harden are natively neutralized when they drive if Jordan is set up.

Howard is a relied on for total defensive purposes. He's mobile enough to close out on perimeter shooters and so when ball movement up roots Howard as that anchor it typically leads to an easy pass to a cutter or another player slashing to the basket. Also, Griffin and Paul are hardly being neutralized by Howard who is constant either holding DeAndre or switching breifly for other defensive assignments.


Deandre is not necessarily better but he's being asked to do less and so he's become specialized in those areas whereas Howard is doing more than just a rim protector and a receiver of lobs. Howard has more of a total impact it's just not as much impact in the places that DeAndre lives in.

 

Athletically, DeAndre has some length on Dwight which has allowed him to go over the top of Dwight for a couple of impressive rebounds. I can't think of the last guy who went over the top of Dwight for boards on a consistent basis like DeAndre.

But at the same time, it's becoming clear as day that Dwight is still the stronger of the 2. DeAndre is a strong dude but Dwight is just freakishly strong and has that perfect wide shouldered power frame whereas DeAndre is a little thinner. I think Dwight has figured out that he needs to outmuscle/outposition DeAndre for boards instead of trying to outjump him.

Dwight is also clearly the more agile of the two on D, at the very least he seems to have much better defensive footwork than DeAndre. DeAndre looks like a fish out of water when he's asked to defend the perimeter on picks, Dwight plays a lot more under control in these situations. And Dwight's better footwork shows on the offensive end too when he makes smarter cuts and finds ways to get open.

Outside of length, Dwight is better than DJ in pretty much every which way. DeAndre is still a beast though.

 

good catch, he was getting lower and boxing deandre out much better last night with positioning instead of just trying to outjump him

 

so true. Even with Chris Paul as his PG, Deandre Jordan is ignorable on the offensive end.