Ya, I miss healthy Yao getting dunked on by every guard in the league and owning the boards with a 10 reb/game average (in his best years). D12's worst year, he averaged 10 reb/game. And you really need to stop comparing him to an all-time Top 5 center. He will never be that, but what he is.....he is really good at it.
Howard is underrated on this board now.... He can catch the ball and finish, comparing against Asik, that's at least two to three buckets every night. Simply adding 5 points and check how many more games a team can win. To people expecting a Dream or even Yao Ming equivalent centre in offence, you have to accept the fact that big man with that offensive skills is so rare nowadays. Howard can sill improve when he plays more games with the team. As someone has pointed out, he needs to dedicate more into P&R, which appears to be the most efficient offence for him and the team. 'I don't think anyone can learn those moves' - Charles Barkly. He played a few seasons with Dream. Has he learnt any post skills from Dream? Howard needs to work with CD instead of Dream! Left/right hand hooks and feed away jumpers from both sides are the way to go. Just forget about the Dream shakes please....
Harden has proven to us that he can't play defense. I blame Howard's recent sub-par play due to Harden's ISO play. Basketball is a game of rhythm and if you're not getting much touches to establish your game, then how can he establish his dominance??? Why do you think Lin is coming off the bench now? Because Harden is ball dominant and Lin is more beneficial with the ball in his hand...so stop hating on Howard![/QUOTE] Dude Howard is a chump... He let a guy named "Andrea" shut him down one on one... He's so weak minded and weak hearted that he refuses to fight for position to even allow other players to get him the ball.. And the problem is _ if Howard isn't right up under the basket he's no threat offensively. And now you're blaming Howard's pis poor post game on Harden... Hahahahaha.... Yea everything is Harden's fault around here...Lol..
Barkley already had a post game... I use to fall asleep during the 24 second shot clock when he had the ball when he was here in Houston... Howard had Patrick Ewing as in assistant coach in Orlando (and he also worked with Dream back then as well)... Howard is a great athlete who plays basketball but he's not a basketball player... But lets keep hope alive that he gets it together... But I ain't holding my breath.
Yes, you're right but Asik is a better man-to-man defender, better at positioning and sets better screens. And these are not shown on stats. Both have their strengths and weaknesses.
/thread This thread was started because some expected him to "step up" his offense with Parsons' and Lin's absence. Well, there is no offense to "step up" to. He is what he is and it's worth $22 million. It's easy to say that Asik does a lot of what he does at a third of the price, but in reality Asik is worth about $12 million and the difference between good and dominant (defensively) is worth the extra $10 million because it is so rare.
Dwight is not this teams problem but I can understand frustration with him in LA and here in Houston. I've never seen a "superstar" player just coast like he does. I've seen plenty of the little things he does on defense and enough offensive prowess to believe he's worth his contract. But he is not a go to scorer who when others are injured or cold or fouled out and you need a bucket he's the guy to get it for you. He just lets the game come to him rather than be aggressive and create. Which is understandable because watching him in the post or well dribbling at all is just embarrassing. Still he's not the problem. Address the perimeter matador defense first.
I got tired of screaming via typing about Howard that I gave up!!! We stuck with him now...the signing was a resume builder for Morey!!!
I agree the perimeter D is embarrassing and is main concern right now. However, I have a problem with our "superstar" $22 million dollar player coasting like he did last night especially with two key players out. He will never be a Hakeem or Yao type player offensively, he just doesn't have the skill, but Dwight to me has to give more consistently to justify the $22 million price tag. The fact that he is embarrassing in the post at times and can't be counted on to get them a quality look down low is reason why now I don't feel he is worth his current contract. The season is still young, but this is my current opinion of Dwight now seeing him up close, game in game out with the Rockets this year.
There's still so much more he can learn from Dream. It's not exactly the moves themselves that are important. It's the mindset. Even if it WAS possible to learn Hakeem's moves, it certainly wouldn't happen in a couple of months. Hakeem honed those moves himself over many years. But - Think of Hakeem as the "Bruce Lee" of basketball - Bruce had students. But he never taught his students to fight like "Bruce Lee". He taught them a plethora of moves and fighting philosophy and then showed them how to fight their own way. Hakeem and Dwight will develop a new weapon for Dwight. Give it some time.
I really don't even think this team has any major problems at this point, it's really too early to even know how good or bad this team will be. People just need to be patient and let the team grow and learn to play together. This entire year will be a year of learning and adjusting. The product we see on the court at the end of the season may be greatly improved over what we see now just because they will have had more time to gel as a team. And really, what we have seen so far is not that bad. Fans for most other teams would love to have our team instead of theirs.
"Poor man's". As in, a very watered down version of. I don't think DH is half the player Robinson was, but he was the only athletic C mold I could think of.
What you just said could easily apply to Asik as well... So it would probably be better to keep Asik and trade Howard straight up for LMA... That way the Rockets would still have a defender in Asik and a big man who can get a bucket when needed... Because not having that can be a problem. Can't always depend on players hitting 3's and Harden isolating. But Portland probably isn't dumb enough to do that...
I wouldn't go so far as to say Howard has yet to show up. He's only had a few meh games all season long. Still, I would like to see him put more effort in- and this was one of my primary concerns when we signed him. Even in some games where he has played really well this season, he didn't put in as much effort as he could and should have. I don't think he's really regressed much (if at all) talent wise. It really is just a lack of effort and discipline.
Is this thread real life? Good Lord, some of y'all need to go back to the holes y'all crawled out from.
Man to Man Defender-- There may be some truth to that, but you cannot deny the impact D12 has on the defense as a whole. The defenders can play closer up on the ball and pressure because they know that D12 will roll over and help when they get beat off the dribble. He changes shots and the psyche of players that are going to drive to the hoop. Asik does not bring any of that to the table. Better at Positioning-- Maybe. But what good is getting positioning when you miss 1ft layups on the reg and cannot get more than two inches of the floor to finish strong with a dunk. Not to mention have hands made of stone? Better Screens-- Strictly an opinion!! How are you deciding this? Did you ask Harden and Bev who sets better screens? The only problem I see with D12's offense is that he is an elite PnR player who wants to be a low post scorer. He is not strong there, but he can get better. I mean, if Jason Kidd can learn to shoot 3/4 of the way through his career at least there is hope for D12 (assuming he sticks with it). As I said earlier, we are 19 games in and have 6 losses.....the sky is indeed not falling.
The last person I'd expect to say something like this would be you. How can you say something like that? Yes, Dwight hasn't been performing well these last few games but to trade someone they were desperately trying to get for who knows how many years? He's is the best center in the game and a better scorer/defender than Asik will ever be. Yes, he's been underperforming as of late, but Asik would be lucky enough to sniff the talent level that Dwight has.
I agree with the criticism of Howard. I honestly think the Rockets would be better trading Howard for an elite PF such as (in order of preference) -Love -Davis -Aldridge Keeping Asik and adding one of those elite PFs would be great. I like Dwert's personality a lot, but his Orlando days are over.
I too have been extremely disappointed in Dwight's performance so far although I have to admit his attitude is better than I expected (so far). I was against the signing because I was worried about the Dwightmare which so far has been non-existent unfortunately the Orlando like Dwight has been nonexistent too. He just doesn't seem like he is trying as hard as he is capable of.
