Kelly Dwyer: Dwight Howard is Battier... with stats

This basis ironically gives credit back to Camby who he discredited in the article, since Camby averaged about the same numbers in a year... But he's saying Dwight Howard is doing it more Ben Wallace style versatile defense than Camby style hollow stat stuffing.

 

To me, a convincing argument for Dwight Howard as defensive player is the year is look at his team's defensive efficiency, and then look at the rest of the players on the roster. Who among them, taken individually, would you consider an above average defender?

 

Alston? Pietrus?

Ok one guy joined after all star break and one guy missed dozens of games. Seriously, this season you can't find better candidates than Howard. Kobe? He spent too much on the offensive ends. KG? missed tons of games to be consider. Lebron? good but not great. Battier? Slow by injuries. Artest? Lebron James with 3 pointer. Use his size to bother opponents and gambles on steal. Hardly a great defender like i used to think of him. So basically Howard is the only choice, like it or not!

 

Dwight Howard might be DPOY and one of the best defensive players in the league.

But, he doesn't play defense the way Shane does, Howard mainly relies on his athleticism, while Shane is simply better adjusting to opponents and play against their weaknesses.

 

Dwight Howard is more like Yao with stats. They both impact the defense in the same way, by closing up the lane. But Dwight is more athletic so he has more blocks and rebounds.

 

He is also better at recovering and coming out on the pick and rolls. They're both Bigs that can alter shots and you can plan a defense around funneling people to them, but Dwight has the athleticism make a play in places Yao can't. That said, Yao can stop Dwight but Dwight can't stop Yao, one on one I still take our big fella

 

From what I have seen of Dwight Howard him being the probable DPOY winner is more about how watered down big men have become than it is about how great a defender Dwight is.

 

dwight howard and battier isn't a very good comparison. battier is smart, lacks the athletism that DH has, but to put in a nutshell, DH has 100 lbs and 4 inches on shane and they play a different position. can't compare them.

 

A 5 star post.

 

I believe he meant it in the sense of stats don't reflect what he influences on the court, like Battier.

 

lol...

 

Maybe I really am crazy... but I swear... defensive impact and good defensive player are different things.
edit: not that I am saying Howard isn't worthy...

 

KG, when healthy, is still better. Dwight Howard can be had by a smart offensive team. Now, I'm not saying Howard isn't great...he's my #2 defensive big man, but he's not KG. A healthy KG anchors and quarterbacks a defense that refuses to allow any offense to do what they want to do well. It's just a matter of time though. KG is really basketball smart and doesn't get enough credit for that. He's defensively on the same level of basketball IQ as Battier is. Howard is just too young and can grow to that level in time.

 

Can you explain that a bit further? It looks like you recognize that view is sort of counter-intuitive ... what makes you think it?

 

Camby is an example. I didn't think the guy played good defense. Definitely not a man to man defender, didn't raise the intensity of his teammates or do anything in any intangible defensive categories. He put up stats. He was a good impact defender, not a good defender. Make sense at all? Its hard to explain.

And defensive impact isn't necessarily a bad thing either. Barkley is notorious for his poor defense but IMO he would come up with key blocks or steals late in close games. He took risks, sometimes they paid off with a big play. It was impact defense. Not team defense, not 1 on 1 defense, impact defense.

 

Camby is a good defender on and off the ball. If he were on the rockets, teams would have a much harder time scoring against the rockets. The nuggets improved mostly because Dahntay joney, Birdman, and Billups. Those 3 guys replaced a gambling iverson who was small and put a non defensive guy like smith on the bench also. Many will discredit Camby, but he's playing out of position.

 

Battier might be the most over-hyped role player in NBA history.

 

Thank god nobody cares about your opinion, since it's worthless.