i'm not asking him to be hakeem. I agree, Dwight is very good at protecting the rim but on help defense. He may be the best help interior defensive player but his one on one defense is pretty subpar. Luckily, not many guys have great low post moves anymore or he would get exposed more.
We'll get two defensive superstars when we trade a bunch of our stuff for Chris Paul and Emeka Okafor near the deadline, if not before.
One can dream. A no brainer move, hopefully the Hornets will suck enough and be losing enough money to do it.
A team like the 04 pistons wouldn't be contenders these days!! Every since Boston started the "big 3" method, it's took more than it used to to win! Now days u need a pretty good defense and 3-4 guys who can drop 25-30 on any given night!! For example Orlando: VC, Howard, Nelson, lewis Boston: Rondo, Allen, Paul, KG LA: Kobe, Gasol, Artest Miami: LJ, Dwade, Bosh Dallas: Dirk, Kidd, butler, Marion I beleive those are the MAIN contenders as of now. There are a few teams that are close to that but not quite ther yet! For example Houston: kmart, brooks, Yao??, need one more ok city: kd, Westbrook, need one more Chicago: Rose, Boozer, need one more Portland: Roy, aldridge, need one more utah: Dwill, al, need one more Denver: Melo, chaunsey, need one more This is why I think we need to make a BIG push for iggy! Starting 5 Yao- pretty good D, 17-20 ppg scola- hustler, 15-20 ppg iggy- shut down D, 22-25 ppg Martin- average D, 25-30 ppg brooks/lowry- good D from lowry and 20 ppg for Brooks
The Rockets (Morey) have finally figured out that one-dimensional players like Battier and Hayes are too much of an in-game floor imbalance. And someone thinks they should add additional one-dimensionalism? No thanks. Teach multi-skilled players to play team D and move on before you waste another Lottery pick.
all those saying the dwight howard is weak on defense must not know anything about basketball. The Magic have been one of the top defensive teams the past 4 years or so. The foundation of your defense is typically your center or powerforward, interior inside the paint players that can cover up others mistakes. Do you think their great defense has been because of what rashard lewis does at the 4? Or maybe because of their perimeter defenders such as vince carter or hedo? Anyways...our team is fine as, we can compete for a parade next summer for sure. We are deeper and more talented team than the one that took the lakers to 7 games last year. If your not happy with Yao Ming and Shane as our 2 best defenders, throw in a little Chuck Hayes and Ariza...who might you suggest we get.
Okafor's contract is atrocious however for essentially an offensive garbage man that has no offense outside of 3 feet. Still don't understand that flip of Chandler for him by the Hornets. Unless they know they are trading Paul to the Western Conference and they are attempting to attach a boat anchor contract to him to make it very touch on the trading team to compete. Still, in my opinion, Paul is worth $25 million by himself. So, if we have to have Okafor to go along with him tying up cap space, it is worth it. I'd trade for the pair in a heartbeat.
I don't think we need a bonafide allstar - those are expensive and overrated - Lebron and Kobe should not be on an all defensive team, Lebron gambles a lot and Kobe is selective as to when he plays it. But I agree, it would be nice to add a nice shotblocker or even a solid defensive backup 2 - now is the question of who can we can and who is worth getting without gutting the team.
Defensive awards have been irrelevant for years. The league as a whole has gotten so soft that they're pretty much given out by default nowadays. As far as the topic, I think the missing piece is a legit star who isn't an injury waiting to happen.
I think we're trying to find that PERFECT PF spot. I mean Scola is pretty good and people underestimated him due to his lack of athleticism but offensively, he IS A BEAST! We need that PF that can do everything in particular blocking shots and rebouding and playing great D. We don't have that and we're still searching. It's hard to find a PERFECT PF. You can look around the league and see not too many are perfect...CAMBY is good defender but ain't good offensively, Scola is a good offensive player but not a defensive intimidator. Landry is a good scorer but is he good at shot blocking and a defensive presence?? Nope! Kenyon Martin is athletic but not good defender and average offensive player. It's hard to find that perfect combination.
It is more realistic (not to mention less intrusive to team chemistry) to trade for Iguodala now - who is a playmaker (complements AB And Martin), can create his own shot (unlike Ariza) and is a very good defender in his own right.
