No one passes to Dwight (article)

[LetItRain]

This guy makes some good points (some of which of seen on this board). More people are starting to notice the lack of Dwight's involvement in the offense for long periods of time, when will SVG notice??

http://wisinsider.blogspot.com/2008/01/busy-sunday-in-nba.html

watching them play is just extremely frustrating. That is because they have this monster of a lowpost player yet he gets the ball once every 15 possessions or so...he's Orlando's best player. He should be getting the ball! There was a stretch in the fourth quarter in which Howard went nearly five minutes without receiving a pass. Yet the Magic went right back to not passing to him again. Obviously, it isn't hard to figure out why Howard is denied the rock. He's surrounded by poor passers...Jameer Nelson and Keyon Dooling are point guards in name only, always looking for their shot first. Carlos Arroyo also shoots too much but is even more fond of over dribbling until he turns the ball over.

Update: After posting this, I went back and checked the stats for the season and Howard currently ranks well behind both Lewis and Turkoglu in field goal attempts per game. Furthermore, he's only sixth on the team in FGA's per 48 minutes, which is just ridiculous. When you consider how many attempts come from his own offensive rebounds, it is increasingly apparent that he is actually thrown the ball about 10 times a game. I am growing more angry about this by the second.]

[DannyLo]

Really good article.

I've gotten the most frustrated when we refuse to give Dwight the ball down low in the 4th quarter. Most of the 4th we would just pass it around for a contested jumpshot. I am really not one to complain but hopefully for the playoffs we will get to see Dwight putting up at least around 20 fg attempts a game. If you think about it when Dwight gets the ball down low, there is about a 55% chance he is gonna score. And a 75% chance he is gonna go to the line.

[OrlandoMagic]

cook passes him the ball all the time

[DannyLo]

cook passes him the ball all the time

for the 10 mins he's in the game

[Bonkerz!]

It's amazing how he averages 20+ when no one passes him the ball.

[D12Howard]

Im glad this guy called out Arroyo like that. But he should have been meaner. Arroyo is a worthless basketball player.

And give Dwight the rock.

[magik9113]

-= original quote snipped =-



for the 10 mins he's in the game

when he's not draining 3's at key moments in the game

[LetItRain]

It's amazing how he averages 20+ when no one passes him the ball.

It is

[MagicFan149]

dwight should touch the ball every time down the court at least once... it doesnt mean he has to shoot it but the defense will colapse on him.... giving open shots to others... we use this to our advantage but it seems like we could do this more.

dwights passing out of double teams is progressing which will help us on offense even more... it just seems at times we dont use one of the most dominant players in the game for long stretches.

but i guess we all are saying the same thing RUN THE OFFENSE THROUGH DWIGHT!

[TNMagicFan]

It is totally ridiculous that Dwight doesn't get 20 attempts a game . He is the best player on this team and his field goal attempts should reflect that .

[mattyBoi]

maybe next year, if we get some new personnel, dwight will get his touches...and he will have multiple 40 point games.

or......................we can just get kidd this year and call it a wrap

[Typhoon20]

What I don't understand is, how come Arroyo gets to shoot as much as Dwight. That's where coach is having some problems coaching. If he tells Arroyo not to shoot it, he won't (I think). If he tells the team to pass it to Dwight, they will.

Some players shouldn't shoot the ball, and their shots should go to D12.

[MagicFan149]

you have to take account for his free throws too so thats six more shots a game ... if you look at it that way... he is taking more shots than anyone... but when you watch the games it still seems hes not heard from on offense for long periods of time

[mattyBoi]

Also his turnovers are like missed shots

[jamlando]

I've been complaining about this all season long. I believe this was the whole point of the offense SVG wanted to run but he doesn't have a PG that can get the ball to Dwight. The other thing is Dwight has to start demanding the ball. He has to demand on the court, during time outs & in the media just like Shaq did. Once he starts demanding the ball, I guarantee SVG will make sure he gets it.

[dirtybird]

I was watching the Magic-Celtics game and was thinking the same thing. I'm a Raptors fan, and I think that the Magic could take a page out of the Raptors. Like Bosh, Howard would command a double team anytime he has the ball, which gives the rest of the team better looks. Ignoring the best player on the team seems inexcusable to me. You guys need a PG that understands this in order to do real damage in the league.

And the funny thing was that KG wasn't dressed, so there was every reason to attack that weak frontcourt of the Celtics.

[magicmamma]

Dwight's shot attempts are not a measure of his touches. I wish there was a stat for "touches." It seems to me that through much of the game the ball goes to Dwight in about half of the possessions. Most of the time he kicks it back out, sometimes twice in one possession. Often Dwight is so heavily guarded that Nash would have a hard time completing a pass to him, and our guys aren't Nash.

[TooNice00]

dwight doesn't get enough touches. simple as that. some of that is jameer being out of the lineup recently. but overall he still needs some more opportunities. overall his involvement in the offense is slowly decreasing as the season goes on. in november he was getting 14FGA and 12FTA down to 12FGA and 13FTA in december and is presently only taking 11FGA and 11FTA in january. Dwight should at least be taking 14 shots a game or more on average.

[KingDave]

I agree that Dwight should be getting more touches in the post but people are forgetting he averages 12 FT's a game, thats another 6 shots...Add that to his regular FG attempts and the total is 18 attempts a game..Another thing, Dwight is still a terrible FT shooter and is bad at passing out of double teams, so I think his teammates are reluctant to pass him the ball late in games in fear of losing a possession on missed FT's or a bad pass from Dwight.

[magictreat]

It's amazing how he averages 20+ when no one passes him the ball.

the problem: lack of a good PG, we all know that, if this team is going to advance in the playoffs, we better get lucky in the draft, the guys we have now( NELSON, ARROYO, DOOLING), won't do the trick for us....