Post#477 » by FFBlitzace » Tue Feb 12, 2008 4:00 am
I've been content with his number of shot attempts the entire time he's been with us. The success rate of a Dwight Howard post up is not as high as you might think it is reading this board. Very rarely does he face anything other than a double team. Sometimes it creates a shot off a double team. Sometimes. But just as often he holds it until the shot clock is running down and then we have to rush something. And when he actually takes the shot himself, which sometimes is a complete force against a double team, it's usually something wild. That step-into-the-lane hookshot he's got going on is ugly. Sometimes it bangs in, but usually it misses badly. When he drives baseline, it's usually an offensive foul or he steps out of bounds. If he actually passes those hurdles, he usually just gets wrapped up and sent to the line where he shoots under 60%.
I don't mean to sit here and just bash his offensive game, or Dwight in general. Anything this Magic team accomplishes over the next half decade will be because of him, and I'm depending on him just as much as anybody else. I'm just saying that I understand not giving him the ball every trip down at this point in his career. I just honestly don't think it would be better to do that every trip down than, say, letting Hedo attempt to create something every once in a while. Or letting Rashard try to score. Which is another thing. Rashard is averaging fewer shot attempts than he has in a long time. And this guy is probably the best pure scorer on our team, he has a legit argument for more shots if he wants to make an issue over it.
Dwight would get his points if he focused on the defense and rebounding. Like I said before, he averaged 12 a game his rookie year while pretty much never touching the ball. It was all putbacks and opportunity baskets. And Dwight's much better now than he was then. He could get 20 a game that way, very efficiently. And he would still draw attention. Even when he doesn't touch the ball he draws attention. You have to keep an eye on him, because if a weak defender is on him 1 on 1, he can just overpower him and dunk. So it's not like he has to take 20+ shots and score 30 a game to draw attention and clog the lane for shooters. And it's not like he would never see a postup. He'd still get the ball the same amount he gets it now, which is reasonable. If a team came along that didn't double, give him the ball and he'll score 30+ like he has done many times this year against teams that have decided to defend us differently than most teams. But it rarely happens when teams do that, and it's only going to get rarer (if that's a word).
And let's not forget how many points per game this team is averaging. We're one of the highest scoring teams in the league. Very rarely is the offense an issue for this team. Dwight's averaging over 20 points per game, most on the team, the team is averaging well over 100 per game, and he doesn't want to play defense because he's not happy with the offense? Obviously it's not that simple, but when you break it down like that, it hardly seems like this should even be an issue.
Sure, the entire team needs to pick it up defensively. But he's the anchor. He's the leader, the star. There are role players and there are stars. Stars exist because they do things role players don't. Role players are role players because they're not as good as stars. If he wants to be a role player, we'll void his max extension and give him Jameer-type dollars instead. But that's not happening, so play like the star you claim you want to be.
11/18/2017 - I have officially disowned Nikola Vucevic and branded him a loser.
- Skal Labissiere was my guy in 2016 pre-trade. Whoops, but I still believe.
- Malik Monk was my guy in 2017. Whoops(?)
- Mo Bamba was my guy in 2018. TBD.
