Hard to criticize Howard's effort level when he's a spectator on offense

It's the same result. He will play well once in 4 games Dwight Howard has regressed. I don't hate him it's just reality.

 

A vast majority of what happened prior to Rivers bringing the game to a crawl with Hack a Howard was initiated from the defensive end. The plays were from transition. If we could reproduce that defensive intensity every game, we'd see more of that. And that was only for a little over a quarter, until Rivers stopped us...which was partly stopping our defense from getting us into transition by slowing the entire game down.

If there is anything we have learned from this season, it is to not point out one game and say that's the answer, because we are too inconsistent. But one thing we do now, Howard is not the key.

 

I agree with a lot that you have stated...

But Howard and DMo are a part of the key... We are very inconsistent on offense, because a lot of times we are back to the Steve Francis days of iso basketball...

I remember back then when this board would go nuts when Francis would just dribble and dribble and dribble without getting any big man involved. The same thing is happening now...

Again, I am stating to get Howard and DMo involved into the game... The same as the Texans should be throwing a long pass to free up the running game and short game...

T_Man

 

Ok, so you want Howard to get more touches. Which big men on other teams do you think are getting substantially more touches in the paint or on postups than Howard? In your mind, does any big man in the entire league get enough touches in the paint or on postups?

 

I agree with this completely. This is why i feel like we need a better coach. His inexperience is showing blatantly. That is why a guy like Thibs could make this team a contending team. Bickerstaff is just working on the fundamentals that Mchale never got into. However wouldn't Thibs be doing the same thing. Howard still has talent it is just being thrown away at the very moment with these rediculous rotations. I feel like we are the sleeping giant right now in the NBA. We need to wake up and hopefully we can get some sort of coach that can help us with that.

 

While I agree we need a new coach. Better coaching will not get Dwight passes in the post for pin downs. It will get him open rolling to the basket something he doesn't want to do. Dwight Howard wants the ball in the post. It's what he's wanted since he's got here. I can't believe how many people on here don't get that simple fact. He could score more now off of Harden/Howard screens and pick and rolls he refuses to do them because he wants touches in the post.

 

I would love for DMo and Howard to be more involved on the offensive end...

I would love for the team to get into their offensive sets early and stop holding the freaking ball...

Those are just a couple of starters...

T_Man

 

How many times has Harden passed the ball off the pnr... Not many...

Howard would get more passes off the pnr with Thornton...

T_Man

 

That's great, but you didn't answer my question. What big men do you see getting the ball in the paint or in the post more than Howard?

Is any team getting their big man touches in the paint or post at a rate that you think is acceptable? Does anyone do it right? If so, then who is it?

It's a pretty simple question.

 

i have a very simple question for you, too. do you think it's acceptable for dwight howard to get 4 shot attempts in a game?

 

I will answer your question.. San Antonio...

Now here's my mine... It doesn't matter about other teams.. It matters about this team... They have 2 capable big men and they are not using them to the teams advantage.

T_Man

 

I disagree, Harden reads the situation and passes it to whoever isnt covered. Regardless of that fact. Dwight still wants the ball in the post. And I don't just mean pin downs. Dwight Howard wants more touches in the post eventhough he is not a good post player, that's what the issue is. He is so lazy when it comes to setting picks because he just wants the ball. People have Howard figured out you. You get aggressive with him he will get an offensive foul. If the foul is called on the defender its fine because Dwight can't shoot his free throws. That is Dwights biggest problem and how he takes himself out of the game. In order to be a big man who scores in the game today you need to be able to hit your free throws.

 

It depends on the situation. How the defense is playing us and how Howard is playing.

http://on.nba.com/1VlCZCY

Here's a video of all 21 of Harden's shots from last night. If you watch the video you'll see that on the majority of the shots Howard is above the free throw line.

At no point do you see Howard pin his man underneath the rim as so many people keep talking about. From reading this forum you'd think that Dwight was pinning his man under the hoop every other possession and getting overlooked.

Only once did he really try and lock out his man and in that case Asik puts him in a wrestling hold and gets called for the foul.

If you watch, you'll also see that Davis was sagging back into the paint to help Asik out underneath. You'll also see Evans frequently dropping back in the paint to help out too.

Under those conditions, I wouldn't throw the ball to Howard either. Are you seeing places where the ball should have obviously gone to Howard?

Howard didn't help himself out either. With the score 110-108 he gets an offensive rebound and instead of going right back up and trying to dunk the ball, he throw the ball out to the perimeter. Even Dwight isn't giving himself shots.

If he's that far from the hoop or he's surrounded underneath then he's not going to get many shots and he shouldn't . Dwight's offensive game is limited. If he's not in a situation where he can dunk the ball or lay it in without having to make an offensive move then he's very inefficient. If we can get him open for dunks/layups off of pnr and cuts then sure he should get the ball but he's not putting himself in position to get those shots. I do think that he should try to get putbacks on his offensive rebounds though.

 

This. This is why I believe JB's statements last night were aimed more at Howard than anyone else on the team. Dwight is by far the most inconsistent effort player we have. If things aren't going his way he gets so far from the game plan and just coasts out there. He takes himself out of games, because no one in the NBA can take a specimen like Howard out of a game except himself.

 

btw: who wanted Howard to not play B2Bs this year? Les, Dwight, Morey, McHale. I can't remember, but obviously Howard didn't object.

 

Here's the real problem.

Both Harden and Howard are asking for "touches" in-game.

How are we supposed to upgrade the team? Especially when our two leaders are fighting like boys over who gets the shots.

THAT is the real problem. Until one of them mans up or we get a coach who whips them into shape, this will forever be a problem.

 

They know that Howard will sulk if he doesn't get shots so they clog him, when we have capela there with him, the pf is the helper, if Jones is on the floor, the pf is the helper, and dwight's man never leaves him. When for example Davis and Anderson are on the floor, Anderson's job is to never leave Dwight while Davis plays helper. Do this enough and there's no place to get Dwight the ball, he'll sulk, stop playing defense and tank the game.

It might cost them a few points, but it gains them a lot more.

Is this the first time that's happened this season? nope, this week? nope again.

To get Dwight to commit we'd need to structure the offense around Dwight.

Teams set themselves up to exploit his childish personality, ironically if he didn't do this, and gave his all regardless, like the other centers (except Boogie, great company there) they wouldn't do it, and he'd see a bit more of the ball.

When you can't create your own offense, you'll only get the ball as much as the defense is giving it to you to cover other things, since smothering Dwight is the single most beneficial thing given his disposition, guess what they do? Do you remember the Christmas game where the commentators noted Popovich get angry at helping off Dwight? He'd rather give Harden the layup than help off Dwight.

 

Well he hasn't exactly played hard in any of those B2Bs. It's almost like a a passive aggressive way of letting the coaching staff know that he thinks he needs to be resting. So I'm inclined to believe Howard is behind the no B2Bs thing.

 

Thanks for the answer. So you think San Antonio does a good job of getting their big men touches in the paint or post, let's take a look.

Currently Howard is getting 6.6 paint touches/game which is the 3rd highest total in the league behind only Gortat (8.0) and Drummond (7.4). In comparision Tim Duncan gets 4.5 paint touches per game and LeMarcus Aldridge gets 4.1. So, Howard is getting 60% more paint touches than Tim Duncan who even at his current age is a vastly superior offensive player than Howard. We get Howard and Capela a combined 10.9 paint touches per game while Aldridge and Duncan only get a combined 8.6 paint touches per game.

How about post touches? It's similar numbers. Howard is number 4 in the league at 7.8/game, behind only Drummond (8.9), Gortat (8.1) and Marc Gasol(8.1).

As for the Spurs, Duncan gets 5.5 post touches per game and Aldridge gets 5.4. Again in this case, Howard is getting considerably more post touches than Duncan or Aldridge. Likewise, Howard and Capela's combined post touches (12.2) is more than Duncan and Aldridge's combined touches (10.9).

I know you said that you don't care about other teams but if only 2 or 3 players in the league are getting more touches in the paint or post then maybe your expectations are off.

I don't think that anyone considers Howard an elite offensive option so expecting him to get many more touches would mean that he'd be getting more touches than anyone in the league.

I understand that people keep implying that Howard isn't touching the ball in the paint or post but the fact is that is untrue. He's touching the ball as much or more than most anyone in the league. Today's defenses are focused on preventing shots at the rim and because of that nobody is getting a high number of shots in the paint or in the post.

Honestly, did you think that Howard was getting that many more paint and post touches than Tim Duncan? He's also getting more than Whiteside, B. Lopez, Okafor, Anthony Davis, Horford and Cousins. His offensive game simply isn't good enough to demand more shots.

 

You're correct, that's what teams are doing and really it goes further than that. That same strategy to sag in and pack the paint also makes it difficult for Harden and Lawson to drive. Our offense is suppose to be a "pick your poison" where opponents have to decide to try and take away Harden's drives or take away our 3 point shooters. We've shot the ball so badly this year, it's a simple choice for our opponents, you pack it in and allow us to shoot 3's. The solution is that we have to start hitting our 3's much better and more consistently.

I fully realize how simplistic that sounds but that's really the solution. Posters here focus on all kind of things that they think are happening such as us shooting tons of contested 3's or Harden passing the ball to a shooter late in the shot clock but when you look at the stats, those things happen so infrequently they are insignificant. I can post all of the stats but we simply don't shoot that many shots late in the shot clock (last 4 seconds), nobody other than Harden shoots that many contested 3's (and Harden's good at them) and Harden doesn't possess the ball each game any more than most of the other primary ball handlers in the league.

With our current roster we just have to shoot better but another good offensive player certainly wouldn't hurt. Just ask yourself who the 2nd best offensive player on our team is.When you think about that it's a pretty scary proposition. I know some will say "Thorton" but the fact is that Thorton is a 6'4" SG that isn't a good defender and he plays the same position as our best offensive player. Either he's going to only play when Harden's on the bench or we will be really small on the perimeter. That's why Thorton isn't playing big minutes and why he didn't play vs SA (would you want him guarding Leonard?). I also know that the D-Mo front will respond but he's simply not playing enough minutes right now to even be in the conversation. As for why he's not playing more, I won't pretend to know what goes on behind the scenes with the Rockets or how healthy/in-shape he is at this point.

Those are all offensive issues but we obviously have defensive issues too. Four out of our five starters are suppose to be stronger on the defensive side of the ball yet they're all having bad years defensively. Ariza and Beverley can't seem to stay in front of anyone this year and Howard is allowing opponents to shoot 50% on shots where he's defending at the rim.

The strategy was obviously to surround Harden with defensive players and guys that could shoot the 3 but it isn't working. Since our plus defenders aren't defending like plus defenders then they are below average on both sides of the ball.