Dwight Howard in place of Mourning for career

[migya]

I saw in the Peaks Project that Dwight is above Mourning. I don't agree but we all have our opinion. Replace Mourning with Dwight for the entire career, 1993 - 2008, Hornets all the way to Miami, does he perform better? Does he get any accolades and awards in if so which ones?

I don't think he gets anything. No nba or alldefense teams, no DPOY. Think he gets out done by the star bigs of the 90s and 00s.

[AEnigma]

Mourning has quite literally never finished above Dwight in the peaks project. I imagine a big part of why is Dwight making the Finals while Mourning was upset by the Knicks three years in a row. I have them pretty close together (both top 40), but the gap that tends to manifest between them is almost certainly because of that history of postseason underperformance.

If you want to talk careers, that is more interesting. I think Mourning’s eight-year prime was more valuable than Dwight’s 2008-15 (or his 2007-14), Dwight does have a little more to offer outside that frame. Mourning’s career finished only one spot higher in the 2014 top 100 list, and in 2017 and 2020 Dwight was around ten or more spots higher.

Mind you, Mourning was not exactly racking up accolades himself. All-defensive, all-NBA, DPoY? All came in 1999 and 2000, after Hakeem and Ewing and Robinson had exited their primes. So your frame is a little unkind to Dwight, who had his a three-year peak in years 5-7 rather than peaking in years 7-8 like Mourning did.

Would Howard have done better in Mourning’s place? Probably depends on how well he meshed with Hardaway, but even if we agree that Dwight would have done worse in older eras, does that really mean anything? The better question is would Mourning have done better on the Magic and been a better foundation for their defence while maximising their shooters. Maybe he would have done better against the Lakers and Boston by virtue of having somewhat better scoring resilience against big frontcourts, but would he have upset the Cavaliers or any other superior team, when his personal history is rife with upsets by inferior teams?

[penbeast0]

Dwight was more of a physical outlier which translated into more efficient scoring and a bit better as a passer out of the post though neither were good. Zo was more aggressive and had better fundamentals on defense which as well as great shot blocking.