Dwight in the low post

Kevin McHale from interview in preseason 2012. (This is probably nothing new to many of you.)

JCF: You said that your stated preference from an ideological standpoint would be to play inside-out; to pound the ball inside and bludgeon teams. This is probably an obvious question, but is that philosophy borne just from the fact that was your playing style with those great Celtics teams of the 80s?

KM: Well I think if you control the paint, you control most games. That has shifted a little bit, it’s become a bit more of a perimeter game, but the Houston Rockets won two championships because they got the ball inside-out to Hakeem Olajuwon. I still think it’s important that you can play inside-out.

Now you can play inside-out different ways. We might play more inside-out by driving the ball into the paint and then kicking it out. We might play more inside-out off the dribble. But I still think you have to collapse the paint all the time.

If you’re a guard and you’re starting out five feet above the three-point line, you’ve got a long way to go to get into the paint. If you’re a big who catches the ball with one foot in the paint, well you’re home. You take one dribble and you’ve got two feet in the paint. It’s just much easier to collapse the defense that way. But if you can’t then you’ve got to collapse it some other way.

So I want to play inside-out and I’d like to do it with big guys because I just think it gives you a big advantage, but in today’s game things have changed a lot with a lot of dribble-drives and penetration.

But you know basketball is essentially a simple game in a lot ways. Defensively you want to keep the ball out of the paint as much as you possibly can. Offensively you want to get the ball in the paint as much as you possibly can. And the team that does the best combination of those two usually wins because you’re just not going to beat people on a nightly basis by just jacking jump shots.

 

before you start calling someone illiterate, try answering his question first

"What is Lebron's, KD, Carmelo and Kobe's (all very good offensive players just to name a few) signature moves?"

and don't you think any one from the Lakers org is pretty much biased against D12 at this point?

 

Everyone has a signature move.
The guys that invented 'Skyhook' 'Dreamshake' just had the more unique ones, best ones.
Just because you don't have a name for it, did not patent it, does not say it shouldn't be signature move.

Signature moves to my understanding are moves that are effective and used often in go to situations and 4th quarter last minutes.

They did not need to have a unique name attached to them

 

Harden signature move = shake n bake, cross over, step back jumper. and euro step.
Lin signature move = 1 step burst.

 

Lin signature move = bleeding

 

Here is a nice SI article from a few days back by Lee Jenkins discussing Dwight Howard's potential to improve under the tutelage of Hakeem Olajuwon and Kevin McHale:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1208929/2/index.htm

Also, here are some videos provided by batkins from game 1 of Dwight Howard successfully converting in the post. It would be great to get some videos on unsuccessful post touches as well to better track how his effectiveness evolves during the season.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/BfbYNfU9GJU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/e3PltG8dYk8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2iOohLNWrdM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/5fZEIJcJ-nI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Nice dig up! Interesting, he talked about drive and kick, that's what Harden did a lot last year. Dwight isn't on the level of Dream, Shaqe, TD yet but I guess that's what they're trying to shape him into. Not easy! He ain't young!

 

He was still very effective in his Orlando days. He's just a bit robotic and turnover prone, interesting that video with Yao he said whenever Dwight too a dribble he'd body him up, then he'd just lose his dribble.

I dont see his post game developing that much, but he is still effective given the attention he draws. It makes the game so much easier for everyone else

 

You're right, in that he is good but not great. This http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=245915
gives us hope tho!

 

I liked his post play last night. My one problem though was that every time he went into a move, the Bobcats instantly double teamed and if Howard's move went toward the DT, it was an automatic turnover.

I also feel like he thinks too much. I'd like to see him go into his moves quicker.

That's just my observation.

 

Last night he kept getting pushed out of bounds on that baseline spin move. He needs to be tougher on that move and establish his position. He also spins and doesn't cover a lot of ground. Dream would spin and come out of the spin past the defender, which creates the separation.

 

Dwight missed number of hook shots in the lane today. I don't think he converted on a single one of his post-ups. He's basically an athletic Omer Asik on offense right now.

 

yeah, he's definitely not looking good in the post right now. But I'll give it a few more games before I start getting worried. It's pretty amazing how well we've played despite having so many issues.

 

I think Dwight had a total of 3 post ups. The game was so fast in the beginning he had no chance to get down there. There were times when the game slowed down to a crawl and Dwight would call for the ball but Jeremy wouldn't look his way at all. Jeremy would actually dribble to the opposite side. I chalk this up to Jeremy not realizing he has a post presence now. On his 2 misses Dwight made good moves to the basket just didn't finish or didn't get a foul. There were other opportunities when James was the ball Handler but Dwight didn't call for it.

 

And realistically thats what we should expect from him in the playoffs. It only gets uglier once teams have a set game plan against you in a seven game series.

I think Rockets staff and the rest of us are going to be disappointed if we expect more from him come playoff time which is why I have tempered my expectations.

He needs to be a moving target, not a stationary one, and he needs to catch and make a decisive move or finish within 2-3 seconds of receiving the ball. The longer he holds onto the ball, the more the team offense and his offense is going to suffer.

His poor FT shooting does him no favor either.

IMO, Dwight Howard is good enough to be a third option on offense on a championship team. On our team he is the second option, which is not good enough.

 

in addition to the ball handling and footwork issues, I think he has a problem finishing with his left hand. hook shots, layups - if it's with his left hand it looks (more) awkward.

 

he's actually more comfortable with his left hand.

I think this game looked bad because of the Zone. When the Rockets start clicking and realizing when to get him the ball, it will be a lot better. The post is heavily dependent on the position and the entry pass. Right now no one knows how to feed Dwight where he can be effective.

 

I have yet to see him make the 2 to 3 foot shots in the post. He's a pretty good bricklayer from there, though.

 

His lone successful post up from game 2:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/HdQCUmATFwk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>