Last year was indeed a debacle, and Maori knew by midseason that Dwight's lack of effort and sour attitude was affecting the entire team. There was never any thought about keeping Dwight and shopping Harden; instead, Murrey tried and failed to unload Dwight at the deadline. Why? Because he knew what the team's biggest problem was, and dumping that problem became his focus from the trade deadline on. There's only one reason you don't make any sort of offer at all to keep your UFA big-name player: Because you absolutely don't want him on the team any more. I've never seen such a clear-cut case of addition by subtraction. The Dwight-apologists can talk all they want about Harden's defense and Dwight's "fun" personality and high FG%, but the fact is no team at this point is going to run much of their offense through him and win many games. Other superstars see that we dumped Dwight and don't care at all about how we treated him. What they see is a big baby with an unrealistic expectation to be THE MAN on his team. They also think we're a smart franchise that's not going to put up with one guy quitting on us for nearly an entire season. As for the Spurs, you're absolutely right. They would have never signed Howard to begin with, because he's the polar opposite personality of the guys they want on their team. Morey made a mistake because his eyes twinkled at Dwight's advanced stats and he, like many of us, assumed that Dwight's reputation in the media was unfair and not his fault. Maura was also tired of getting turned down by big-name FAs and when he realized he had a shot at Dwight, he went for it. In hindsight, it was a big mistake, but at the time it seemed like a no-brainer. Give him credit: When he learned what a lot of people already knew, he made the right call and let Dwight walk. And we're a better team for it.
i think they already has started building culture. we saw DM overpay to keep the WCF team together. sure it fell apart just a few months later, but it was the first time we saw that he was willing to pay attention to chemistry. last year went awry and we saw DM make swift decisive roster moves to remove those responsible: lawson, dwight, and whoever else. this summer he brought in players who aren't just good fits, but good chemistry guys. locker room glue guys: nene, ryno, and ego. this is a stark contrast to the DM that overlooked chemistry in favor of value hunting and asset collection when he took gambles on josh smith, ty lawson, and even dwight himself. one more thing about our new guys, they aren't just good locker room guys, they are high IQ players too. character and IQ over talent and potential. that's the spurs secret. and that was morey's biggest flaw, until this summer. i dont care if our culture is all offense all the time thanks to MDA and james, so long as DM keeps bringing in character/IQ/chemistry guys that fit the system, we will be a very good and very happy team for a long time. That's what will start to attract more stars to play with james.
Sorry man, but this is such a terrible post. See my bolded replies. My parting words, don't come back to the BBS Dwight. You're in Atlanta now. Time to stink it up over there and ruin that team's chemistry. Actions speak louder than words. And the actions of this team minus you, are deafening right now.
Dwight Howard is soft. His Orlando teammates say it, his Lakers teammates say it, but luckily for him Houston has been a first class organization and has not belittled him at all. His maturity does not match his physical skill and talent.
Les, Morey and the team know there's nothing to win by bad-mouthing Dwight. They made a decision that didn't work out, and chose to move on at the first chance they got. Luckily, Dwight made that happen a year sooner than he had to. Dwight taking thinly veiled shots at the team is par for the course. I feel sorry for Hawks fans who think they're getting a team-oriented professional. Which brings me to my biggest complaint about Dwight: His awesome performance in that Blazers series. That's right, that series proved to me that Dwight does not play anywhere near his hardest on most nights. Yeah, I get that athletes have to pace themselves and can't put insane effort in 100% of the time. Still, THAT was the Dwight Howard we thought we were getting when we said we'd make him a central part of the team. If he was capable of playing that hard, then only gave us 50% of that (or less) because he was unhappy with the situation, then f$ck him. Glad he's not tarnishing the uniform any longer.
It still makes me angry that Rockets made it the WCF with maybe a 70% Dwight. Then when he was finally healthy, he decided not to play. With Dwight, the Rockets, could have been amazing! No way Dwight finds another player as good as Harden to play with before he retires...
Dwight had it in his head he wanted to play a certain way. Oddly and to his detriment, that way didn't play to his strengths. Had he been willing to be the the PnR guy many wanted, things could have been different. So basically, when it was clear he wasn't going to get his way, he began not caring.
