how did I leave out defense ????????????? I said as long as hes playing D & rebounding well he is meeting expectations here. and youre right, defense is really important. Here are the top 5 defensive players in the NBA right now according to nba.com 1. Anthony davis 3.6 blks - defrtg 102.9 2. roy hibbert 3.0 - defrthfg blks 90.0 3. ibaka 2.5 blocks - defrtg 98.4 4. henson 2.1 blks - defrtg 107.3 5. d.jordan 2.1 blks - defrtg 103.1
Im happy hes here but if yall want me to post that HOWARD is best on defense in the NBA and perfect here I just cant do that. Top Rim Protectors (OppFG% at rim v.Player, *min.6 FGA/gm & 5GP) 1.Hibbert 39.7% 2.B.Lopez 40.2% 3.Henson 41.8% 4.Noah 42.3% 5.Duncan 43.5% — NBA.com/Stats (@nbastats) December 12, 2013
Dwight Howard is still very very good, one of the best. People who think that he is not delivering are just haters or simply ungrateful fans. I don't think he is as good as his Orlando days but I don't think he had declined much either.
Hibbert, Duncan, and Noah are surrounded with plus defenders; the Rockets are largely returning the cast of guys that was approaching league-worst defensively when Asik sat last year. So the rim FG% stat is context-driven as well, just as most stats are. I reckon that if that's the way you want to define defensive value, that Dwight has already more than proven his value in that regard: "The Dwight Effect: A New Ensemble of Interior Defense Analytics for the NBA" Note that in this study Dwight was also lower ranked in raw FGP defense than guys like Hibbert and Duncan, but #1 ranked in terms of deterring journeys to the rim in the first place.
You're basing these stats on minimum SIX field goals attempted? Sample size much? Guess that explains Brook Lopez.
This team is clearly better with Howard in the lineup. Anyone who says otherwise is a fool. Dwight certainly can do more offensively, but I'll take the double double he puts up almost nightly.
You're the winner of the daily double ! This is probably too true. I am more then satisfied with our BIG MAN.
Share these stats with us. I have a hard time just taking your word for it. By the way dwight is not doing horrible at all. He's doing fantastic. 3 straight games with 18 plus rebounds. This time last year we were a 500 team. Now we are 15 and 7
Straight up. Its good to see some common sense. Some people on this board are super negative no matter what. I swear we could have lebron on this team and win back to back championships and people would still just be super negative all the time.
I just did check out those stats. I don't think they prove that there's a causal relationship between good defense with dwight on floor and bad defense with dwight off floor. By the way, just because we're on the internet doesn't mean that you need to name call man. I'm just on here to talk about the rockets.
The last 4 or 5 games, if I'm not mistaken, Dwight's FT is impressive. Any idea who is his shooting coach? Gotta give props to that guy. Although, I didn't see any significant changes in his shooting stroke. Maybe mentally?
He's only going to get better. Remember that he's barely played with this team, they're still learning where/when to feed him the ball, and he is learning an all-new system. Not to mention he's being routinely mentored by some of the world's most experienced post players.
Can we all just agree that statistics have very little application in this debate? I mean, seriously, look at the sample size folks. Anytime someone pulls a number out of a bag it's to support his own point anyways, so they're all going to be biased from the start. A good assessment of our team this year vs last year came from D. Morey on the radio this morning. Basically, last year and the past few years before that, we were beating the bad teams and losing to the good teams as expected. This year we have the ability to beat the good teams. We have the ability to beat anyone in a 7 game series. End of story for now. Keep watching to find out more!
I completely agree. Statistics can lead to wrong conclusions if viewed in the wrong context. Especially if its a small sample size. Like that statistic that says teams that run the ball more win more in the nfl. Yes the statistic can back that up because team that have a big lead run the ball constantly at the end of games to protect from getting turnovers. However, its obvious to everyone that they got the lead by passing. Another flawed statistic, was back when people said the lakers won more games when kobe took less shots and lost when he took more shots. Yes that's statistically true but the real reason for that is most likely whenever the lakers as a team were playing poorly kobe had to take it upon himself to try to shoot them back into the game. When examining statistics its important to remember that correlation does not always equal causation. Don't be fooled by some argument backed up by a couple of numbers. Always think critically.
I know morey loves trades but i think that's a line he wouldn't cross. Its pretty immoral at that point. This is a huge free agent that we just picked up. No max player free agent would ever sign with morey/les again.
