[ClutchFans] Houston shouldn't turn its back on Dwight Howard

It has declined... But watch when Thornton comes into the game with Howard and watch how active he gets... Especially on the PNR...

He knows Thornton will get him the ball... Makes a huge difference on effort when you know that you might get the ball..

T_Man

 

Look it's not about Howard being a great guy or what he's done for the city . It's his inconsistent play of energy and desire. The guy should be killing it from a def side of the ball everynight. And getting his dunks on offense. If u look at the greats of the Bigs in this lg they gave it every night. Dwight has not done that as a Rocket period. The ge of basketball is a team sport not who gets most touches . Do your job he was def player of year 3 times where is that now ?

 

I completely agree with Clutch on this one.

 

Considering our biggest weakness is defense and rebounding getting rid of our best defensive player would be basically calling it a wrap on this season. If he decides to walk at the end of the season, that's fine. Wouldn't we have a ton of cap space between Lawson and Howard coming off the books?

 

Very nice article. All the Dwight hate gets me annoyed to no end.

The people who sit behind my seat do nothing but dog Dwight out all game, every game (even when he's not playing). Dwight was 10-10 from the field with 14 rebounds, and they still complained about him the entire game. They complain loudly to make sure everyone around them can hear. They are the most annoying fans I have ever experienced in Toyota Center.

Last game the guy said this:

"Dwight is actually having a monster game...because of all those crappy rebounds he's getting." (aka putbacks)

 

This mostly sums up my feelings about Howard: he's a great person, a fun guy and all but NOT a championship caliber NBA player. I respect the hell out of Clutch but his article strikes me as yet another article providing acceptance for a so-called superstar player who can't get the job done. I saw (and continue to see) the same stuff about T-Mac. He was genuine and honest also and they didn't win with him as well. That's supposed to be the goal isn't it? Winning a title? It's a goal that somehow has gotten lost in all of static and consternation over the Rockets' so-so start this season. Instead of the focus being on winning basketball, it's about ancillary crap like this - which is a major reason why this team finds itself in the position it is today.

I looked at the first game last night - at LeBron, at Durant, at Westbrook, at Love and those guys weren't out there grinning or having fun - they were trying to win. That's the difference here - we have Howard who is out there smiling because he's having fun and getting paid lots of money and even as his skill set is clearly diminishing, he stands to make even more money. Who wouldn't be smiling in such a situation? Especially since the emphasis here is on everything else and that the fans will love you and the team no matter how much both continue to come up short.

 

Bravo, Clutch.

Agree entirely.

 

That would annoy me to no end. Keep your pbp hatin' comments in your house and the internet. Don't bring that crap to the game.

If I were you, I would call my rep and ask for a new seat location. First, I guess, I'd try to joke with them to get some camaraderie going. But, failing that, talk to my rep.

 

First of all, the article wasn't really about whether Dwight was a championship level, or a comparison of him to other NBA superstars. It was more about Dwight's narrative in the media not affecting us as fans.

Secondly, what CURRENT NBA center in the league has the ability to take over the game (at the level of the players you mentioned - Westbrook, KD, Lebron)? Dwight is as close to being able to do that at the center position as any other center in the league.

 

Thank you, Clutch. CF needed to read this from you.

People want to criticize something because of our terrible start, and the media unfairly turned Dwight into an easy target. Seems par for the course for them. I expect better from Rockets fans.

 

great write-up clutch. Dwight has been all heart in the playoffs and Dwight has been a team player. Agreed that there is no reason to start bashing Dwight; the current team's failures are not his fault.

However, I don't think we are contenders this year, and we should probabaly move on from Dwight by the deadline or after the season so we can do some serious restructuring. He's certainly not part of our future.

 

Yes, I did not see any problem on Dwright. He is no long good, but he is not one who causes the problem for the current team. There are several problems on the current team, starting form the Morey coach selection, then the Harden attitude without a control from a good coach. All should be on Morey when the team is winning or losing. By the way, the role players are just bad this year, Morey made a mistake in the role player construction this year too.

 

Not enough guessing about Codman's post..

PINT?

 

or the lowercase 'ate'

We're trading Lawson for the third Curry brother, eddie.

 

First off - Clutch excellent write up and breakdown of the situation. Howard is not washed up, he certainly isnt the player he was in Orlando but age and injuries will do that - he is still better than 90% of the centers out there.

As for Codman

I bolded the things that stood out to me. The internal in quotes seems interesting to me. How much more internal can it get besides the locker room? To me it means front office. Guessing there is some sort of problem between Morey and Les or Les/Morey with the coaching staff, or Morey with the coaching staff? Its not a secret that Morey has a large part in the style of play of the Rockets. Its like we have a GM/Coach at times.

Right now my guess is that its more of a struggle between a FO philosophy and a coaching style the coaches want. One thing I have notice is that we have shot (at least it seems this way) more midrange jumpers this season compared to seasons past.

Morey's FO is definitely a "process" thing - I mean its what Hinkie preaches in philly. I have no issue with what Morey has done so far and he has done a super impressive job with this team and putting it all together.


Secondly the terrible idea to put james and dwight against each other seems off (as in out of the blue to say that). To me it seems like the front office is telling James one thing and the coaching staff telling dwight another. Because i mean James is an amazing player and the personification of the type of player the FO wants. I mean they went after Kevin Martin for a reason and Harden is Kevin Martin on steroids and then some.

Traditional coaching philosophy though is an inside out approach when you have a big man like Dwight. Coaching staff seems to want to get the ball out of Harden's hand and have him play off the ball more so he can be more of a threat and the offense less predictable.

Cyberx mentioned Dwight has issues with Harden but they are only on-court related and aren't off court related. Maybe it stems from Howard wanting to run what the coaching staff is telling him and Harden trying to do what the FO is telling him?

the PINT and ate is interesting - it doesnt seem forced in there like but the way its written is deliberate. I dont know if it references any player initials but as always with trades things may not work out last minute. I am going to try to decode this a bit more before speculating.

 

I kind of read "internal" to mean its within the players. We're not going to be where we need to be until the players ask more of themselves.

But the idea that there could be conflict about what system the FO builds the team for, and what is/isn't working on court is probably very true, too. I've been noticing that the players now how the green light for mid-range shots (which didn't seem to be the case last year).

 

Codman's sig

And I think hes spelled it PATience before, right? So that's confusing..

He also asked recently how we'd feel about acquiring an expiring, who was a frequent flyer, and called fam.to.Dwight...so Josh, it seems.

 

Dwight at this point is a very good role player. Clearly he can't lead a team and be that cornerstone to a championship. He's a 10-15 million dollar player for 3 years. Not a Max 5 year player

 

If we get rid of Howard, what do we get in return? our team might suck even more plus it might make the Rockets organization look worse that they look at players as assets and Adidas advertisements.

 

If the emphasis here was focused on basketball, this article would not be necessary. Yet with Howard, it's been everything else but basketball. Refresh my memory on just why they got him: Was it to win an NBA championship or to provide a continuing narrative that has nothing to do with the former? That's my problem with Howard: Since his stint in Orlando it's been everything else BUT basketball with him and all of the extra stuff that swirls around him. I'm not hearing this type of chatter about SA, GS, CLE, ATL, CHI or even MIL. The team is currently 13-14 and 7th in the West yet this is what we are discussing (along with the breaking Ty Lawson story - yet another distraction) instead what it will take to pursue GS, SA and the rest of the teams ahead of us.

Now this is what we should be talking about - the role of a traditional center like Howard in light of the paradigm shift in NBA play toward small ball as espoused and practiced by the likes of GS. We should be discussing how Howard's skill set fits in this world of zone play and small ball and whether his diminishing skills can still help the Rockets win another title. Instead, with Howard, we are discussing everything else.