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

[DCZards]

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.

Are you certain that the 25 year old Rivers has reached his peak as a basketball player? Might he continue to get better as he has in recent years?

I'm curious to find out how Rivers plays under a coach other than his father and in a different role than he had in LA last year where he was primarily a starter.

[dangermouse]

Had about 24 hours to process this since it broke.

Honestly, if it was between Howard and Cousins for that money for one year... I'd have to flip a coin. Cousins and Wall are mates sure, but he's hobbled right now and he doesnt play the way i'd like him too either. Seems like a whiner but not hated by his team mates.

Howard on the other hand has been passed around more times than a passed out coed at a frat party. Only less welcome.

Sigh. IF he plays within his limits by rebounding and contesting shots on defense, setting good screens, rolling to the cup and scoring off put backs and on the break, he'll be an absolute steal and could be the best C this current group has ever had. I'd wager Wall is the best PG Howard will have ever played with. Nash was over the hill and if i recall correctly was injured or playing injured while on the Lakers, plus wasn't suited to their system at the time.

We absolutely have to go small with Porter starting at PF. It will just work. Thats Howard and Wall with 2 very high quality 3pt shooters and one pretty solid spot up shooter in Oubre. Howard can rebound and box out well enough for this to work, which is what Gortat failed to provide.

I hated this when I heard about it, but im warming to it because HOPEFULLY Dwight has something to prove and gets it through his thick head that he isnt Olajuwon.

[Freakyman]

Mix of newest Wizard.

Watch on YouTube

[pcbothwel]

I cant say it WILL work, but if there was ever a situation for Dwight to settle into a perfect role...its here and now.
All of his previous stops he was considered a 2nd, MAYBE 3rd option on offense and always made a significant salary of over 20M+.
Now he is a 4th option and makes peanuts from us. A lot less "Gravity" to him, and therefore less focus internally.
Age/maturity, Role, Salary all on the positive side...

[dckingsfan]

I cant say it WILL work, but if there was ever a situation for Dwight to settle into a perfect role...its here and now.
All of his previous stops he was considered a 2nd, MAYBE 3rd option on offense and always made a significant salary of over 20M+.
Now he is a 4th option and makes peanuts from us. A lot less "Gravity" to him, and therefore less focus internally.
Age/maturity, Role, Salary all on the positive side...

[pcbothwel]

I cant say it WILL work, but if there was ever a situation for Dwight to settle into a perfect role...its here and now.
All of his previous stops he was considered a 2nd, MAYBE 3rd option on offense and always made a significant salary of over 20M+.
Now he is a 4th option and makes peanuts from us. A lot less "Gravity" to him, and therefore less focus internally.
Age/maturity, Role, Salary all on the positive side...

Great proverb, inaccurate use. If we traded for Dwight and his salary...maybe...
if we signed him and threw a parade like he was a superstar and 2nd option... maybe
But what other team has he EVERY been on could cut him at any given time and not have it transform the team? None

[Jay81]

we have one of the best centers of all time on our team. He probably has 2-3 more really good years

[dckingsfan]

I cant say it WILL work, but if there was ever a situation for Dwight to settle into a perfect role...its here and now.
All of his previous stops he was considered a 2nd, MAYBE 3rd option on offense and always made a significant salary of over 20M+.
Now he is a 4th option and makes peanuts from us. A lot less "Gravity" to him, and therefore less focus internally.
Age/maturity, Role, Salary all on the positive side...

Great proverb, inaccurate use. If we traded for Dwight and his salary...maybe...
if we signed him and threw a parade like he was a superstar and 2nd option... maybe
But what other team has he EVERY been on could cut him at any given time and not have it transform the team? None

Cancer at every team he has been on - don't expect any change... habits are well ingrained.

And his personality is his personality - and that seems to be what rubs teammates the wrong way. Do we have a phycologist on staff.

[closg00]

There goes the excuse for not taking Williams

[nate33]

we have one of the best centers of all time on our team. He probably has 2-3 more really good years

This really is indeed the case.

Dwight Howard, particularly when he was with Orlando, was legitimately a HOF player and one of the top 10 best centers of all time. And since Orlando, his per minute production has not dropped off that much, though his defensive impact has.

[Illmatic12]

we have one of the best centers of all time on our team. He probably has 2-3 more really good years

Howard has said he wants to play 20 seasons in the league. You look at him, he's going into season 15 and the guy is still in peak physical shape.

From a physical standpoint he looks like he can contribute another 3-5 seasons, but his mental game needs to transform if he wants to make it there.

This is probably Dwight's last stop if he wants to be considered an NBA starter moving forward, and possibly to be in the NBA period. If things don't work out with the Wiz, no one will want him. He's not even the type of guy teams would sign as a "vet" (ala Kendrick Perkins, Udonis Haslem, James Jones types) because his maturity level and character is below what you'd expect from a player his age.

[Illmatic12]

There goes the excuse for not taking Williams

What excuse? I don't think the Wizards knew in advance they were getting Dwight or that factored into their draft decisions.
They didn't draft Williams because they didn't like him as a prospect, simple as that .

[80sballboy]

More stats from Neil Greenberg of the Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fancy-stats/wp/2018/07/04/dwight-howard-isnt-a-perfect-fit-but-hed-keep-the-wizards-from-falling-behind-in-the-east/?utm_term=.09d1ffa9edf0

Fancy Stats Analysis
Dwight Howard isn’t a perfect fit, but he’d keep the Wizards from falling behind in the East
By Neil Greenberg


The Los Angeles Lakers added LeBron James. The Golden State Warriors wooed DeMarcus Cousins. And now it appears the Washington Wizards are expected to sign a one-year contract with eight-time all-star Dwight Howard once his buyout with the Brooklyn Nets is complete.

The 32-year-old center has averaged a double-double in each of his 14 NBA seasons and chipped in 16.6 points, 12.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game for the Charlotte Hornets last season, making him the logical starter in a lineup that needed an upgrade after Marcin Gortat was sent to the Los Angeles Clippers for Austin Rivers, leaving Ian Mahinmi and Jason Smith to play those minutes. Most importantly, Howard could be the “athletic big” point guard John Wall clamored for at the end of the season.


Howard could fill the void left by Gortat on the pick-and-roll. Gortat was one of the best at creating screen assists, a mostly thankless job that involves sacrificing your body for the good of the team with little to no credit beyond kudos from a coach or a tick mark in the NBA’s hustle stats page. He ranked fourth in the NBA last season for screen assists per game (4.5) but Howard wasn’t far behind at No. 6 (4.2). Howard will be an upgrade to Gortat as the roll man during the pick-and-roll, averaging 1.04 points per possession (43rd percentile) compared to Gortat’s dismal 0.88 points per possession (14th percentile) in 2017-18.

Defensively, Howard and Gortat are a wash. Gortat was ranked as the 19th best defender per ESPN’s defensive Real Plus Minus last season, which factors in teammates and opponents, six slots ahead of Howard’s ranking, the difference being 0.3 net points per 100 possessions. Howard was also an average defender against the pick-and-roll (49th percentile for points allowed per possession) but above average against spot-up shooters (55 percentile) and very good against players in isolation (82nd percentile). The defense against those two play types is desirable — the Wizards were called on to defend spot-up shooters more than any other play type and they were 25th in the league at stopping players in isolation.

But Howard isn’t a perfect fit.


His playing style is in stark contrast to the modern NBA. More than a third of his possessions with Charlotte last season were post-ups. Among centers, only Boban Marjanovic, Al Jefferson and Joel Embiid had a larger share of their possessions with their backs to the basket. Looked at another way, Howard had more post-up possessions on his own in 2017-18 (499) than the Wizards did as a team (462). And not only is that play type inefficient for him — Howard produced 0.83 points per possession this way, putting him in the bottom 40 percent of NBA scorers — defenses would much prefer that than allow Wall, Bradley Beal or Otto Porter Jr. to get an open three-point attempt or push the ball in transition.


You could argue that passes out of the post create open shots from beyond the three-point line, but Howard passed out of the post just 15 percent of the time, and not all of those went to a spot-up shooter on the perimeter. And the Hornets had plenty of threats from deep: Kemba Walker averaged 7.5 three-point attempts per game, connecting on 38 percent of those; Marvin Williams hit better than 41 percent of his three-point attempts; reserves Frank Kaminsky and Jeremy Lamb both finished the season as above-average three-point shooters.

There is one more red flag. Howard led the league in technical fouls last season (15), and between him, Markieff Morris and Kelly Oubre Jr., Washington will have three of the top 10 players for most technical fouls in 2017-18.


Will this move put the Wizards on par with contenders to win the East such as the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers? Probably not, but it keeps them in the hunt as they try to establish conference supremacy now that James is out West.

[NatP4]

20&15 per36 and now he’s going to be playing with Wall Beal and Porter. I couldn’t be more excited. He’s going to get shots, tons of them. At 31, Gortat was averaging over 12 shots per 36 with us.

If it allows us to play more Otto at the 4, it’s a real home run.

The hornets best lineups were the ones that featured Marvin Williams at the 4 next to Dwight. Their worst lineups were the ones that featured Kaminsky at the 4 alongside Dwight.

[Kanyewest]

There goes the excuse for not taking Williams

What excuse? I don't think the Wizards knew in advance they were getting Dwight or that factored into their draft decisions.
They didn't draft Williams because they didn't like him as a prospect, simple as that .

I think it is possible that the Wizards were having talks with Howard as he was getting bought out by the Nets so it may have factored into the decision. But I also agree they may not have liked Williiams as a prospect.

[NatP4]

There goes the excuse for not taking Williams

What excuse? I don't think the Wizards knew in advance they were getting Dwight or that factored into their draft decisions.
They didn't draft Williams because they didn't like him as a prospect, simple as that .

I think it is possible that the Wizards were having talks with Howard as he was getting bought out by the Nets so it may have factored into the decision. But I also agree they may not have liked Williiams as a prospect.

Doubtful, they were in on Noel first.

But it does seem likely they felt confident that they could get a center through free agency, especially with the timeline of the Gortat trade.

I am thrilled that we didn’t pick Lonnie Walker or Robert Williams already.

[Kanyewest]

What excuse? I don't think the Wizards knew in advance they were getting Dwight or that factored into their draft decisions.
They didn't draft Williams because they didn't like him as a prospect, simple as that .

I think it is possible that the Wizards were having talks with Howard as he was getting bought out by the Nets so it may have factored into the decision. But I also agree they may not have liked Williiams as a prospect.

Doubtful, they were in on Noel first.

But it does seem likely they felt confident that they could get a center through free agency, especially with the timeline of the Gortat trade.

I am thrilled that we didn’t pick Lonnie Walker or Robert Williams already.

Although who knows, maybe they would have signed Noel (for the minimum) and also Howard.

[Illmatic12]

I think it is possible that the Wizards were having talks with Howard as he was getting bought out by the Nets so it may have factored into the decision. But I also agree they may not have liked Williiams as a prospect.

Doubtful, they were in on Noel first.

But it does seem likely they felt confident that they could get a center through free agency, especially with the timeline of the Gortat trade.

I am thrilled that we didn’t pick Lonnie Walker or Robert Williams already.

Although who knows, maybe they would have signed Noel (for the minimum) and also Howard.

Yeah we picked up Thomas Brown as soon as Noel fell through, which leads me to believe that the team wanted to carry two athletic bigs this season. One young guy as a project and another starter (Howard)

As much as people hype up Noel, he doesn't have a track record of being healthy nor being a starting-caliber player. We'd probably be screwed if we were relying on him to start at the 5.

As far as Robert Williams, not even worth discussing - 5 years from now wouldn't be surprised if he's working drive through at Wendy's.

[80sballboy]

BTW, slightly OT, this is awesome for anybody who hasn't seen this about free agency

Watch on YouTube

[FAH1223]

Watch on YouTube