I would absolutely LOVE to be a fly on the wall at the end of season gm/coach/player exit interviews.
The defense argument does really work with this next fact: We are also 6-0 when Howard DNPs (since December 1st)
I wonder if the players instinctively "try harder" (clap clap) on defense knowing there isn't a goalie behind them. And so the D is better. Otherwise, I can't explain that.
The defensive scheme is horrendous and Harden leaks a lot of points. The team gets frustrated because: - Even when they put forth effort, the scheme fails them consistently. Kills motivation. - Other times they put in the effort, and Harden's man destroys us. Kills motivation. - WTF happened to all the offensive charges we were taking? D-Mo was statistically leading this category for us, top 5 in the league last season with 25 charges taken. Next was Josh Smith with 10. Pat Beverley in 46th place with 7. This used to stop a lot of drives to the basket. Doesn't really happen anymore. - Finally, this team goes for steals and commits stupid fouls more than any contender, by far. I've been watching SAS, GSW, OKC. Man, I didn't realize just how prolific we are at giving up stupid fouls and botched steal attempts. Our defensive output considering the personnel on this roster is atrocious. Our offensive output consider the personnel on this team is good. We need a coach who understands how to motivate 15 different minded NBA players all the time, and he needs to trust an assistant who can set up a defense suited to stop modern NBA basketball while not compromising our good offensive production. Howard is still an elite defensive player. None of the defensive players on this roster are looking good because the defensive scheme sucks. Ariza, Beverley and Josh Smith all look like they have taken a step back, but I am pretty sure it's not a coincidence that every single defensive player on this team looks worse than last season. Dwight gives you12 rebounds, 60% on FG's, 2 blocks and top 3 interior defense. And he's going to do it for $20m or less. If we didn't have him, we would be saying "I wish we could have a guy who scores efficiently, doesn't take a lot of shots, rebounds great, defends great, plays hard and wins the matchup on most nights. I'd pay $15m or more for that!" Don't fool yourself. You would be saying that. Capela is not there yet and we're starting to see some of his weaknesses that other teams are exploiting. He needs another year, maybe two - which is right in line with our projections when we drafted him.
another bs dwight theory as it has been mentioned a million times, you wont get the most out of dwight in a r****ded system like this. same with ty, thornton, ariza, everyone, even harden. if jb is the coach next season we should do some stuff
I'd be curious to see an x,y chart and best fit line for Dwight's gameScore vs. team +/- And to see the same for all the players. And then for combinations of players. I'm sure the organization has all this
It is minimal these days - he has good games, but his impact on winning is negligible, we saw it last year when he missed 41 games and the team had the same record with DMo as the center, and he is not really a center.. DD
Absolutely it is. Yao was the anchor for good defensive teams. A declining Dwight Howard is still more agile than Yao was in his prime.
I gotta believe the DD starting five would be: VSpan Thornton Chandler Parsons DD Dmo Did I miss someone?
Because Dwight isn't an efficient offensive player. Any smartly coached team would BEG the Rockets to feed Dwight. Not only is he not efficient -- it's anti-Moreyball. It means less threes and free throws (except for Dwight who's still atrocious from the line) and less of an imprint Harden can have on the game. There's a reason the post game has disappeared in the league -- the maximum points per possession from a great post player is still just 2 points. Not acceptable in today's NBA.
Too small of a sample size. I don't think this should be an indictment on Dwight. I remember quite a few games where Hakeem scored 40 and the Rockets lost.
