I'm actually pretty happy with Dwight so far, keeping in mind that I wasn't a huge fan of his to begin with. He defends and rebounds pretty well, his post game is crap but he can definitely score if the team makes an effort to get it to him in good position, which they rarely do. It gives me ugly flashbacks to Yao's early years when he would be in a good spot and the ballhandler would look at him and then swing it back around the perimeter before chucking a contested shot. The post-Hakeem Rockets just don't seem to like big men very much. Last night's game wasn't Dwight's fault, it was on the entire team. No one showed up prepared to play and they looked as if they were expecting the Jazz to self-destruct instead of playing to win. If nothing else I guess it confirmed that lackadaisical starts and spotting bad teams big leads weren't the Twin Towers' fault but something deeper in the team's psyche. They need to grow up some more.
Also, not being racist, but Reddick, Blake, and Hayward are not known for being players that can create their own shot, but they burned Harden like a $2 w****[/QUOTE] hardens offense is proven as a rocket in reg. season hardens defense & offense is proven in the playoffs as a rocket & thunder.
The Iso play that got Howard how many wide open lob dunks last night?? This comment is so ridiculous its not even funny. First of all, Harden HAS shown us that he CAN play defense if he buys in. The problem is, he often takes plays off and doesn't focus mentally often. Its an issue yes, but I'm optimistic that the light bulb will click here in the near future if not this year, soon after. Also, race aside, Reddick and Hayward are two Very Very good offensive players who burn ALOT of TEAMS (not just players) by continually running off of screen after screen after screen. Just cause their white doesn't mean they dont burn almost every other team in the league that doesn't plan against stopping them within their team offense. Stopping a shooter like that comes from effort when fighting through screens but also team play comes into affect as well. The bigs have a job to do when teams are running shooters like Ray Allen, Reddick, Formerly Rip Hamilton, etc. etc. off of multiple screens. Harden's effort in defending players like this is indeed an issue, but you dont know much about basketball if you think that the correlation of one of these guys lighting up the Rockets have anything to do with Harden being the one and only sole problem child in this case. It goes much deeper than that.
Howard's showed up all year. He completely changes the game in the paint in our favor. Tonight wasn't his best night to be sure, but it was a total team effort, this game. It happens on back to backs against young teams like the Jazz are. Our team isn't exactly old, but they had a letdown. It happens. Howard's not to blame and as he's better integrated into the team, we'll get better results from him still.
Criticizing Dwight, which I'd done plenty, can have repercussion from others who can't stand reading it. It gets especially bad when the team is winning. He had his "standout type" of game already when he gift wrapped Rockets fans with a promise of 30-rebound opening game. His effort was flawless and hustled for every single lose ball and rebound. We had a glimpse of Orlando Dwight WHEN he put his mind into the game. I am baffled by how our two centers play PnR defense so differently. Dwight's PnR defense is ice and he seldom hedges. Whereas Asik hedges quite a bit to slow down the ball-handler just enough for his teammates to recover from picks. Why are we running two different sets of PnR defense with our two centers?
This. As maligned as his post game has been over the course of this young season, it's obvious he's been putting in work. He hustles on the defensive end. He absolutely changes the game for us and we'd be much poorer for not having him out there. He's not complaining. I'm not sure what you guys want out of him...
hardens offense is proven as a rocket in reg. season hardens defense & offense is proven in the playoffs as a rocket & thunder.[/QUOTE] We're not talking about his offense, he's one of the best offensive players in the NBA...he wasn't out there guarding Durant, Westbrook, or even Martin in the playoffs. He needs to put more emphasis into defense, just saying
So, you're telling me that his ISO play in the 4th quarter had no effect on letting teams back into the games when we were up by double digits? Well, explain to me then how we closed out teams when Harden wasn't those 3 games??? The Spurs game was remarkable, but I'm not impressed with the isolation...this doesn't championships
Who said I'm impressed with it also. I only pointed out that Howard has actually benefited from the 2 man game with Harden and has probably already seen more lob passes from Harden in 20 games than he saw from Kobe in 82. Yes Hardens late game isolations are a concern right now. I don't think anyone on here would argue that. However he does a lot more offensively especially for Howard than people are giving him credit for. People are making it out to seem as if he's Kobe and the rest of the team is Smush Parker or something.
Im enthralled that we have Dwight but he is under-preforming. It seems odd that he was ever considered the second best player in the league.
Pretty much exactly what I expected, except healthier which has been a pleasant surprise. I have been surprised how dumb our fans are though. I knew they were bad, but didn't realize just how dumb they were.
Strictly from a defensive perspective, I would say yes he is worth it. Just look at the block numbers from last season....he had 100 more blocks and played less games. Not to mention, people are not afraid of going to the rack with Omer in the paint. Additionally, he can actually catch 2 ft passes....and alley-oops. Better PnR player, and on and on. D12 is a game changer on both sides of the court in the paint and worth every bit of the $$ IMO. Once people realize that he is not another Dream, and set realistic expectations for him, perhaps they will realize the value he brings to this team.
Dwight has been inconsistent on the offensive end and that should be a concern. I thought giving Dwight till November was a decent amount of time to get him established in our offense. We're in December and Dwight is still only slowly rolling along. On a night where we are missing two of our top scorers Dwight has to step it up offensively. That's always been my issue with Dwight from the get-go, we acquired him for his plays on both ends of the floor, otherwise Asik would've been suffice on the defense. Dwight needs to accept that he is a better roll man than a post up player. Either that or we need the Dream to blast Dwight publicly before every game. Last time Dream did that, Dwight beasted in the Dallas game. Anyway, the Harden/Howard, 1-2 punch is still a work in progress, especially in the 4th quarter. Still eternally grateful they're both Rockets.
Very few centers will ever match up to Hakeem unless they are named Shaq, Wilt, or Kareem. Dwight's defense is dominate though. I'm not too upset with his lack of offense because he is very limited, even when he was at his prime. His man-to-man defense and rebounding is excellent. It seems like all of our loses this year have been because of teams shooting very hot from the outside.
Well said. Knee jerks tend to forget that we are 19 games into the season and they still learning how to play together and build chemistry. After all, the year Lebron and Bosh joined Miami ('10-'11), they started the season 9-8 before starting their run of supremacy. Hopefully that gives some perspective.... GIVE IT TIME PEOPLE
