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

[NatP4]

The worst.

He said "I can't wait to play alongside John and Brad and Otto and Kelly."

Did he omit Markieff Morris on purpose? Does he know something?

He’s mentioned Morris in like 15 other quotes since then, usually before mentioning Otto.

Side note: imagine how terrible we will be when Brooks closes games with Green and Morris at the 4 and 5 and we get a combined 10 rebounds per game from our frontcourt LOL. I want to die

[verbal8]

The worst.

He said "I can't wait to play alongside John and Brad and Otto and Kelly."

Did he omit Markieff Morris on purpose? Does he know something?

He’s mentioned Morris in like 15 other quotes since then, usually before mentioning Otto.

Side note: imagine how terrible we will be when Brooks closes games with Green and Morris at the 4 and 5 and we get a combined 10 rebounds per game from our frontcourt LOL. I want to die

They have the big combo that scares opponents - Porter and Howard
..and the one that scares Wizards fans - Green and Morris

[nate33]

“I get excited from blocking a shot, or setting a good screen and rolling, or dunking on someone”

Watch on YouTube

Why you hatin', bro?

BTW, check closely and you'll see at least 2-3 of the jumpers in the video were with 4-5 seconds left on the shot clock.

Also, it's only 8 jumpers in a 12-game period. That's not all that much. Last year, less than 15% of his attempts were from outside of 10 feet. And that was the high mark of his career. Over the previous 6 years, he shot just 3% of his attempts from outside of 10 feet.

Howard is a 33% shooter from midrange. That's certainly not good, but it's not like he's Dennis Rodman or something. Having a 33% shooter shoot a WIDE OPEN shot once every other game isn't really that detrimental to an offense, particularly if most of them are late in the shot clock when its unlikely to create a higher percentage shot by other means. For comparison, Gortat shoots about 23% of his attempts from outside of 10 feet, hitting about 40% of them. (Gortat is a respectable 42% shooter from 10-16 feet, but shoots just 25% when beyond 16 feet.)

Don't get me wrong. I'd rather see Howard get back to career norms of shooting just 3% of his attempts outside of 10 feet. But let's not act like Howard is routinely jacking up dozens of unnecessary long 2's with no chance of making them.

[NatP4]

That’s only part of it, we want to eliminate the horrifying post ups as well. (That will eat into Otto’s FGAs for certain)

[nate33]

That’s only part of it, we want to eliminate the horrifying post ups as well. (That will eat into Otto’s FGAs for certain)

Yes. But again, let's not overlook that Howard has had an ORtg higher than league average in every year of his career except for the back injury year in Houston. In the last 3 seasons, he posted ORtgs of 108, 115 and 111 respectively. Last year's 108 was a bit of anomaly in that Charlotte let him boost is USG% from his customary 18-22% all the way up to 24.2% partially due to the lack of offensive options on that team.

If Brooks, Wall and company can get Howard to acknowledge the fact that the Wizards have more offensive weapons than Charlotte did, they can hopefully get Howard's USG% down to what it was in Atlanta and Houston (19.2% and 18.4% respectively). Howard had an ORtg of 115 in Atlanta and 111 in Houston. Basically, Howard in 2016 and 2017 was like the best years of Gortat in Washington plus more rebounds and defense.

An entirely plausible scenario is that we get the same Dwight Howard we saw two years ago in Atlanta. That guy averaged 13.5 points and 12.7 rebounds in 29.7 minutes a game with an ORtg of 115, a DRtg of 100 and a WS/48 of .181 (higher than even Porter). That would be the best center play in Washington since Jeff Ruland, easily.

A best case scenario is that he is a bit better than even that since he is shooting for a new contract.

[Wiz99]

An entirely plausible scenario is that we get the same Dwight Howard we saw two years ago in Atlanta. That guy averaged 13.5 points and 12.7 rebounds in 29.7 minutes a game with an ORtg of 115, a DRtg of 100 and a WS/48 of .181 (higher than even Porter). That would be the best center play in Washington since Jeff Ruland, easily.

A rare Jeff Ruland reference!

As far as Dwight, putting up stats has never been a problem. He’s physically gifted. It’s what goes on between the ears. He’s an excellent example of “Million dollar body. Ten cent head.”

Is there a way to adjust that? Electro-shock therapy? Withhold the skittles except for games with >100 offensive and defensive ratings?

[miller31time]

Stop yo whining pansy. He could be talking about himself. We all in dis now so support the dude and stop b*tching.

Gawd.

You are the Dwight Howard of this board.

Horse puckey. I've only been on this board for over a decade. I haven't been banned. I haven't gotten anyone banned. Everyone likes me. I'm actually funny and as far as I know I've only fathered you boy.

You were only good for the “Beauty of the Day” threads. Your 15 minutes of fame is over. Shoo, fly.

[NatP4]

An entirely plausible scenario is that we get the same Dwight Howard we saw two years ago in Atlanta. That guy averaged 13.5 points and 12.7 rebounds in 29.7 minutes a game with an ORtg of 115, a DRtg of 100 and a WS/48 of .181 (higher than even Porter). That would be the best center play in Washington since Jeff Ruland, easily.

A rare Jeff Ruland reference!

As far as Dwight, putting up stats has never been a problem. He’s physically gifted. It’s what goes on between the ears. He’s an excellent example of “Million dollar body. Ten cent head.”

Is there a way to adjust that? Electro-shock therapy? Withhold the skittles except for games with >100 offensive and defensive ratings?

He knows though, in his press conference he rambled about adding to his game for iso situations because he already knows how to set screens and dunk, can’t really practice that. Then he added a BUT, that doesn’t mean that will be his role with the wizards. “I still know how to set screens and roll to the basket” bla bla bla “put your ego to the side and do whatever coach needs me to do” bla bla bla “I get a rush from blocking shots, and rebounding, and setting screens and dunking”

Like, he knows exactly what he’s supposed to do. He just prefers to treat NBA games like YMCA pickup games and be lazy as f***. Dwight could show up to camp and do his best Clint Capela impersonation and average 20 points and 15 rebounds, but he hasn’t done it for any other team, so why is he going to do it for us? Because of our top shelf leadership???? LOL.

Nah, first time he sees Wall jack up a 17 ft fadeaway with 20 seconds on the shot clock he’s gonna say “oh hell nah, I’m not setting another screen until I get 4-5 post touches” then brad will get pissed and start deflating the ball on every 3rd possession because the other two possessions consist of Wall mid range bricks and Dwight post up atrocity. Whatever is left over for the rest of the offense will be Morris shooting his little off the dribble fadeaway from 18ft along the baseline. Otto is gonna average like 5 shots a game all off of offensive rebounds.

First players only meeting prediction date?? I’m gonna say 2 weeks in.

[DCZards]

An entirely plausible scenario is that we get the same Dwight Howard we saw two years ago in Atlanta. That guy averaged 13.5 points and 12.7 rebounds in 29.7 minutes a game with an ORtg of 115, a DRtg of 100 and a WS/48 of .181 (higher than even Porter). That would be the best center play in Washington since Jeff Ruland, easily.

A rare Jeff Ruland reference!

As far as Dwight, putting up stats has never been a problem. He’s physically gifted. It’s what goes on between the ears. He’s an excellent example of “Million dollar body. Ten cent head.”

Is there a way to adjust that? Electro-shock therapy? Withhold the skittles except for games with >100 offensive and defensive ratings?

He knows though, in his press conference he rambled about adding to his game for iso situations because he already knows how to set screens and dunk, can’t really practice that. Then he added a BUT, that doesn’t mean that will be his role with the wizards. “I still know how to set screens and roll to the basket” bla bla bla “put your ego to the side and do whatever coach needs me to do” bla bla bla “I get a rush from blocking shots, and rebounding, and setting screens and dunking”

Like, he knows exactly what he’s supposed to do. He just prefers to treat NBA games like YMCA pickup games and be lazy as f***. Dwight could show up to camp and do his best Clint Capela impersonation and average 20 points and 15 rebounds, but he hasn’t done it for any other team, so why is he going to do it for us? Because of our top shelf leadership???? LOL.

Nah, first time he sees Wall jack up a 17 ft fadeaway with 20 seconds on the shot clock he’s gonna say “oh hell nah, I’m not setting another screen until I get 4-5 post touches” then brad will get pissed and start deflating the ball on every 3rd possession because the other two possessions consist of Wall mid range bricks and Dwight post up atrocity. Whatever is left over for the rest of the offense will be Morris shooting his little off the dribble fadeaway from 18ft along the baseline. Otto is gonna average like 5 shots a game all off of offensive rebounds.

First players only meeting prediction date?? I’m gonna say 2 weeks in.

Damn! Could you be any more negative? Why don't you give Dwight and this team a freaking chance to show what they can do on the court before burying them. Jeez!

[80sballboy]

An entirely plausible scenario is that we get the same Dwight Howard we saw two years ago in Atlanta. That guy averaged 13.5 points and 12.7 rebounds in 29.7 minutes a game with an ORtg of 115, a DRtg of 100 and a WS/48 of .181 (higher than even Porter). That would be the best center play in Washington since Jeff Ruland, easily.

A rare Jeff Ruland reference!

As far as Dwight, putting up stats has never been a problem. He’s physically gifted. It’s what goes on between the ears. He’s an excellent example of “Million dollar body. Ten cent head.”

Is there a way to adjust that? Electro-shock therapy? Withhold the skittles except for games with >100 offensive and defensive ratings?

Semantics but Ruland was really a power forward and Rick Mahorn was the center. You could say Mahorn was the defensive center and Ruland was the low-post center on offense. Ruland was a beast before all the unfortunate injuries. Would have been a consistent 20, 12 and 4 guy if not hurt.

[80sballboy]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wizards-insider/wp/2018/07/23/dwight-howard-believes-he-can-turn-around-his-reputation-with-john-wall-and-the-wizards/?utm_term=.ac5f1eee0ea0

Another D21 article from the Post
By Candace Buckner

Dwight Howard had talked for more than an hour, sharing his excitement about joining the Washington Wizards and deflecting the negativity that has surrounded the last few years of his career, when he reached for one of his two cellphones. He was pulled into a notification, clicked the social media app and smiled. A sports website mining for sound bites had already highlighted one of Howard’s favorite lines from his Monday afternoon news conference.

“I learned Magic for eight years. Went to La-La Land. Worked for a while with Rockets,” said Howard, reading aloud his own words, in which he referenced stints in Orlando, Los Angeles and Houston.

The remarks would go on about how Howard had learned to “fly with some Hawks. Got stung by the Hornets. Through all of that, it taught me how to be a Wizard.” Admittedly, Howard said he had pondered the bit for weeks even though his test audience vetoed the idea.


“Everybody was like, ‘That’s so corny!’ But I like it,” Howard said. “I studied magic and now I’m a wizard.”

Howard made the effort Monday to reclaim his narrative — “corny” catchphrase be damned — in billing himself as an eager teammate and humble addition to a team that he says could be the final landing spot in his career.

Howard, 32, joins the Wizards only after being blindsided — or “stung” — by a trade from the Charlotte Hornets to the Brooklyn Nets last month. Over the last two offseasons, Howard has been sent packing by two different teams. Each move raised questions about his reputation in the locker room. He felt the stories were unfair and in the fraternity of the NBA, where everybody talks, he wondered where he could get a clean slate. Again.


That’s when Washington threw out the welcome mat.

Howard, speaking to a room full of reporters, season ticket holders and Monumental Sports & Entertainment employees, opened by expressing gratitude to team President Ernie Grunfeld.

“Thank you to Ernie,” Howard said, “and thanks for believing in me as a player and wanting me here in D.C.”

Howard chose his words carefully. He sounded more like a player fighting for a roster spot rather than the three-time defensive player of the year and eight-time all-star who dominated in his first eight years in the NBA with the Magic.

“Before I got here, everybody was giving out opinions on how I am as a player and as a person,” Howard said, “and for [Grunfeld] not to listen to those opinions and thoughts of others, for him to come up with his own judgment, that’s why I wanted to say that because it means a lot to me. My whole life I’ve had people always doubting me and say bad things, as people say, ‘hate on’ me. But for some people to not allow other people’s opinions and thoughts to affect their decisions, that meant a lot.”


Grunfeld wanted Howard for his rebounding (he has led the league in total rebounds five times), his rim protection (he also blocked more shots than anyone else for two seasons) and his two-way skills (he averaged a double-double last season in his 14th NBA campaign). But nothing resonated with Howard more than knowing that he was wanted by John Wall.


Howard recalled the morning of June 20 when he learned he had been traded by Charlotte.

“It caught me off guard. I literally was about to walk into an event where I was about to speak to about 5,000 people and I looked at my phone and on Instagram, I see a message that says, ‘Welcome to Brooklyn,’ ” Howard said. “And so I’m like, ‘Nah, this can’t be real. Like, not again.’ ”


Shocked by that Instagram message, Howard would soon receive another surprise missive. Wall sent a direct message with a simple question: Do you want to come to D.C.?

“He reached out to me on Instagram first, and no lie when I saw the message on Instagram, I really got so happy,” Howard said. “‘Oh, John just [direct-messaged] me!’ … This is crazy!’”

Howard said he had been contacted by the two-time defending champion Golden State Warriors, but he wasn’t as moved as hearing directly from a five-time all-star point guard. Earlier this month, Wall revealed that Howard had previously talked about teaming up one day. The idea of the broad-shouldered big man setting screens and rolling to the rim for a delivery from a lightning-quick guard seemed enticing years ago. Wall’s Instagram invitation sealed the deal.



“After he said that, I’m like, ‘Bro, I’m with it,’ ” Howard said. “No disrespect to any of the point guards I played with in my career — John is a different type of animal. The way he passes the ball, the way he draws so much attention with his aggressiveness on the offensive end, it’s going to make things very difficult for teams to really guard the pick and roll. At this point in John’s career it’s about one thing, and that’s winning.”

After negotiating a buyout with the Nets, Howard agreed to a two-year deal with the Wizards. The second year of the contract is a player option, which Howard said was his agent’s idea. Howard simply wanted to get to Washington, a place that he can envision calling home for a long time.


Howard’s circuitous journey, from perennial all-star and potential Hall of Famer with the Magic to a basketball castoff trying to learn new sorcery, continues in the District. Howard said he plans to play another “good eight years” and hopes to write his own ending.

“All of us have something to prove, and we want to do it together,” Howard said of his Wizards teammates. “I feel like this city and this team is a place where I want to end my career.”

[NatP4]

I know, I gotta stop being so negative. I was initially pumped about the Dwight signing. Then I watched a handful of his full games in Charlotte and almost lost my mind. As someone, actually a couple posters have pointed out, he didn’t play that way in Atlanta, still was annoying, but much more within a system and team concept.

I think the potential is what is frustrating me already. Wall-Beal-Oubre-Porter-Howard, all that spacing, for a physical freak to roll and dunk everything, and he’s a good passer that can catch it mid roll and find open shooters. He can just eat up rebounds on the offensive end and defensive end, we could basically play like a “box and 1” type of defense where we zone the perimeter with our 1-4 and just let Dwight stay at home in the paint and dominate.

But we need Brooks to not be such a simpleton, and we NEED Dwight to actually give AF. We could actually win the east and give GS a run for their money if it all falls into place.

Just imagine the potential, if we just traded Rivers and Morris for a quality veteran leader, high character guy. Hell, Patty Mills would be awesome.

[Illmatic12]

I know, I gotta stop being so negative. I was initially pumped about the Dwight signing. Then I watched a handful of his full games in Charlotte and almost lost my mind. As someone, actually a couple posters have pointed out, he didn’t play that way in Atlanta, still was annoying, but much more within a system and team concept.

I think the potential is what is frustrating me already. Wall-Beal-Oubre-Porter-Howard, all that spacing, for a physical freak to roll and dunk everything, and he’s a good passer that can catch it mid roll and find open shooters. He can just eat up rebounds on the offensive end and defensive end, we could basically play like a “box and 1” type of defense where we zone the perimeter with our 1-4 and just let Dwight stay at home in the paint and dominate.

But we need Brooks to not be such a simpleton, and we NEED Dwight to actually give AF. We could actually win the east and give GS a run for their money if it all falls into place.

Just imagine the potential, if we just traded Rivers and Morris for a quality veteran leader, high character guy. Hell, Patty Mills would be awesome.

Well, Brooks touched on all of those things on the podcast he did with Yahoo's Chris Mannix. He said the team's problem last year was they when they went small they would give up too many rebounds. But now they'll be able to use their small lineups but with Howard at the 5 dominating the boards. He also touched on adjusting the defensive scheme and having Howard drop back in the PnR.

Read on Twitter

[Illmatic12]

Another point Brooks mentioned in the podcast ^ is that we're probably going to be a high technical team this season (Howard led the league last season, Morris and Oubre were top 10, and in '16 Wall was tied with Westbrook for #2). The thing is, as a coach there's really no way to do anything about it other than telling the players "hey guys, stop getting technicals" lol .. players who get techs generally don't stop doing so, once you earn a bad reputation with the officials there's really no going back.

I can understand why John and Dwight get techs bc those two do legitimately get hacked a lot relative to their peers, and nowadays NBA refs are so quick to power trip on players for arguing missed calls. But Markieff's technicals/boneheaded plays annoy me because he's not good enough to be arguing with the refs, and he literally cost us on multiple occasions by losing his head. In '16 he was generally productive enough that you could live with the extra stuff, but last year he crossed that line more than you'd like. Who knows what Morris we'll get this upcoming season?

Brooks never trashes his guys to the media, but he's done a pretty poor job of hiding the fact that he dislikes the volatile & unpredictable aspects of Morris' game and , I bet if you gave him truth serum he'd tell you he would probably prefer not to coach that kind of player. We'll see what happens by the trade deadline, but the next best thing he can do for now is give Jeff Green those PF minutes when Kieff isn't reliable.

[jayu70]

Hawks fan view of Dwight- I was never a Dwight fan but once he joined the Hawks, he got a clean slate from me. You will get numbers from him - points and rebounds, that's a given but unfortunately it does not always lead to winning. For a guy his size, he's an unwilling and lazy screen setter since he's more concerned with either looking for a lob or getting the ball and getting the rebound. All Dwight should focus on is rebounding and defense but he's still concerned with post touches that will disrupt your offense flow. He's still not a great post player and what made him great in the post during his Orlando days was his sheer size, speed and athleticism to overpower guys. Unfortunately, he doesn't have that anymore.
Where he is gonna kill you the most is PnR defense....it's really bad. He doesn't like to step up and re-route the guy he's gonna step back so he can look for a rebound first, leaving the shooter with an easy freethrow line shot, over and over again. On the perimter he's just not wuick enough togo out and get back to paint.
Good Luck with Dwight, maybe this is the year he gets 'it.'

[nate33]

Another point Brooks mentioned in the podcast ^ is that we're probably going to be a high technical team this season (Howard led the league last season, Morris and Oubre were top 10, and in '16 Wall was tied with Westbrook for #2). The thing is, as a coach there's really no way to do anything about it other than telling the players "hey guys, stop getting technicals" lol .. players who get techs generally don't stop doing so, once you earn a bad reputation with the officials there's really no going back.

I can understand why John and Dwight get techs bc those two do legitimately get hacked a lot relative to their peers, and nowadays NBA refs are so quick to power trip on players for arguing missed calls. But Markieff's technicals/boneheaded plays annoy me because he's not good enough to be arguing with the refs, and he literally cost us on multiple occasions by losing his head. In '16 he was generally productive enough that you could live with the extra stuff, but last year he crossed that line more than you'd like. Who knows what Morris we'll get this upcoming season?

Brooks never trashes his guys to the media, but he's done a pretty poor job of hiding the fact that he dislikes the volatile & unpredictable aspects of Morris' game and , I bet if you gave him truth serum he'd tell you he would probably prefer not to coach that kind of player. We'll see what happens by the trade deadline, but the next best thing he can do for now is give Jeff Green those PF minutes when Kieff isn't reliable.

Good point about Morris. So many of his techs are really stupid. They're not "heat of the moment" type of stuff immediately after a bad call. He gets them because he spends the next two minutes jawing at a ref until the ref decides he's not going to take it anymore and T's him up. That's totally inexcusable, particularly for a mediocre player. A guy like Lebron can get away with it because he knows that refs don't want to T him up. A guy like Morris is foolish to play that game.

I can live with frustration techs because a player is really mad that a call was missed and can't restrain their impulse to curse at the ref in the heat of the moment. That's how Wall and Oubre usually get their techs.

I don't watch Howard enough to know if his techs are inexcusable like Morris, or merely bad impulse control like Oubre.

[FAH1223]

Hawks fan view of Dwight- I was never a Dwight fan but once he joined the Hawks, he got a clean slate from me. You will get numbers from him - points and rebounds, that's a given but unfortunately it does not always lead to winning. For a guy his size, he's an unwilling and lazy screen setter since he's more concerned with either looking for a lob or getting the ball and getting the rebound. All Dwight should focus on is rebounding and defense but he's still concerned with post touches that will disrupt your offense flow. He's still not a great post player and what made him great in the post during his Orlando days was his sheer size, speed and athleticism to overpower guys. Unfortunately, he doesn't have that anymore.
Where he is gonna kill you the most is PnR defense....it's really bad. He doesn't like to step up and re-route the guy he's gonna step back so he can look for a rebound first, leaving the shooter with an easy freethrow line shot, over and over again. On the perimter he's just not quick enough to go out and get back to paint.
Good Luck with Dwight, maybe this is the year he gets 'it.'

We had the same issues with Gortat. So, not surprising.

I think Brooks is gonna give him a couple post opportunities, esp early in the game as he did with Gortat in 16-17. Which sucks.

Otto Porter needs more shots. I really hope Otto becomes a bit more selfish. Between Morris and Howard... that's valuable opportunities going to inefficient chuckers. Wall also has to stop the bad 2s early in the clock.

I don't watch Howard enough to know if his techs are inexcusable like Morris, or merely bad impulse control like Oubre.

Howard is getting more of the latter but gets a few of the former. He does get hacked and he does go through stretches where refs don't make the call.

But he also has Morris like techs.

[JWizmentality]

You are the Dwight Howard of this board.

Horse puckey. I've only been on this board for over a decade. I haven't been banned. I haven't gotten anyone banned. Everyone likes me. I'm actually funny and as far as I know I've only fathered you boy.

You were only good for the “Beauty of the Day” threads. Your 15 minutes of fame is over. Shoo, fly.

Said the "retired" mod.

Ah....my pimping days.

[prime1time]

An entirely plausible scenario is that we get the same Dwight Howard we saw two years ago in Atlanta. That guy averaged 13.5 points and 12.7 rebounds in 29.7 minutes a game with an ORtg of 115, a DRtg of 100 and a WS/48 of .181 (higher than even Porter). That would be the best center play in Washington since Jeff Ruland, easily.

A rare Jeff Ruland reference!

As far as Dwight, putting up stats has never been a problem. He’s physically gifted. It’s what goes on between the ears. He’s an excellent example of “Million dollar body. Ten cent head.”

Is there a way to adjust that? Electro-shock therapy? Withhold the skittles except for games with >100 offensive and defensive ratings?

He knows though, in his press conference he rambled about adding to his game for iso situations because he already knows how to set screens and dunk, can’t really practice that. Then he added a BUT, that doesn’t mean that will be his role with the wizards. “I still know how to set screens and roll to the basket” bla bla bla “put your ego to the side and do whatever coach needs me to do” bla bla bla “I get a rush from blocking shots, and rebounding, and setting screens and dunking”

Like, he knows exactly what he’s supposed to do. He just prefers to treat NBA games like YMCA pickup games and be lazy as f***. Dwight could show up to camp and do his best Clint Capela impersonation and average 20 points and 15 rebounds, but he hasn’t done it for any other team, so why is he going to do it for us? Because of our top shelf leadership???? LOL.

Nah, first time he sees Wall jack up a 17 ft fadeaway with 20 seconds on the shot clock he’s gonna say “oh hell nah, I’m not setting another screen until I get 4-5 post touches” then brad will get pissed and start deflating the ball on every 3rd possession because the other two possessions consist of Wall mid range bricks and Dwight post up atrocity. Whatever is left over for the rest of the offense will be Morris shooting his little off the dribble fadeaway from 18ft along the baseline. Otto is gonna average like 5 shots a game all off of offensive rebounds.

First players only meeting prediction date?? I’m gonna say 2 weeks in.

A little empathy goes a long way. You have to understand where Howard is coming from. He led a team to a championship. Something that Chris Paul, James Harden, Carmelo Anthony, Russell Westbrook and KD (by himself) never could do. All of a sudden people are telling him he needs to completely change his game. More than anything, that was the reason for the tension. These teams bought Howard in and then demanded that he play a completely different role. Is it to say that Howard is blameless? No. But I certainly understand where he is coming from. The league's style of play and the role of the big man has shifted during Howard's career. Howard, being the premiere big man of the old style, has had to deal with that.

Coming to the Wizards, Howard has a clean slate. Let's see how he does. At the same time, all we have to do is look at our own John Wall to understand how hard it is to change your play style. I just watched Wall's offseason show on youtube. He says his goal this year is MVP. If that's the case I'm guessing we can kiss any hope of increased ball movement good bye.

[prime1time]

Hawks fan view of Dwight- I was never a Dwight fan but once he joined the Hawks, he got a clean slate from me. You will get numbers from him - points and rebounds, that's a given but unfortunately it does not always lead to winning. For a guy his size, he's an unwilling and lazy screen setter since he's more concerned with either looking for a lob or getting the ball and getting the rebound. All Dwight should focus on is rebounding and defense but he's still concerned with post touches that will disrupt your offense flow. He's still not a great post player and what made him great in the post during his Orlando days was his sheer size, speed and athleticism to overpower guys. Unfortunately, he doesn't have that anymore.
Where he is gonna kill you the most is PnR defense....it's really bad. He doesn't like to step up and re-route the guy he's gonna step back so he can look for a rebound first, leaving the shooter with an easy freethrow line shot, over and over again. On the perimter he's just not wuick enough togo out and get back to paint.
Good Luck with Dwight, maybe this is the year he gets 'it.'

I think the big issue with Dwight when he played with Atlanta, is that his lack of touches caused him to be uninvolved in the game. You can say that his post touches disrupt the offense, but if you are going to get a guy like Dwight Howard giving him post touches is the cost of doing business. Would it be nice if Dwight simply decided to be a big man like Capela or D. Jordan or Rudy Gobert? Yes. But that Dwight came into the NBA at a different time. Giving Howard touches, so that he remains invested in the game is a great trade off.

I think our hope going forward, is that the Dwight that we have has matured and is more willing to sacrifice for the team. If not, we aren't paying him a significant amount of money so we could easily move on from him.