At the moment, Howard is the closest thing to a superstar we have. In order for this team to get to the next level though, Harden will have to develop into this team's best player who can be counted on and not be such a liability on one end of the court.
prior to playoffs I'd disagree. Now, he is playing like the man, no Superman, that was touted to be better than Lebron 4 years ago. Obviously he's not, but man, it's coming, he's coming back.
God, if we can just get past Portland. San Antonio will have absolutely have no answer for Dwight. Dwight and Jones should have monster series against SA if we can advance. They have no answer for the speed and athleticism that those 2 bigs bring.
The Rockets need to feed them when they get there big leads. This guy is just trashing Lopez. It is such a mismatch down there in the paint.
Harden is not even 0.5 superstar yet. A superstar needs to carry his responsibilities on both ends of the game. Harden doesn't defend (that 50% gone) and he is doing a poor job so far in the playoffs on offense. And yes, 34.75 FG% and 20.69 3P% is a poor job even he still gets 20+ points. If his missed shots were given to other players with a hotter hand, I would say we are now 3-2 or already won the series 4-1. Harden has missed 77 shots (46 3PAs) in the last five games, or 15.4 shots per game. We lost the first game by 2 PTS, and the 4th by 3, both in OT. We did win the 3rd game, albeit with his 37 PTS on 35 shots and 3/11 treys. In the 5th game that we won, Harden was 5/15 and 1/7. Crunch time isn't just the last 5 minutes or the OT. Crunch time is every minutes in the playoffs. We would not have had three overtimes in the last five games if just one more point was scored in the regular.
He's got to show up against Memphis, SAS, LAC, OKC. He's off to a great start, but Robin Lopez doesn't count.
He's good enough that they've had to double team him. Lopez can't check him all night on his own and Lopez isn't a slouch defensively. I believe Dwight is finding himself in the post. Quick simple moves and counters right at the rim or dunks is all he needs to worry about. That pass out of the double and repost with Harden that led to the little hook off the glass was a thing of beauty.
'Dumb' post of the thread goes to you. Hes a Superstar that needs to fine tune some areas. Similar things were said about Dream back in the day so he wasnt yet a Superstar? Stop it.
LOL at comparing him to Hakeem. Compare their stats and get back to me. If Dwight was a superstar, this thread would be unnecessary. It would be like starting a thread that said 1+1=2.
He's been the one constant in this series for us. It's brutal in the paint and he's still going strong, which surprises me. I just hope he can keep it up. Granted hack-a-Howard did us in in game 1 (or was it 2?), but I can't complain besides that. I just wish he'd avoid some dumb fouls, he tries to get away with some stuff too much.
Dwight has been amazing. Howard wasn't going to let us lose last night, or putting it another way, if we lost, it wasn't going to be because of Dwight Howard. Like most long time fans of the Rockets, I love to watch great centers (we've had more than our fair share of them), and Dwight was BIG last night! Hell, I'm starting to feel like Howard is elevating his play so much that we'll be letting him down if we don't advance. It's inspiring to watch the guy bring it like he did in game 5. I'm greedy. I want a game 7 and another series just so I can watch Dwight do his thing.
He's been great but in all honesty, one thing still bugs me when I see him play. He's backing people down and as 3 people crash on him, he fails to see outside and dump it out. Part of its on him, and part of it on the players for not moving to the open spots. I know how understand how great of a feel Yao had about double teams and crashing as he would consistently find the outside shooters
