So much this. Honestly I'd rather the team stop focusing on improving his post game all together and just dedicate 100% of his practice time to free throw shooting. Marginal improvement in his post game would not have nearly the impact of improvement in his free throw shooting.
While depending on matchups he is a beast, you can still pencil him in for a couple of turnovers and goal tending calls per game.
You don't get to say "we have $20 million in space. let's go and get a center better than dwight howard for that money" for two reasons: (1) which centers are better than dwight? and (2) if it worked that way, everyone with cap space would do it. The guy is 3 games back from an injury that kept him out for 11 games. On the second night of a crazy back to back. Give it some time.
Yep focus in his fts, setting solid picks, PnR, rebounds, defense, blocks, not fumbling the ball, passing out of double teams
After last nights game, I LITERALLY feel like this when I go outside today!... Spoiler I'll probably feel like this all day long... ....... ....... .......
We also have to realize that the man has been sitting out for 11 games. Just because he had a good first game back we shouldn't ignore the fact that he is probably rusty.
Everyone wants to put a label on Dwight, especially the media. Attack him for not being elite offensively... Daryl Morey didn't acquire Dwight Howard to score 24 points a night. He acquired Dwight Howard to be Dwight Howard.
Very likely you are comparing Davis to Howard, and Davis is impressive for sure, much better player than Howard offensively, and maybe close defensively. Picking between the two would be a hard choice, but both are elite, two of the best in the league.
Forget about all the ways that you wish Dwight's game was different. There hasn't been one quality center available either via trade or free agency that we would rather have since he became a free agent.
That one hour is what makes legends. It separates the great from the very good. Ask David Robinson. Doesn't matter if Dwight leaves. We didn't give up anything for him and he will have been the league's best center all 3 years while here.
I think the problem with Dwight is that he wants to feel like he's an important contributor to the offense. Thus he demands the ball in the post because it's his best shot at scoring points. Even if it may be to the detriment of the team. The other thing is he just doesn't care as much about setting screens. Asik set better picks than Dwight last year and Asik is no more offensively talented. Dwight has no problem helping a man who gets beat off the dribble or helping the helper on defensive but he can be a bit of a black hole on offense at times.
When this topic gets brought up from non rockets fans I usually defend Dwight. But to be honest the guy is overrated. Since you guys don't want to talk about his post game lets talk about the fact that he NEVER steps out on pick and rolls/mid-range jump shooters. How many open shots did AD hit yesterday when Dwight was right there. Also, every time the ball goes to him in the post I cringe. I'm gonna be honest, I don't have confidence the majority of the time that he is going to score in the paint. Again this is not a Dwight bashing post. I love Dwight and he's been great for the squad. But they guy is overrated, period
We could not have foreseen it on the 2nd year of his contract, but this knee problem signals to us that he may be on the decline physically. We would need to manage his minutes very wisely. Very worrying if we cannot rely on him 100% in every game. Esp. with how shallow our bigs rotation is. Again, no one could have foreseen it, just HOU's bad luck in sports.
I'd rather coaching staff started accentuating our players' strengths aka no more post-ups for Dwight, or at least very limited post-up opportunities. Instead, ride him on PnR exclusively and let DMo be our go-to scorer in the post. I'm fine with Rockets paying Howard 20M if coaching staff actually uses him properly. Otherwise, he's not having a bigger impact on this team than what Asik would have IMO.
