Explain the defensive impact of Dwight Howard

They are not worse. If anything they are just about the same.

PLUS, who has been playing center when Howard isn't in the game? Jones... Motiejunas... a disgruntled Asik.

Who was starting at the beginning of the season? Both Howard and Asik together. Something so new like that would surely have an effect on the defense.

The Rockets have not had a steady rotation of players playing together on defense yet this season.

Dwight is brand new to the team, the system, and there is a lot of players being moved around.

And after all of that, the defense is not worse than last year.

Wait until a full season is over before you come to your conclusion... not after 13 games.

 

Dwight Howard and Beverly are very overrated defensively.

 

I agree, trade Howard. What are we paying him $20+ million for that we can't get from Asik at $8 mil?

$12 mil? Man, you can get a PF, maybe a PG if you want, or even build a bench! Trade Howard December 15th. He is overrated. His impact is overrated. Do the right thing Daryl!!

 

Howard is not the problem. Problem is our weak ass perimeter wing defenders esp Haren who is amongst the worst defenders in the league and seems to not care about any D

 

You're making an absolute, black and white conclusion on a comparison that is VERY imperfect and has many variables to it.

Also, you're looking at an incredibly small sample size this year and comparing it to an 82 game sample size last season, and you refuse to acknowledge that even though several posters have pointed this out, already.

I don't know if you have some kind of agenda here, but if you've watched any games at all you will understand that Dwight makes a tremendous impact in the post. Give it time, it's still an INCREDIBLY small sample size that can be easily skewed by a couple of extreme data points.

 

The Lakers may have better defensive players overall this year.

So are you telling me that if you took Dwight Howard and added him to this year's Lakers team, that the defense would get WORSE?

 

I posted this in another thread.

We're an elite defense at the rim/inside the paint (areas which Howard and Asik typically patrol).
We're terrible at the perimeter (areas where the other 4 players are supposed to be responsible).

You don't expect Dwight to cover the perimeter. You expect him to cover up defensive mistakes when people get past the perimeter.

Perimeter defense is a combination of good switching, defensive rotations, and effort to contest. 2/3 of that comes from well implemented and practiced defensive systems. The other 1/3 comes from effort from the players and good motivation by the coaches.

If someone scores in the paint, part of that goes on Dwight. If they hit from 10 to 24 feet out, that's on everyone else.

Elite paint defense, I'd say that qualifies as Dwight is having some impact.

 

And if those 2011 Rockets did have a rim protector, they may have gotten even better.

Both Howard and Asik are elite rim protectors. So you shouldn't expect a ton of difference between the defense last year and this year.

The defense was supposed to be better because Asik would be the back-up, and so there would be elite rim protection the entire game.

But Asik has had his troubles this year, and hasn't even played a few games.

 

LOL. No need to say he's a better rebounder twice. The fact is, Asik's per 36 minutes rebounding number last year was exactly the same as Howard's in his peak. I'd say they are about the same in terms of rebounding.

And Howard is not a better post defender than Asik, at least not significantly better. The only thing Howard does much better than Asik on defense is shot blocking, which in itself may or may not lead to better overall defense. In fact, Asik is arguably better at defending the PnR.

But this has nothing to do with the argument here. The argument has nothing to do with other players. We basically have the same players from last year, with the addition of Beverley (supposedly a defensive stopper at his position) and our defense has not improved a bit. So how is Howard an upgrade over Asik on the defensive end?

 

Who is saying Howard is much of an upgrade on the defensive end?

Both Asik and Howard are dominant defensive centers.

 

Disagree. I'd argue that having an elite rim protector is the only thing keeping us from being dead last in the league in defense.

Also, you've yet to acknowledge the impact that a TINY sample size could be having on the stats you're using.

 

Very good point. The interior D is great, it has been the perimeter D that is killing the team.

 

It is not overrated... it just means it takes more than one person to play defense.

When Asik was not on the floor last year, how good was the Rockets' defense? Wasn't it dead last in the league?

So the difference between having Asik on the floor and sitting on the bench is he moves your defense up about 10-15 spots by himself.

Same with Howard. Howard's defense isn't significantly better than Asik's, but the defense was supposed to be better this year because there wouldn't be a "drop off" when Howard left the floor like when Asik left the floor last year.

 

Elite "rim protection" is not over rated, but 1 man can not guard 5 people. That's why team defense is always of far greater value than individual man to man or on ball defense.

Yes, it's great if a person can harass another player. However, it's all meaningless when you face good passing teams or teams with multiple play makers (like the Rockets) if you don't have good team defensive sets.

I see constant execution and effort errors when it comes to team defense. Failures to hedge and shade screens, lack of effort by players to contest, ball watching that leads to losing track of their man, over extension in an attempt to garnish a steal that leaves the defense scrambling and rotating to cover for defensive over playing, confusion in terms of when to switch, lack of communication on back screens and back picks, and over help 1 pass away when there was no real help required.

This is a lack of coordinated defensive sets and repetition. To get the perimeter defense to improve requires greater discipline instilled on the line ups, and this starts first from coaches setting the tone, then the top players (Harden and Howard) buying in, and finally the entire team committing to solid team defensive fundamentals.

Howard is a great piece to the defensive puzzle, but he and players like him (Asik) can't do everything. There's 5 men on the court, 5 men on the opposition. You can't leave a player on an island and expect them to erase the mistakes of 4 others.

 

Team stats are team stats it doesn't reflect on a single player. Howard had been great and I hope he keeps improving.

 

I didn't make an absolute statement like "The Rockets have a better defense this year." All I'm saying is that it is VERY possible that the Rockets could see an improvement in all of their defensive metrics from last year to this year. The Rockets numbers to this point on defense actually aren't all that much different from last year so far.