Dwight Howard Says He Doesn't Take Jumpers Because Of A Crippling Fear Of Missing

They both quit on the team - that is taboo for me as a fan, I immediately dismiss them as Rockets.

Dwight could have been a contributor, he chose to worry about his next contract more than winning.

**** HIM !

DD

 

Uh, you want Dwight to shoot jumpers because that's the way the league is trending? Shooting jumpers has never been a strength of Dwight, so I don't understand why you and others want him to be a jump shooter. What does he do best? Rebound the ball and block shots. If he's a jump shooter, it'll be hard on him (and the rest of the team) if he isn't the first guy under the rim to try and get an offensive rebound.

It is inherently statistically more likely that a layup/dunk would go in more often, compared to a 10-foot jumper, yes. Why doesn't DeAndre pick and pop with CP3, but rather, roll to the rim every time? Because dunks and layups are easier to make than jumpers. You're stupid if you don't believe that line of thinking. If I was a coach / fan / fellow teammate, I'd rather my guy drive into the lane for a contested layup than settle for a contested jumper. But that's just me.

You're getting on my case about comparing Dwight to Bogut when you're already categorizing Dwight as a terrible offensive option? lol. I'm comparing Dwight and Bogut because their respective strengths lie in the defensive side of the ball. But you're saying that Dwight should be criticized for not taking jumpers, when again, THAT'S NOT HIS STRENGTH.

I'll repeat what I said: Dwight is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. If he shoots tons of jumpers, he'll be "taking away shots from Harden" and as his rebounding numbers go down, people will be telling Dwight to go back into the post. If he doesn't shoot jumpers and stays as the player he is (rebounds, blocks), then he's apparently a "mental midget" who should be criticized for not "advancing his game."

I'm no Rockets insider, but I'm willing to believe that Dwight's outside game is worse than his inside game. So the fact that people are calling him out on not shooting jumpers in-game, is baffling.

tl;dr By taking away Dwight from the paint, and having him resort to shooting jumpers, you're taking away Dwight's best factor. When the other team's bigs leave Dwight wide open because they clog the lane due to a Harden penetration, and Dwight misses the shot, that's a completely empty possession.

I'm all for players trying to improve their offensive games, if it can be done. Griffin developed a jumper. Kawhi developed a 3pt shot. But I just don't see Dwight being able to do the same thing.

Not sure where you're getting "100s of millions of dollars" from, but ok. This isn't baseball.

You're kidding yourself if you didn't want the ORL version of Dwight. Kevin Love was empty stats. Dwight was dominant back then. Best 5 in the league since Yao, and against every other center except Yao. So that's saying something.

No one is saying Dwight will become the next great Rockets center. We all just wanted him to be enough to win a title(s), given James Harden, Morey, and every other important person in this organization. So I don't know why that, in particular, needed to be said.

 

He is done. Average, Tyson Chandler level C...

 

He's also a big liar



Magic Johnson says Dwight Howard is lying -- telling TMZ Sports he NEVER told DH that he had no chance of making it to the NBA back when he was in 10th grade.

Howard made the claims Tuesday night on "Inside the NBA" -- telling Charles Barkley that naysayers like Magic Johnson have motivated to be a great player for years.

"I’ll never forget the day I came in here and you [Charles Barkley] told me I wasn’t going to be good in the NBA. And I’ll never forget the day that Magic Johnson said I wasn’t going to make it to the NBA when I was in the 10th grade. And that stuff drives me every day to want to be one of the greatest players to play the game."

Since dream-crushing doesn't exactly sound like the Magic we all know, we called him up for comment -- and were given the following statement:

"I never said that to him." -- Magic Johnson

So, who ya gonna believe? Seems pretty obvious to us ...

 

this is a bit of an overstatement. I cannot believe that Magic Johnson remembers EVERY statement he has ever made to a 10th grade high school basketball player over the past 20 or 30 years. Whereas Dwight has told this story for years and years without modification:

http://www.vladtv.com/article/49152/magic-johnson-told-dwight-howard-he-would-never-play-in-the-nba

So while I get that you don't like Dwight, ease up on the 'Dwight's a liar' narrative. Who knows what Magic said to Dwight 15 years ago, but certainly WHATEVER he said lit a fire under Dwight's fanny to bulk up and make it to the pros.

 

100's of millions in terms of how much Howard has been paid to play NBA basketball over his 10+ years. He's one of the highest paid players, and I think it's safe to say that most people feel like he should justify that high paycheck with more skills, more effort, more respect, more passion, and more dedication to the game. It's called earning the superstar paycheck which he's been given... (which I personally don't think he deserves)

And no, I have never kidded myself about him... I never cared for Howard's game even when he was with Orlando, young and athletic. Because that's ALL that he was.

I believe in character, more than size and athleticism. And he never showed much character when it came to fulfilling his potential, or having the true desire to be great. That was always obvious.

And why did the Rockets PR fiasco need to be brought up?

Because... If all the Rockets wanted out of him was to be a super high paid, glorified ROLE PLAYER, to help Harden and company compete for a championship... then why the hell would they EVEN NEED to roll out the red carpet, call in all of the super Rockets/NBA legendary centers... and line them all up like Howard was the next coming?!

That was a huge mistake on their part, because it set Howard up for failure right from the start. And they set the fans up for disappointment too.
They paraded him like he was gonna be legendary. And almost anyone with ANY basketball IQ whatsoever, absolutely knew Howard was not gonna become something new after almost 10+ years in the league already.