Howard signs a 2 year deal for the tax MLE with a player option per Woj

[queridiculo]

Expecting a 32 year old that's accomplished so much, individually, in his career to change might be a tall order.

Haywood is plugged in down there in North Carolina, so what he says about the situation does carry a bit of gravitas.

Read on Twitter

Then there's what the Wizards witnessed first hand in their series against he Hawks, Howard flat out quit on his teammate and didn't show any effort.

http://larrybrownsports.com/basketball/hawks-dennis-schroder-shades-dwight-howard-lack-effort/433514

After Howard and the Charlotte Hornets defeated his former team, the Atlanta Hawks, by the final of 129-117, Hawks guard Dennis Schroder threw some shade at the former All-Star for his lack of consistent effort.

“He plays always great against his former team,” said Schroder, according to Hawks writer KL Chouinard. “Credit to him too, but that’s like four games each year, you know? Houston, LA, us. I think he’s always giving his best there but the other games he [shrugs].”

Then there's the fact that he was voted Teammate of the Year on that same Hawks squad, so wth.

http://larrybrownsports.com/basketball/dwight-howard-stupid-believe-negative-influence-hawks/403721

[AWIZZINGBULLET]

Don't let this distract you from the fact that Grunfeld can never sign players when they're still relevant.

Leonsis and Grunfeld have made D.C. an unattractive destination for free agents despite having two All-Star players on their roster.

[NatP4]

Who cares about the locker room stuff. Our team sucks and has horrific leadership. It’s worth the risk

Maybe they can all bond over being a holes

[WallToWall]

After Howard and the Charlotte Hornets defeated his former team, the Atlanta Hawks, by the final of 129-117, Hawks guard Dennis Schroder threw some shade at the former All-Star for his lack of consistent effort.

“He plays always great against his former team,” said Schroder, according to Hawks writer KL Chouinard. “Credit to him too, but that’s like four games each year, you know? Houston, LA, us. I think he’s always giving his best there but the other games he [shrugs].”

So lets see here... Howard played for the Hornets, Hawks, Rockets, Lakers, Magic....so, he will get 30 pts 30 rbs in about 20 games. Nice! No?

The beef with Howard is that he doesnt always show up, as Schroder said. When he isnt mentally into the game, he makes silliness happen.

Watch on YouTube

That is how silly he can be. Yes, he doesnt know how to post up. Yes, he doesnt have a mid-range game. On D, he will not play his man very well outside the lane (which is where most of the action is in todays NBA). With the Magic, he wore out his welcome. He was immature (he was young at the time). He brought that immaturity to the Lakers, and that didnt go well with what they had (Kobe, etc). He didnt want to change his game (be a post up player, develop a mid range), to compete better against other C's. That experiment lasted, like, 1 year. With the Rockets, his immaturity came out again, and he really didnt get along with Harden. The back surgeries also took a bit out of him.
What he does well... He did/does the P+R, which he is/was very good at, as long as it results in a very short layup or dunk. He does the alley-opp. He will give us good D in the paint.
Look, we got a 32 year old player on the downside of his career. We shouldnt expect miracles. He will give us 25 mins/game, with 10 pts and 10 rbs. But he will also give up maddening points when guarding other C's/players with a mid range shot...and we will be talking a lot about that next season. He is an adequate replacement for Gortat.

[deneem4]

I think our aggressiveness and bad guy rep is good for Howard...were looked at as the tough guys in the east since the celtics disbanded...if Howard can learn some take no shhhhh from Morris he will get along fine and might make him give more consistent effort

[deneem4]

After Howard and the Charlotte Hornets defeated his former team, the Atlanta Hawks, by the final of 129-117, Hawks guard Dennis Schroder threw some shade at the former All-Star for his lack of consistent effort.

“He plays always great against his former team,” said Schroder, according to Hawks writer KL Chouinard. “Credit to him too, but that’s like four games each year, you know? Houston, LA, us. I think he’s always giving his best there but the other games he [shrugs].”

So lets see here... Howard played for the Hornets, Hawks, Rockets, Lakers, Magic....so, he will get 30 pts 30 rbs in about 20 games. Nice! No?

The beef with Howard is that he doesnt always show up, as Schroder said. When he isnt mentally into the game, he makes silliness happen.

Watch on YouTube

That is how silly he can be. Yes, he doesnt know how to post up. Yes, he doesnt have a mid-range game. On D, he will not play his man very well outside the lane (which is where most of the action is in todays NBA). With the Magic, he wore out his welcome. He was immature (he was young at the time). He brought that immaturity to the Lakers, and that didnt go well with what they had (Kobe, etc). He didnt want to change his game (be a post up player, develop a mid range), to compete better against other C's. That experiment lasted, like, 1 year. With the Rockets, his immaturity came out again, and he really didnt get along with Harden. The back surgeries also took a bit out of him.
What he does well... He did/does the P+R, which he is/was very good at, as long as it results in a very short layup or dunk. He does the alley-opp. He will give us good D in the paint.
Look, we got a 32 year old player on the downside of his career. We shouldnt expect miracles. He will give us 25 mins/game, with 10 pts and 10 rbs. But he will also give up maddening points when guarding other C's/players with a mid range shot...and we will be talking a lot about that next season. He is an adequate replacement for Gortat.

He’s a a amzing replacment for gortat

Gortat was only good at setting screens, he wasn’t even a great finisher missing easy layups and not trying to dunk..

Gortat also couldn’t protect the paint, lane, 3pt line nothing...he was terrible in isolation against other bigs...
Couldn’t switch on smaller players didn’t step up when other got beat...
Had literally no offensive moves at all...barely hit his mid range shots...

Like after nene left gortat took a huge nosedive...I miss nene, at least he took it strong and would get fouled...

Hopefully Howard can bring some stay out the paint attitude..that will at least allow the rest of the guys to funnel teams into him, like Houston does with capela

[NatP4]

So wrong lol

[keynote]

I think our aggressiveness and bad guy rep is good for Howard...were looked at as the tough guys in the east since the celtics disbanded...if Howard can learn some take no shhhhh from Morris he will get along fine and might make him give more consistent effort

I think we *want* to be viewed as the tough guys -- but we haven't been that since Nene left. Kieff is good at glowering at opponents and barking at refs, but he's not the physical player he thinks he is. Boston's still more physical than we are. We'll see if Dwight can change that.

Sent from my Pixel using RealGM mobile app

[deneem4]

I think our aggressiveness and bad guy rep is good for Howard...were looked at as the tough guys in the east since the celtics disbanded...if Howard can learn some take no shhhhh from Morris he will get along fine and might make him give more consistent effort

I think we *want* to be viewed as the tough guys -- but we haven't been that since Nene left. Kieff is good at glowering at opponents and barking at refs, but he's not the physical player he thinks he is. Boston's still more physical than we are. We'll see if Dwight can change that.

Sent from my Pixel using RealGM mobile app

I disagree beal and oubre especially is pretty tough attacking ...Morris can go at wit any big...
I don’t think Boston has the tough identity since Bradley and Isaiah left especially if smart leaves

[Kanyewest]

LOL @ the current Tap story about GSW and Howard.

I mean, how on earth did things go so sideways for Howard?

Didn't he have a 30/30 game just a few months ago, how much of a colossal **** do you have to be to be for teams to just categorically rule out signing you.

Yeah, I really want to know why people hate him so much.

He's never been overtly lazy on the court like Cousins. He's always defended pretty well (some years better than others, but never awful) and he's always rebounded like a beast. Off the court, he seems like a reasonably nice guy, at least in interviews. The only concrete thing I've heard about him that's negative is that he always wants the ball to play his old school post up game, even though it's not an effective way of scoring in this league. But when you look at his USG%, it's typically between 18 and 24, which is a bit high for a center but not what I would consider to be overly selfish. His ORtg is consistently league average or better (despite the woeful FT shooting) so it's not like he's wildly inefficient. His on/off differential has been positive in every year of his career except Atlanta 2 years ago.

I'm not defending him. Obviously there's something to the anti-Howard sentiment because every team wants to get rid of him as soon as they get him. I'm just trying to put my finger on what exactly the problem is.

I think it stems from the fact that Dwight constantly complains about a lack of touches. His critics like Shaq, Barkley, and Kenny Smith constantly criticize him for not scoring enough. Therefore, Howard is often unsatisfied with the amount of touches that he gets and rubs his teammates the wrong way when he asks for the ball. That being said his post game is lacking and his free throw shooting is sub-par.

Dwight Howard got a target put on his back when he wanted Stan Van Gundy to be fired where Van Gundy told it to the media before a game and Howard unaware to what Stan Van Gundy walks in.

Watch on YouTube

Howard proceeded to have his back surgery. After the Magic were bounced in the 1st round, Howard was traded to the Lakers.

With the Lakers, Howard was under even more scrutiny especially from a team was just a season removed from winning a title and was coming off of back surgery. Ultimately, Howard was worse than his predecessor Andrew Bynum, granted Bynum was never the same either, but the Lakers lofty expectations of winning a championship were never really reached. His lack of a post game frustrated a skilled player like Kobe and was seen as a lack of a killer instinct. His departure from LA also probably left a bad taste with the Lakers and their organization especially since they gave up assets to get Howard (and 2 first rounders for Steve Nash!).

Ultimately, James Harden and Dwight Howard couldn't coexist. Their run to the conference finals was more of a fluke, where the Clippers overcame a huge deficit mostly with Harden not on the court. If I had to guess, Harden's lack of defense frustrated Howard. Howard also complained about touches and Coach Kevin McHale also wanted Harden to give the ball more to Howard. Ultimately, James Harden forced McHale out, who Howard supported, and the Rockets have seen more success without Howard with a more perimeter oriented offense.

With the Hawks, I'm guessing the bad blood stemmed from either Schroder. Schroder came out publically and stated that Howard only plays well against his former teams but doesn't always put forth that effort in every game. Howard seemed to complain or sulk whenever he was benched in crunch time.

The Hornets were 3-1 against the Wizards but were not effective against everyone else. I think it stemmed from the fact that the Hornets didn't have that many effective shooting lineups to pair with Howard especially with Batum shooting 34 percent from 3.

[payitforward]

I wouldn’t make any other moves yet, I would wait and see what Wall-Beal-Oubre-Porter-(motivated) Howard can do.

We have Oubre as a trade chip, Hell, we have Troy Brown as another trade chip. If Jeff Green plays like he did last season, you have nice wing depth with him, Sato, Porter already.

I would rather keep and develop these guys, but if all goes well, Oubre+Brown+2019 1st is a hell of a trade package around the deadline.

Nah...not trading Brown anytime soon. Kid is going to be a keeper.

Not to mention what a ridiculous idea this is from every other perspective.

Start with the fact that Green has played about his last 6000 minutes at Power Forward, so he wouldn't provide much "wing depth." Plus "if he plays like he did last season," he will be playing just about exactly like Mike Scott. Green is a journeyman; he was never much, & he's been terrible the last few years -- including last year. Why does anyone think he's available at a veteran minimum contract? Sheesh.

Green & Scott could not have had more similar seasons last year -- & as bad a rebounder as Scott was, Jeff Green was even worse.

They both scored with good efficiency & about the same number of points -- though they did it in different ways. They were both awful at everything else. Awful enough that they provided no help to their respective teams, both of which had much worse records than the previous year.

Sure, lets turn the only players we've added to this team who've come into the league since 2013 & turn them into "trade chips." & lets "see what Wall-Beal-Oubre-Porter-(motivated) Howard can do" & if things go well, then Oubre is "a trade chip."

What an idea! Lets trade our future altogether to see what we can do with our veteran minimum Dwight Howard one-year rental.

Not even Thomas Bryant is good enough to make up for ideas of this stripe!

[80sballboy]

I was looking up Howard's numbers against some of the better centers in Gobert, Drummond, Embiid, and Horford. They are not great but the one thing I feel that with D12 on our side, is that we won't be intimidated by any big. He just gives us size, intimidation and strength that we've never really had on the boards or in the paint. Nothing against Gortat or even Ian, but when we went up against those types of bigs, I almost always felt that we'd be getting the short end of the stick.

[payitforward]

It's nice to see you guys feeling positive about the season. Howard will certainly help -- he has to be the biggest rent-a-player bargain in a long long time!

The guys gone from last year (Gortat, Scott, Frazier, Sessions & McCullough) played @4600 minutes. We've definitely replaced those minutes:

John Wall was down @ 1000 minutes due to injury, meaning that the @1100 minutes that went to Frazier/Sessions should go to him. An improvement, obviously!

Gortat played 2075 minutes. Howard will play those -- & maybe a couple hundred more, taking those minutes from Mahinmi. In all, definitely should be more productive.

Green is in for Scott's 1400 minutes. A wash.

I'm giving McCullough's 90 minutes to Thomas Bryant, ok?

We've also added Austin Rivers. Where do his minutes come from?

For starters, Brad played too many much last year -- 2977 minutes. That was 4th highest in the league & only 49 minutes less than LeBron who was first. That may account for some of his fall off from the previous year & for some non-stellar late-season performances as well. I'd rather see him play 400 fewer minutes. Meeks will be gone the first 25 games. It doesn't look like it'd be hard for Rivers to play 1500+ minutes on the season.

You have to hope that Rivers doesn't take minutes from Satoransky or Oubre.

Despite my dissatisfaction with the draft & the general failure to add enough guys with an upside who are actually going to be Wizards for a while, it does look like we haven't gotten worse for this season. With the addition of Howard, we'll be reasonably sure to make the playoffs.

Ernie has kicked the can down the road another year.

Brooks should play Rivers in place of Beal just during the last 4 minutes of every 4th quarter. It would shave 330 minutes off of Brad's minutes total, and presumably Rivers will shoot better than the roughly 12% FG% that Brad shot down the stretch of games. If we're just gonna run iso-ball down the stretch, we may as well play the better isolation scorer.

Put some of Beal's 4th quarter difficulties down to the heavy minutes he was playing night after night. But, we shouldn't be playing ISO ball anyway.

In any case, whatever part of Rivers game is better than some other part of Rivers game, there's no reason to make the mistake of thinking he is particularly good at anything.

What, I wonder, is the problem with facts? I can't figure it out. & if you look at facts, you find that Austin Rivers is an extremely bad NBA guard. Always has been. Has he improved? Sure, a little -- just like pretty much any player who comes into the league. Problem is that his peak is way way below average.

The only positive thing that's happened which will affect this coming season (aside from Thomas Bryant who will be a giant among men) is signing Howard. & a healthy John Wall of course. Those two suffice for us to feel confident about making the playoffs. With the slide of Cleveland it's even possible we aren't at #8.

[payitforward]

Thinking just a little more long-term:

By next year this time, Ernie will likely have traded either Porter or Beal (more likely Otto) & maybe have sacrificed a R1 pick to move Mahinmi as well.

I don't see why you think this. Ted has shown that he is willing to exceed the luxtax a bit, and projections are that the 2019/20 luxtax threshold will be quite a bit higher than what we expected 6 months ago - probably around $135M.

That's useful information, which I did not know. & now that you mention, I suppose it is logical. Owners around the league don't want to see too many teams in the lux tax bind. After all... they are the ones who have to pay it!!

The biggest thing such a rise might mean is that Ernie doesn't need to trade Mahinmi at the cost of a pick in order to avoid the tax. Overall, however, right now we have $100m guaranteed to 4 players in 2020-21.

If we've retained Oubre & Sato, we will be in vet minimum land for most of the rest of the roster. I can't think of a team that has gotten better, become a contender for anything, employing a strategy of this nature. Something has to give.

What am I missing?

[payitforward]

Read on Twitter

What am I missing?
Unless there was some waiver of the "Set-Off" language within his buyout... why are we paying him more than the Min?

Exactly. I don't get it.

[payitforward]

.... I think Wiz are the 2nd best team in the East. ...For the first time in a long time, though, I am looking forward to the season. If this team can play hungry and with a chip on their shoulder then the sky is the limit. On an off note, that's why I like Austin Rives. Wiz need players like that. We've been to soft for too long.

Absolutely. That's what we need -- a bad player with a reputation for being a bad teammate.

Howard may be a bad teammate, but at least he's a genuinely outstanding player even at this stage of his career. Though, maybe some of you who are liking him should look back and see what you said about him last year & the year before?

If you think we are the 2d best team in the East, or the 3d best team, or the 4th best team... you have a long & unpleasant season ahead of you.

Despite Thomas Bryant.

[dobrojim]

I suppose it could work if Brooks would commit to four out and one in.

Wall/Sato
Beal/Rivers
Oubre/Brown
Otto/Kieff
Dwight/Bryant/Mahinmi

I just don't know how we can reasonably expect the Wizard's locker room to keep Howard in check.

Maybe I've been living under a rock what's this bad reputation he has in the locker room everyone claims?

Guys a serious DIVA. He goes to LA where he could have had KAJ tutoring him to actually develop
some offensive skills. Offensively, he's the same guy ORL drafted a decade or so ago.

The sad thing is, he could help us if his head was screwed on straight. So for the MLE, why not?

[dobrojim]

Welp...all in I guess.

Welcome to D.C Dwight.

Even if cancer, his cancerous numbers blow Gortat's numbers out of the water with only about 5 minutes more per game. Not saying it was all on him, but this seems like at the very least a solid uptick.

This is a big deal is going to be better than most people think.

Dwight Howard is a number 1 overall and he is a physical Talent they can actually run with John Wall. It seems very appropriate that his old teammate leaves and he comes in as well.

Howard can be the best center the Wizards have had since Moses Malone.

Would not surprise me at all if Dwight Howard has a three point shot.

What? He can't hit FTs. How many 3s has he hit in his career?

[NatP4]

Another thread ruined

[gtn130]

Gortat was becoming too much of a locker room problem, so they brought in Dwight Howard. Story checks out