[Orlando Sentinel] Dwight Still Can't Mount His "Everest"

Yao plays good defense in a area. Howard can only play offense in a small area. Yao normally plays pretty good against guys that are limited in a small window. That way his poor lateral movement isn't exposed. The only way howard will ever have success against yao is if he do what amare did. He needs to spend the summer and shoot 15 ft jumpers. That's why amare,boozer,jefferson,brand, miller and guys like that play well against Yao.Shaq plays well against Yao also, but shaq is bigger,and stronger than howard.

 

Yao and Mutombo both defended Howard well. We didn't double him that much, Yao held his own when Howard went at him 1 on 1. Howard got one nice dunk and that is it.

 

good post

the thing about the double team or triple team on howard is,
he doesnt pass well out of it

 

Dont underestimate the Magic just because we are a bad matchup for them. They have done tremendously well against the rest of the league but I think we are a bad matchup for them because of Yao.

 

I think this just goes to show that against true centers, Yao matches up well and creates havoc. His biggest struggles are against guys that are basically power forwards playing center, guys that are quick off the dribble and have a mid range game that pulls Yao away from the basket.

Any "traditional" center that has to play within 10 feet of the basket is going to be a good match up for Yao.

 

The Orl announcers also acknowledged that Houston is a bad match up and they would be in big trouble if they had to face us. Pretty nice endorsement from people who watch every single Magic game.

 

No. DH is a nice kid and I like him a lot, but he doesn't have a mean enough streak to be as funny as the Shaqtus.

 

like your backhanded compliments on yao, lol. before dh develops a jumper, he better develop a post move other than sinking his shoulder into a defender (which is an offensive foul if strictly by the rules).

 

Yao ate up Howard one on one without much help. There were occasions when we sent the double team, but Yao played him pretty much played him one on one.

On the other hand, DH had to resort to fronting Yao with help from a backside defender. To me, that is a signal from the opposing player and coach that they cant guard Yao. What a disgrace for the so called best center in the NBA LOL.

 

Not sure if this link was posted, but it's an interesting analysis by a Magic's fan
http://www.thirdquartercollapse.com/2009/4/7/826294/the-important-question-regarding

 

Why are we even discussing on how Howard should improve? To me Howard will bully everyone that is smaller, weaker and shorter than him. And to those saying Howard can be Shaq Version 2 is dreaming. Shaq have very good foot work and a solid low post game at a very young age.

Let Shaq be shaq, and howard be himself. A great player that is always one notch between yao. Until age and injury caught up with yao.

 

Yao is 6th in the league in rebounding, but the author brought up the never used 'rebounding rate' (Yao is 28th) to comment on Yao's rebounding. Kind of lame and grasping for straws.

But overall fairly objective. Yao may defend Dwight better because of his size advantage, but he offensively dominates Dwight because of skill.

 

Very good find.
Thanks.

Now I know why SHAQ called out SVG being such a douche bag.

 

I find it funny that their suggested solution is to basically not play against Yao at all.

 

offensively imo amare has been quite better than dh. that delta is greater than the one dh has on defense. so overall amare > dh.

note when amare was under spotlight a few years back, ppls were talking how much better he was than yao. that was before dh (and the magic) made some strides. a little trend?

 

There must be a feature on here that everytime Yao is typed, it pages you or something. It wasn't a backhand remark, I was just being truthful. There is this perception or idea that to be a good post player, you have to have a lot of different moves. In fact, for a guy like howard, he doesn't. He do however needs to be develop a few consistent things like a right/left hand jump hook and a faceup jumper. Very few will have the arsenal that Dream did. Robinson didn't have the pivots, reverse pivots, drop steps, spins and whirls like dream. What he did have was a money mid range shot, a jump hook inside and he ran the floor like a gazelle. That's all howard needs and if he continues to work will get bettef with time. The best thing tha happened to amare was when he missed a whole season. It allowed him to focus and become a good shooter vs justg being a athlete. Howard doesn't need to get injureed to see he needs to extend his range and work on his mover indside.

 

Exactly.

I was already aware that he didn't have the strongest lower body but after watching him go absolutely nowhere against Yao and then Mutombo in the post (with both guys defending him legally the entire time) I was a little shocked at just how weak he is in the post. If he is going to take the next step he needs a shot that is effective outside of 8 feet. The mechanics on his post moves look so bad to me that I think he would be better served to establish a solid 15 foot jump shot. Once he can hit that he should be able to get guys to come out on him so that he can go around them with a single dribble ala Amare Stoudemire.

Kids, if you think bench press is an important lift for basketball players ask Dwight Howard how much it helps him when he is trying to post up bigger players and can't budge them an inch.

 

Is Patrick Ewing still Magic's assistant coach? I think he has been there for couple years, and yet he hasn't taught DH12 any decent post moves. That's pretty weird. At least Patrick could tell Howard what he needs to develop as you claimed that he doesn't need to get injured to understand. But that didn't happen.