Mick
Years ago

Spurs vs Lakers, Game 1

Maybe what Shaq said in his petty feuds with Dwight is right. "If you want to be a great big man, you have to average 30 and 12, until then Dwight Howard is not great" or something to that effect.

Shaq may have been childish with his remarks but they're kind of on the money. Dwight Howard just isn't a max-level player IMO.

Throw Olajuwon, Ewing, Robinson, Shaq, any of those guys in there at Dwight's age and they get at least 30 points in a playoff game like this. Dwight gets those numbers and the Lakers go up 1-0. He has everything in place to succeed: playing alongside one of the all time great power forwards who has a pass-first mentality and helps him out on the boards big time, no Kobe taking up possessions and shots, and Steve Nash and Blake looking for him all the time.

20 points just isn't enough if you want to be the "first option" on a good team that you always proclaim yourself as being.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Agree. I don't think he's every going to go to the next level, even though he has all the tools to. He seems content where he's at, even though he could be dominating the league right now. He talks and acts like a great player but he's not. Very good - but not great. Hasn't improved as much as he should have over the years. I don't think he scares opponents the way guys like Kobe, Jordan, Magic, Bird, Shaq and others have over the years. Those guys would take over a game when they needed to, but Dwight has never been like that. Even the quiet Tim Duncan could be ruthless when needed.

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Gordon Liddy
Years ago

He's Dikembe Mutombo with a slightly better offensive game. A good player, an excellent defender and rebounder when healthy but his level of stardom (and therefore expectations) doesn't match his actual skill set.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Are you serious!? Of course he is a max contract player. No need to compare him to Jordan etc. There are alot of max level players not as good as them. Today he had 20 points on 12 shot attempts with 15 rebounds and 2 blocks. Pretty good I think. Lets see what his numbers are like without Kobe in the side where Dwight can get the ball alot more.

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sitiveni
Years ago

He has the perfect build to be unstoppable in the NBA but i agree, he isnt a shaq, ewing, robinson or olajuwon. Gordon Liddy you are spot on

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Anonymous
Years ago

He got the ball as much as he liked in Orlando and his numbers still weren't what they could have been.

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Anonymous
Years ago

How can you offensively take over a game with little to no moves???

He will be a max player whether he stays or goes to rockets.

If he goes, what will the lakers do???

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Mick
Years ago

No one is comparing him to Jordan. We are comparing him to the great first-option centres of the past twenty years. Perfectly apt comparisons, all, and he falls short of all of them. And it looks like he always will.

The saddest part is it's all purely mental. The guy just doesn't have the head for it. I thought when he made the decision to reach out to Hakeem to work on some post moves that he might have turned the corner in terms of maturity level but if anything he's been even worse since then.

He just wants his career to be an all-year-round all star weekend, where everybody is joking around and laughing and dancing and dunk-contesting and everybody loves him.

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Pikachu
Years ago

Don't insult Mutombos legacy!
The finger wag would own D12
Howard has a big attitude problem
There's enough hussle from World Peace & Gasol
He just needs to get on the boards , and challenge every shot in the paint.

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Isaac
Years ago

Reminds me of this story Kobe Bryant told about Kwame Brown, from a Washington Post interview:

"But like, the game before we traded for Pau, were playing Detroit and I had like 40 points towards the end of the game. This is back when Detroit had Rasheed [Wallace], Chauncey [Billups] and those guys, so we had no business being in the game. So down the stretch of the game, they put in a box and one. So I'm surrounded by these players, Detroit players, and Kwame is under the basket, all by himself. Literally, like all by himself. So I pass him the ball, he bobbled it and it goes out of bounds.

“So we go back to the timeout and I’m [upset], right? He goes, 'I was wide open.’ ‘Yeah, I know.’ This is how I’m talking to him, like, during the game. I said, ‘You’re going to be open again, Kwame, because Rasheed is just totally ignoring you.’ He said, ‘Well, if I’m open don’t throw it to me.’ I was like, ‘Huh?’ He said, ‘Don’t throw it to me.’ I said, ‘Why not?’ He said, well, ‘I’m nervous. If I catch it and he foul me, I won’t make the free throws.’ I said, ‘Hell no!’

“I go to Phil [Jackson], I say, ‘Hey Phil, take him out of the game.’ He’s like, ‘Nah, let him figure it out.’ So, we lose the game, I go the locker room, I’m steaming. Steaming. I’m furious. Then, finally I get a call, they said, ‘You know what, we got something that’s happening with Pau.’ I was like, ‘Alright. Cool.’...That’s what I had to deal with the whole year."

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Anonymous
Years ago

Comparing Kwame Brown to Dwight Howard is ridiculous Isaac. Kwame was a good defender, but quite possibly had the worst offensive game of a big man in the last 50 years. Stone hands, no finesse, he was quite literally shit.

For all this Howard bashing, let's not forget that he's still battling the shoulder injury and is coming off back surgery. The last 40 games of the season Dwight has shown quite a bit of improvement that he's getting back to the athletic level he had before the back injury.

Take note that Tim Duncan has career playoff averages of 22 and 12. Howard's playoff stats are 20 and 14. The perception that Howard is so far off the elite big men of the past 20 years or so is a big misconception simply because he has a different demeanour to those guys of the past. He's definitely a max level player.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Four championships.

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Mick
Years ago

We could be speaking too soon, because for all we know Dwight could come out for the rest of the series and be dominant offensively, but it's not likely.

When Duncan was around Dwight's age, he was hovering around a 25 ppg playoff average. Duncan was more of a facilitator than Howard ever was, too.

Don't forget that Dwight invites a certain level of scrutiny that hasn't dogged humbler guys like Tim Duncan.

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Hoops

Spurs vs Lakers, Game 1

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