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

[McFilthy]

I've been trying to process the Dwight Howard acquisition. This article touches on some my thoughts as the optimist and pessimist in me battle it out...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wizards/dwight-howards-best-and-worst-qualities-match-the-wizards-buckle-up/2018/07/10/71980b64-845e-11e8-9e80-403a221946a7_story.html?utm_term=.b80942540273

If D.Howard can play within the role the Wizards need him to play in, it could work out. Rebound, defense, PnR, set screens and allow for more of a stretch-4 that can stay out of the middle.

I don't see Howard changing radically and Scott Brooks is not the kind of coach to reign in players (i.e. look at J.Wall long 2s early in the shotclock.) This could turn sour when the Wizards underachieve. By February, John Wall might look back at Gortat's passive-aggressive tweets as not so bad.

I hope I am wrong, but history has given many reasons for me to be a Wizards pessimist.

[nate33]

haha, our coach is Scott Brooks....we don't even run plays. He literally screams at our ball handlers, in the middle of a possession, to throw the ball to Keef Morris for a post up, It's hilarious.

good news for Dwight, we don't even run pick and roll, we run the classic "Wall picks up his dribble at the top of the key and watches as Otto and Brad run in circles around each other and eventually pop out to opposite wings, the ball is ALWAYS then passed to Beal to initiate a horrendously mechanical ISO possession. Dwight can easily sabotage the entire play by just waiting for Beal to get the ball and then posting up on that side. It's going to be fun.

NatP4 is our resident optimist.

[nate33]

I don't know how your coach is going to control him...but I would have pushed hard for a 1 year deal. In a contract year he might be better...2 year deal, its gonna be tough to get him motivated

I don't think this is such a big issue.

From Dwight's perspective, it is a 1-year deal because he surely has no intention of playing the 2019/20 season for just $5.4. He wants to opt out and sign a bigger, longer contract before age dramatically reduces his effectiveness.

The extra year is mostly just an insurance policy to make sure he gets another $5.4M even if he suffers a career ending injury or an unanticipated decline in his ability.

[NatP4]

Knicks fan that comes in peace. Which wizards team do you feel had the best chance to advance to the conference finals? Also do you feel the wizards issue is more a coaching problem or a personnel problem? How would you rank the wizards as far as teams in the eastern conference?

Sent from my LG-V495 using Tapatalk

Oh this is easy! The team from 2014-2015 that swept Toronto. Wall broke his wrist against Atlanta or they would’ve easily won that series. They found a dynamite lineup with Paul Pierce at the 4 position that they didn’t use at all during the regular season. Say what you will about Randy Wittman, but he eventually figured out that this team’s biggest strength is giving John Wall a true stretch/small ball 4.

They had a real issue with lack of depth last season, but you give Scott Brooks a roster of James Harden, Reggie Jackson, Jeff Green, Serge Ibaka, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and he will find a way to lose. He’s awful.

Combination of+mediocre roster and really really bad coach. I think it’s a 45 win 2nd round exit team with 50 win upside+winning the east if they had one of the few elite coaches in the NBA that really can elevate a team (like Brad Stevens)

[Ruzious]

haha, our coach is Scott Brooks....we don't even run plays. He literally screams at our ball handlers, in the middle of a possession, to throw the ball to Keef Morris for a post up, It's hilarious.

good news for Dwight, we don't even run pick and roll, we run the classic "Wall picks up his dribble at the top of the key and watches as Otto and Brad run in circles around each other and eventually pop out to opposite wings, the ball is ALWAYS then passed to Beal to initiate a horrendously mechanical ISO possession. Dwight can easily sabotage the entire play by just waiting for Beal to get the ball and then posting up on that side. It's going to be fun.

NatP4 is our resident optimist.

Imagining what happens to the first Wizard who says something about them missing Gortat because of something Howard does or doesn't do. It could get ugly in that locker room. What Barely said about this team needing a veteran leader is probably especially true this season.

[NatP4]

Wall already made a horrendous comment about Howard “thinking it’s all about him”

Like John, there’s a step in between there where you assume the best and pretend the rumors aren’t true. Lol

[Illmatic12]

Well, I can only go by the stats on picks, and he was right up there with Gortat among the NBA leaders in screen assists. I believe he was 6th in the NBA last season. Sometimes perception doesn't equal reality.

I could see how the CHA fan would form that perception, because Dwight doesn’t set as many screens as Cody Zeller (that’s pretty much all he does in their offense). In the previous season Zeller was 3rd in screen assists behind Gortat and Gobert.

But Dwight in his own right has been top 10 in screen assists in each of the past two seasons, on two different teams.

https://stats.nba.com/players/hustle/?sort=SCREEN_ASSISTS&dir=1&Season=2017-18&SeasonType=Regular%20Season

He may not set as many screens as you’d like to see from him, but Howard does have the track record of being an effective screener.

Oh his screens are effective alright, but there aren't nearly enough of them. Our normal offense typically has the center up top screening shooters quite often. As you said, Zeller is a screening maniac and that's what we have to compare Dwight to. I'd love a stat that shows the actual number of screens set. Dwight is probably fairly low down on that list.

Looking at screen assists on a per-minute basis, Dwight is down at 45th in the league, well below Mahinmi at 4.9 screen assists per 36minutes. There is no reason Dwight shouldn't be top 10, his ability to run pick and roll is likely his best offensive attribute but he just doesn't... it's bewildering.

For reference Zeller was 4th in the league in screen assists per 36 (7.4), and the top 3 were all guys who played very limited minutes. Gortat was in the top 15 with 6.3.

You'll find with a lot of things, Dwight's stats look good, but they could definitely be much better. He could be an all-star if he really wanted it. But he doesn't, and chooses to loaf around and do enough to not be a liability.

Yeah the issue of Dwight not wanting to run PnR has been a recurring issue at various stops. The numbers bear that out as well - last season Howard used only 12% of his possessions as PnR roll man, compared to 36% frequency of post up possessions. You look at everything you want a modern center to do and Dwight could be that player but , he just isn't. It's always been a mentality issue with him

That being said for whatever reason Dwight's efficiency and defensive metrics were all up in Atlanta the year prior, and his usage was down. I thought he did a better job of playing within a system with the Hawks, whereas with the Hornets it felt like the offense was literally being ran through Dwight at times. It was weird.. Charlotte has multiple good role players, but outside of Kemba they don't have many players where creating offense is one of their best skills. I wonder if a combination of the injuries/roster construction put the Hornets in an awkward situation where Dwight calling for post ups was actually one of their most frequent offensive options.


Dwight is an interesting fit in Washington because unlike in CHA, the Wizards don't rely on a complex offensive system so there's less of a chance for Howard to mess things up - plus he will rarely be in lineups where he's the #1 or even #2 option on the floor. Wiz are a high % shooting team but our main achilles heel on offense is lack of reliable paint points and drawing FTs. Howard was top 5 in the league scoring in the restricted area, and draws 3x as many FTs as our previous starting C. He's also elite at rebounding. So on a very surface level, Dwight directly boosts several of our offensive weaknesses and the Wiz just have to hope that his flaws (turnovers, post up inefficiency) aren't as exposed when he's not central to the offense.

Defense is a different matter, I imagine we'll have to change our scheme to allow Dwight to drop back and roam the paint. He's been a so-so PnR defender for years now, but at the very least his defensive rebounding and will be a major upgrade over Gortat.

[GhostsOfGil]

Dwight is an interesting fit in Washington because unlike in CHA, the Wizards don't rely on a complex offensive system so there's less of a chance for Howard to mess things up - plus he will rarely be in lineups where he's the #1 or even #2 option on the floor. Wiz are a high % shooting team but our main achilles heel on offense is lack of reliable paint points and drawing FTs. Howard was top 5 in the league scoring in the restricted area, and draws 3x as many FTs as our previous starting C. He's also elite at rebounding. So on a very surface level, Dwight directly boosts several of our offensive weaknesses and the Wiz just have to hope that his flaws (turnovers, post up inefficiency) aren't as exposed when he's not central to the offense.

Defense is a different matter, I imagine we'll have to change our scheme to allow Dwight to drop back and roam the paint. He's been a so-so PnR defender for years now, but at the very least his defensive rebounding and will be a major upgrade over Gortat.

I'm really curious to see how Dwight fits in on the defensive side. I don't have any stats on this but Wall's ability to stop dribble penetration has been one of the team's biggest problems. Last we saw a lof of: Wall goes for steal and guard blows by him. Defense collapses. Weak side is exposed. Gortat is put in a bad defensive situation. With Dwight roaming the paint this could go 2 ways. Either he gets fed up with Wall like Gortat did... Or our defensive efficiency greatly improves due to Dwights ability to protect the paint much better. IMO its on of the most intriguing things to watch for as the season unfolds.

[80sballboy]

Stories on official signing today
https://www.ajc.com/sports/dwight-howard-officially-signs-with-wizards/MC2fX52T6g2PoUWouepPKJ/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wizards-insider/wp/2018/07/12/its-official-dwight-howard-is-a-wizard/?utm_term=.6b76e6e11904

[Illmatic12]

Dwight is an interesting fit in Washington because unlike in CHA, the Wizards don't rely on a complex offensive system so there's less of a chance for Howard to mess things up - plus he will rarely be in lineups where he's the #1 or even #2 option on the floor. Wiz are a high % shooting team but our main achilles heel on offense is lack of reliable paint points and drawing FTs. Howard was top 5 in the league scoring in the restricted area, and draws 3x as many FTs as our previous starting C. He's also elite at rebounding. So on a very surface level, Dwight directly boosts several of our offensive weaknesses and the Wiz just have to hope that his flaws (turnovers, post up inefficiency) aren't as exposed when he's not central to the offense.

Defense is a different matter, I imagine we'll have to change our scheme to allow Dwight to drop back and roam the paint. He's been a so-so PnR defender for years now, but at the very least his defensive rebounding and will be a major upgrade over Gortat.

I'm really curious to see how Dwight fits in on the defensive side. I don't have any stats on this but Wall's ability to stop dribble penetration has been one of the team's biggest problems. Last we saw a lof of: Wall goes for steal and guard blows by him. Defense collapses. Weak side is exposed. Gortat is put in a bad defensive situation. With Dwight roaming the paint this could go 2 ways. Either he gets fed up with Wall like Gortat did... Or our defensive efficiency greatly improves due to Dwights ability to protect the paint much better. IMO its on of the most intriguing things to watch for as the season unfolds.

I mean, we just watched a season in which John wasn't present for half of the games and Gortat had his worst defensive season. Marc has been slow on weakside D for years - that's not really tied to John , he simply slowed down with age .

I think criticisms of John's consistency on D are fair but he's not the structural issue with our D. The main struggle for the team is that Gortat didn't excel at any aspect of defense for a 5. He wasn't good at showing/switching on the perimeter, but also wasn't good at dropping back and protecting the rim either. Pretty much his only positive quality was 1v1 post defense where he could use his brute strength.

At least with Dwight, we know he's not gonna be mobile on the perimeter but the team can design a scheme where they can drop back and funnel players towards the rim. With Gortat it was a lose-lose proposition no matter how you used him.

[NatP4]

Haha on IG live, Howard didn’t even know that Oubre was #12.

[trast66]

Watch on YouTube

He may no longer be good at basketball, but the man is a genetic freak. Remember when he was 18 and just drafted he looked more developed than anyone in the NBA. He could sit on his couch eating pizza and ice cream for 3 years and still look like Hercules. I hate him.

How is he not good at basketball anymore???

Ask the Hornets, Hawks, and Rockets.

[NatP4]

Dwight is an interesting fit in Washington because unlike in CHA, the Wizards don't rely on a complex offensive system so there's less of a chance for Howard to mess things up - plus he will rarely be in lineups where he's the #1 or even #2 option on the floor. Wiz are a high % shooting team but our main achilles heel on offense is lack of reliable paint points and drawing FTs. Howard was top 5 in the league scoring in the restricted area, and draws 3x as many FTs as our previous starting C. He's also elite at rebounding. So on a very surface level, Dwight directly boosts several of our offensive weaknesses and the Wiz just have to hope that his flaws (turnovers, post up inefficiency) aren't as exposed when he's not central to the offense.

Defense is a different matter, I imagine we'll have to change our scheme to allow Dwight to drop back and roam the paint. He's been a so-so PnR defender for years now, but at the very least his defensive rebounding and will be a major upgrade over Gortat.

I'm really curious to see how Dwight fits in on the defensive side. I don't have any stats on this but Wall's ability to stop dribble penetration has been one of the team's biggest problems. Last we saw a lof of: Wall goes for steal and guard blows by him. Defense collapses. Weak side is exposed. Gortat is put in a bad defensive situation. With Dwight roaming the paint this could go 2 ways. Either he gets fed up with Wall like Gortat did... Or our defensive efficiency greatly improves due to Dwights ability to protect the paint much better. IMO its on of the most intriguing things to watch for as the season unfolds.

I mean, we just watched a season in which John wasn't present for half of the games and Gortat had his worst defensive season. Marc has been slow on weakside D for years - that's not really tied to John , he simply slowed down with age .

I think criticisms of John's consistency on D are fair but he's not the structural issue with our D. The main struggle for the team is that Gortat didn't excel at any aspect of defense for a 5. He wasn't good at showing/switching on the perimeter, but also wasn't good at dropping back and protecting the rim either. Pretty much his only positive quality was 1v1 post defense where he could use his brute strength.

At least with Dwight, we know he's not gonna be mobile on the perimeter but the team can design a scheme where they can drop back and funnel players towards the rim. With Gortat it was a lose-lose proposition no matter how you used him.

This is so not true. Wall is constantly targeted by other teams in pick and roll action where he lazily reaches around for a steal and gets caught behind the play and makes no effort to get back into the play. He leaves Gortat to defend 1v2.

Gortat was a very solid defender in his time here, the numbers back it up. He was always very solid in defending the paint, he just wasn’t capable of switching and guarding guards, Howard isn’t either.

Everyone else on the team gives solid effort defensively, Wall gives James Harden level effort on that end and literally makes the team play 4 on 5.

I do agree, with Howard, you can atleast just drop him back and let him block shots and rebound outside of his own area (which Gortat couldn’t do)

The truth is that the problem wasn’t even as much about Wall/Gortat as it is Morris, who is horrendous at team defense and rebounding. Our small ball lineups with Otto at the 4 are dominant on the defensive end, posted top 10 defensive ratings back to back seasons. Switching 1-4 makes this team defense significantly better already.

Next season it will go something like this, I hope: Howard sits back in pick and roll defense, ball handlers are intimidated by his shot blocking presence, Otto playing the 4 rotates from the weak side all game to take away the roll, we are much more athletic with Oubre in the game, and are able to run out to shooters and recover from there.

Eliminate the real problem, Markieff Morris.

[Illmatic12]

I'm really curious to see how Dwight fits in on the defensive side. I don't have any stats on this but Wall's ability to stop dribble penetration has been one of the team's biggest problems. Last we saw a lof of: Wall goes for steal and guard blows by him. Defense collapses. Weak side is exposed. Gortat is put in a bad defensive situation. With Dwight roaming the paint this could go 2 ways. Either he gets fed up with Wall like Gortat did... Or our defensive efficiency greatly improves due to Dwights ability to protect the paint much better. IMO its on of the most intriguing things to watch for as the season unfolds.

I mean, we just watched a season in which John wasn't present for half of the games and Gortat had his worst defensive season. Marc has been slow on weakside D for years - that's not really tied to John , he simply slowed down with age .

I think criticisms of John's consistency on D are fair but he's not the structural issue with our D. The main struggle for the team is that Gortat didn't excel at any aspect of defense for a 5. He wasn't good at showing/switching on the perimeter, but also wasn't good at dropping back and protecting the rim either. Pretty much his only positive quality was 1v1 post defense where he could use his brute strength.

At least with Dwight, we know he's not gonna be mobile on the perimeter but the team can design a scheme where they can drop back and funnel players towards the rim. With Gortat it was a lose-lose proposition no matter how you used him.

This is so not true. Wall is constantly targeted by other teams in pick and roll action where he lazily reaches around for a steal and gets caught behind the play and makes no effort to get back into the play. He leaves Gortat to defend 1v2.

Gortat was a very solid defender in his time here, the numbers back it up. He was always very solid in defending the paint, he just wasn’t capable of switching and guarding guards, Howard isn’t either.

Everyone else on the team gives solid effort defensively, Wall gives James Harden level effort on that end and literally makes the team play 4 on 5.

I do agree, with Howard, you can atleast just drop him back and let him block shots and rebound outside of his own area (which Gortat couldn’t do)

The truth is that the problem wasn’t even as much about Wall/Gortat as it is Morris, who is horrendous at team defense and rebounding. Our small ball lineups with Otto at the 4 are dominant on the defensive end, posted top 10 defensive ratings back to back seasons. Switching 1-4 makes this team defense significantly better already.

Next season it will go something like this, I hope: Howard sits back in pick and roll defense, ball handlers are intimidated by his shot blocking presence, Otto playing the 4 rotates from the weak side all game to take away the roll, we are much more athletic with Oubre in the game, and are able to run out to shooters and recover from there.

Eliminate the real problem, Markieff Morris.

Gortat had, bar none the slowest reaction time of any starting center. The reason why he was always stuck defending 2v1 is because he could never decide quickly enough whether he would contest the ball handler or cut off the roll man. Marcin’s trademark was being caught in no mans land and waving his arms around helplessly.

This is something Wiz fans complained about with him all year, it had nothing to do with Wall who wasn’t even there for 41 games. I don’t see John on the floor in any of these plays

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Gortat was a solid defender when he first came to the Wiz, he has NOT been solid for the last two seasons , in reality he was trash on D and everyone saw it. He’s a guy who isn’t naturally talented so he could not afford to lose a step on D, and he clearly lost that step. Teams were going at him in the paint like he wasn’t even there - for all Dwight’s flaws he’s still an elite athlete who carries an intimidation factor around the rim.

Agreed on Morris . I see him as a bigger potential issue than Dwight bc he doesn’t provide consistent impact in any one area. From the way Brooks talked about him in some postgame press conferences, I dont think he cares for Markieff’s game at all and he will be glad to have other options at the 4. Combine that with his impending contract status, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Morris is traded by the deadline as part of a deal to get under the luxury tax .

[BurtGummer]

* I warned you*

-nate33

[nate33]

Agreed on Morris . I see him as a bigger potential issue than Dwight bc he doesn’t provide consistent impact in any one area. From the way Brooks talked about him in some postgame press conferences, I dont think he cares for Markieff’s game at all and he will be glad to have other options at the 4. Combine that with his impending contract status, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Morris is traded by the deadline as part of a deal to get under the luxury tax .

Wow. I never really got that impression, but I don't often listen to postgame press conferences either.

It would be real nice if Brooks put some pressure on Morris to either D up or GTFO. Hopefully, our added depth with an improved Oubre, plus Brown and Green, will give Brooks more leverage.

[Dat2U]

The truth is that the problem wasn’t even as much about Wall/Gortat as it is Morris, who is horrendous at team defense and rebounding. Our small ball lineups with Otto at the 4 are dominant on the defensive end, posted top 10 defensive ratings back to back seasons. Switching 1-4 makes this team defense significantly better already.

Next season it will go something like this, I hope: Howard sits back in pick and roll defense, ball handlers are intimidated by his shot blocking presence, Otto playing the 4 rotates from the weak side all game to take away the roll, we are much more athletic with Oubre in the game, and are able to run out to shooters and recover from there.

Eliminate the real problem, Markieff Morris.

It's really about Morris. As long as he's the defacto leader of this team, we're pretenders and the blow up potential will remain high.

All i have to do is look at Morris in the playoffs to see his basketball character and his mindset. Look at his quotes and look at the effort he gave in the 4th quarter of playoff games. He's a total poser!

I'd be more optimistic about Howard working out if Morris was gone. Both Howard & Morris will be on skates defensively. But Morris is going nowhere, so I suspect there's a good chance it all comes to a head early in training camp.

[Dat2U]

* I warned you*

Since you love name calling so much, you wanna meet somewhere and discuss the rise and fall of Berlin?

[nate33]

* I warned you*

Since you love name calling so much, you wanna meet somewhere champ and try that with me?

I just had him suspended.

[NatP4]

Agreed on Morris . I see him as a bigger potential issue than Dwight bc he doesn’t provide consistent impact in any one area. From the way Brooks talked about him in some postgame press conferences, I dont think he cares for Markieff’s game at all and he will be glad to have other options at the 4. Combine that with his impending contract status, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Morris is traded by the deadline as part of a deal to get under the luxury tax .

Wow. I never really got that impression, but I don't often listen to postgame press conferences either.

It would be real nice if Brooks put some pressure on Morris to either D up or GTFO. Hopefully, our added depth with an improved Oubre, plus Brown and Green, will give Brooks more leverage.

I never got that impression either, but I was so sick of this team at that point, that I wasn’t watching any of the press conferences or extra coverage.

I hope that is the case