Your premise is immediately flawed when you compare Dwight, whom got a 26/13, to "good Dmo" who has season averages of 12/7. Then, it gets more extreme by comparing Dwight to 40-year-old Mutombo. No, losing Dmo is does not change a potential "Series winner" for this upcoming playoffs to "we would get destroyed". It is not even a comparison. Dmo didn't even play last year; he wasn't a rotation player. It is a very iffy argument to project someone's future ability into the past. Bucks fan: "Man, if only we had '17 Greek Freak, we would have won that series!" Or more for the Rockets perspective: "Man, if we had the (hopefully) '15 Harden the past two years in the playoffs". You cannot compare a future player to a past player because players can grow in their abilities, especially young players like Dmo and Harden. If our superstar player has an injury for the regular season, but contributes his 26/13 with DPOY material in the playoffs, I say that is an impact. I can count on one finger the amount of people that can do that in this league. It is like you are assuming Dwight is doing a DNP - Rest for 30 games. The man's hurt. I would also say we didn't get "dumped on" in last years' series. We actually outscored them over the course of the series and had some questionable officiating. Saying we got destroyed with Dwight is factually incorrect.
Without Dwight, I think Houston is better suited to play against Phoenix. In fact, I think they are better suited to play against everyone in the west, except Portland, maybe Dallas (Tyson Chandler) and maybe LAC. 7-2 since Dwight went down, with 5 wins against playoff teams.
Its all about playing to your stengths. Posting up is not one of DH's strengths, just like passing the ball is not one of Bev's strengths, yet for some reason, they keep doing those things expecting better results. I think the difference in assists and turnovers when DH is and is not playing is very telling, indeed. That said, I don't think the Rockets can go very far in the playoffs without Howard's defense, and I don't think the Rockets have a shot to win it all unless Howard embraces the PnR. Watching Harden and Smith PnR is quite a wonderful sight and really gives whoever they are playing fits.
Still too soon to say for certain we're not getting the Dwight of last year's playoffs back in late April. If some how we can determine for sure that Dwight will never be the same player, then it's really on McHale to limit his touches. No former MVP candidate type player is ever going willingly tone down his offense. It would be like telling old Kobe or Iverson to take less shots and become a solid 3&D type guy, just doesn't happen. If McHale does his part and Howard doesn't cooperate, then Houston is better off trading him.
Here we are 14 games later... Since Dwight went down: Houston is 10-4, with wins over Phoenix, Dallas, Chicago, Toronto, and LA Clippers. DMo 14.1, 6.6, 54/40/54 Smith 13.9, 7.1, 3.3, 47/43/44 Before Dwight 102.6 ppg, 98.8 ppga After Dwight 104.6 ppg, 99.9 ppga
Had we managed to pick up a decent Center to fill in during Dwight's absence, I wouldnt even be worried about it. But I cant stomach watching Deandre Jordan grab 25 rebounds a game over DMo again.
There are multiple responses about Dwight bringing defense... Didn't anyone read the stats? It says the Rockets have had an even better defense with Dwight out. Frankly, I question the integrity of the stats, but I don't think it's a surprise that the Rockets play better without Dwight (even on defense). Good defensive teams rely more and more on smart defensive sets; not defensive talent and/or athleticism.
The Offense with Howard is more stagnant because he refused to play the P&R You can play adequate D without Howard however having near healthy Howard gives the team more options.
The offence is not stagnant because he refuses to play the pick and roll but because when he posts up he only looks at one direction and that's towards the basket. He only passes it out to either have it passed back in to repost or for someone to shoot a desperation 3. That's what needs to stop. This is where coaching xomes to play and not just letting people do what they want needs to happen.
we are better on offense without dwight. its not even close. however, even though the defense doesn't drop off much without him... there are still teams that know how to exploit the fact that we have little to no rim protection / size in the paint. we need dwight to come back for the playoffs and accept his role as our deandre jordan.
This sentence actually gives me goose bumps! I don't know if I should be sad that Dwight has regressed from his superstar status or I should be happy that rebounding+dunking mode may very likely bring us deep into the playoffs.
