Sources: Dwight doesn't see himself as a Rocket next year

So, we agree that Dwight isn't the same player he once was. If I recall correctly, as players age, their skill set also becomes limited as a result. Dwight is no different. He may not be as explosive, but he's not nearly the scrub that some of you describe him as.

Yeah, let's go ahead and bench him for the rest of the season, including the playoffs, just for the hell of it. We all know that Clint is incredible on offense and has unlimited range for a big man. Heck, forget Dwight and let Montrezl and DMo be the enforcers in the paint. Break the rust off of TJ and run everything through DMo. We'll be set!

....Dwight may not be the powerhouse he once was, but some of this analysis about his career is idiotic.

 

Yup I didn't understand at the time but Kobe was right.

 

Well said! I had to copy/paste this and have it FRAMED!

 

For those of you who still fail to realize why Dwight is not getting the ball :

Shooting 34.3% from the 3-Point line as a team : 1.03 points per attempts

Harden's iso : 0.93 points per possession

Dwight's post up : 0.82 points per possession


It's just basic math. Using Dwight's FG% to argue he should be getting more touches is just asinine when we know for a fact that most of his field goals come from his teammates spoon feeding him with easy dunks and alley-oops, with occasional put back dunks sprinkled in.

Without that, he has no offensive game and his miserable post-up efficiency is the direct evidence.

Dwight has been a minus offensive player since the Lakers days. Not for single season as a Rocket, he recorded positive plus/minus numbers when it comes to offense. That means our offense flow much more fluidly and efficiently with him sitting on the bench.

And that trend has gotten even worse this season, even casual fans who do not track stats religiously as I do came to the conclusion we should be better off just not giving him the ball. The coaching staff are not idiots. They know what works and what doesn't.

If giving Dwight more ball means increasing his involvement in pick-and-roll, then everybody would welcome that. But Dwight has refused to set a real pick time after time, so that's entirely on him, not other players or the coaching staff.

 

Dwight would be a DNP every night on the spurs

 

this is silly. P&R/alley-oops and dunks are part of his game. so why would you take that out of his offense? Thats like taking away mid range and three pointers away from a shooting guard and saying "well he ain't nothing without a jumper". 60% is still 60%, doesn't matter if its a post up fade-away or a put back dunk.

 

yep..especially if we get the Dwight that bobble the ball, post up bricks, stupid fouls, missed free throws while crying or laughing with fans

 

I agree. Winning wins championships.

 

Nobody's arguing against involving Dwight more often in terms of p&r. In fact, virtually everyone on this forum was massively in support of that all year long, including me. The reason this didn't happen was Dwight seem to favor getting the ball in the post and do his ineffective moves, rather than set a real pick and roll hard to the basket.

 

Dwight does two things well on offensive.

Finishes (dunks) and rebounds. And his offensive rebound are 3-4 a game which really isn't that much of an impact, but it helps.

He literally is otherwise clogging the paint. here's why:

He can't set a pick for the life of him. Part of that is that he has no range, so any high pick he makes is ineffective since both defensive players can switch onto the player and leave dwight - what's he going to do - shoot a jump shot? But more often than not, the defender can get around DH's pitiful pick anyway.

Which is the other problem - Dwight's defender doesn't really have to come out that much to worry about Dwight. The worst you give up with Dwight out of the paint is a jump shot off of one of his poor picks. If you stay home, you take away his roll to the basket.

Thus Dwight doesn't offer much on offense anymore.


On defense - well he is wasted on defense. With as horrible of defense this team plays it doesn't matter if you have Dwight in the middle or anyone. He can't guard two people and that's the situation he is in because of our horrible perimeter defense.

 

Not news people.

 

Should the team give more PT to Capela the last few games, since Dwight has checked out mentally on the team?

 

Dwight Howard still doesn't really know how to do a proper PnR, so the point is moot

I don't know how many times I've seen him set an awful pick and halfass roll to the rim and the play goes dead.

If we force PnR with Howard every play we would score 50 points a game and if we post him up we would score 30.

 

You guys bringing up orpm, obpm, and ppp on post ups are clueless. I have never one time suggested getting Dwight more clear out post-ups. And orpm and obpm for bigs playing down low is heavily dependent on the perimeter players getting them the basketball. We don't have a point guard that can create and dish to the bigs. We have a shooting guard who wants to dominate the basketball McGrady-style except he's not even as good a playmaker-creator as Mcgrady, he's too reckless with the basketball, and he refuses to execute the simple safe pass that leads to the shot of the highest efficiency and productivity.

Harden has played a terribly selfish brand of basketball this year and it has hurt the team. Being a willing passer does not mean he is playing selflessly. He has been terribly selfish with the basketball and it has hurt us with the exorbitant amount of turnovers combined with dishing up way too many low percentage looks to teammates that can't knock down those shots often enough while simultaneously avoiding letting Dwight touch it and getting Dwight the ball in the right place to score. A true playmaking point guard fixes those issues and would send Dwight obpm and orpm and post-up ppp through the roof.

Once again you are arguing for brewer to get more shots when you lobby for dwight not to get more touches. That's stupid. Probably still on the Terrence bandwagon too. Probably want Terrence back in the rotation again. Obpm, orpm.........pshhhh!!!

 

Im sorry I have respect for you as a poster but this is BS. Harden is 7th in the league in assists, he creates just fine. The other day Dmo scored 20 just because the pick and roll with him and Harden was so damn lethal. Dmo can set a pick and if you stop him from reaching the basket he can still make that short jumper Dwight cant do either of those things. It's time to stop blamin everyone else. Dwight had Steve feakin Nash and Nash could do nothing with him. It's Dwight. You have to pass it in the exact perfect spot by the basket to get it to Dwight hell you might as well just shoot the damn ball. Dwight doesn't want to pick and roll he wants to post up and it's crazy that the people who know this have to keep repeating themselves because you guys keep thinking Dwight is a player he's not. He does not play the right way he is his own biggest enemy.

 

This just proves you have no evidence to back up your claim and your agenda is "defend Dwight at all costs & blame everything on Harden."

FACT : Dwight has been recording minus ORPM, OBPM since the day he joined the Rockets

FACT : Dwight's post up efficiency is below league average (0.82 ppp) and way worse than shooting 3s at a 34.3% clip as a team (1.03 ppp) or Harden's Iso (0.93 ppp)

Refute this or just admit you have nothing to say of substance. Nobody's interested in your ifs and buts; even during his prime years in Orlando the highest OBPM he recorded was 0.9, which is far from being elite, and in fact were in the minus territory for several years even back then.

The truth is he has NEVER been an elite offensive weapon throughout his career, and DOFs just can't seem to accept this truth at face value. Blame other players all you want, we all know that Dwight was never capable of helping any team offensively ever, and was just an overrated, overpaid and purely athletic ability based with no skill & touch man-child.

 

Beasley and D-mo seem to have no problem playing with Harden, and in fact scores a lot of points from Harden's feed every game. Why can't Dwight do the same? It's obvious who is the problem.

By the way, Howard's TOV% is actually higher than Harden, meaning he commits more turnovers per 100 possession, and Dwight is not even the primary ball handler so he's got no excuse. So, spare me your lecturing on Harden's turnovers. We all know passing the ball to Dwight in the post is a disaster waiting to happen anyway, resulting in either one of bricks, turnovers, or getting hacked with missing one or two of the FTs.

 

I also forgot to mention Capela above, but it seems to me that every big man EXCEPT for Dwight is capable of and greatly benefits from playing with Harden.

I wonder who's the real issue here?