Why So Much Hate Against One of the Rockets' Best Playoff Performers Since 1995?

Like I said, he kills Lopez, and they won't double. So we weren't "force feeding" him against Portland. If he pins a man under the basket, yeah, give him the damn ball. Every time. But stop giving it to him 9-12 feet out on the right block and expecting him to crab dribble his way to a good shot, or to make some running hook over any decent defender.

 

I'm not denying that Dwight played well in that series, nor am I arguing that we would have been better off with him in that series. And you're right, Lopez isn't a bad defender... except when it comes to keeping Dwight away from the basket.

The point still stands that Dwight has never been good at consistently creating anything if he gets the ball with a defender on his back from 6+ feet out. Even if he gets a double team, his passing skills are mediocre at best (this year his passing is a straight up liability).

 

Without him*. Meant to say we should not have been better off without him.

 

Some people are just black-and-white thinking. Saying that Dwight should not be posting so much does not mean he should NEVER post. It's just like saying that the long 2 is inefficient does not mean we should NEVER shoot long 2.

You take what the defense gives you. But you also try not to let the defense dictate your offense. It's not just black and white. There are 50 shades of gray.

 

Jbasket, your comparison of previous and current Rockets stars is interesting and noteworthy. My criticism of your thread was to unnecessary group a number of posters together and imply that they are Howard haters. Never once have I opined that Howard should be traded, purged or whatnot. I only said he does not appear to be the player we have known as Dwight Howard, the superstar. Whether these are mental or physical limitations, I only said he should sit out for as long as needed to overcome these limitations.

I do not believe the above opinion qualifies me as a D12 hater. That's all.

 

This is right on the money! I actually thought he did well last season posting up. The one thing I find that Dwight should really work on is his passing. What made Yao and Dream so scary was not just they had different ways to score on you, but that if they couldn't get themselves into position to score that basket, they would pass it out to someone who could. With Dwight I feel like the defense knows that once he gets the ball he is just aiming for the basket. It probably also helped having both Parsons and James on the wing but I feel that post defenders would have to ease up on him a bit more if they didn't know where he was going with that ball; whether to the open man or to the hoop. Physically muscling his way to the hoop though seems to still be easy for the guy. As said by previous posters we are a better team with Dwight and there is no reason why anyone would think otherwise. Dmo still needs some work.

 

jbasket,

Of course the playoffs outweigh the regular season. And of course I want Howard on this team, I know we need him to win a title, we are not better off without him, currently constructed at least.

I have just been annoyed with his obvious lack of effort and concentration this season, he was much better last season.

 

The conclusion is that Howard is not bad, but he is not good as Yao. At a time, we all thought Howard is much better than Yao, but that somehow is not the case, still I like Howard as our team center because he left LA for us.

 

IMO, Dwight Howard at his peak was better than Yao Ming at his peak. Never mind that the former was defensive player of the year and NBA first teamer multiple times, but he also led his team much farther into the playoffs, albeit in a weaker conference.

Perhaps this is the root of the current D12 debate, namely that people still have memories of great Howard once was.

 

Anecdotal video evidence of one or two plays doesn't do much for me... Dwight averaged something like 26 and 14 against the Blazers in the regular season last year, and then did it to em again in the playoffs. That's not a coincidence.

He played pretty well against them in his one game this year vs them, too. Not quite at that level, but still solid considering his knee problems.

Anyways, we are arguing around the point right now. I have no problem with giving Dwight the ball when he gets position. I have a problem with allowing him to try to create a shot in the post with any significant distance between him and the basket. That does NOT go well.

 

Just watched the videos you posted. Would edit, but can't. I thought you were posting videos of some plays where Robin kept Dwight outside and he wasn't able to score, my bad.

I mean yeah, when Dwight is healthy and decisive and aggressive, he will get to the rim, sure (I already said I'm sure his knee/health is playing a role in his poor performance of late). But you'll notice that not many of those plays were actually "post ups". He was just beating his man to the spot. Plus, again, he was single covered on just about every one of those plays.

I'm fine with an aggressive Dwight that plays within his game. I just don't want him trying to be Yao Ming out there.

 

I will admit, though, that the way I was describing Howard's success against Portland wasn't really completely fair or accurate. He was creating some shots against single coverage, but he still wasn't really doing much of what I would call "posting up".

 

I stand by Mr. Clutch. If Dwight isn't playing basketball, then I don't want to watch him play basketball. Unless he's playing basketball. Then I'll watch.

 

One series...one series...

 

What if he is playing bad basketball?



Then what?

DD