Anthony Davis keeps getting ranked ahead of Dwight Howard

[SHAQ32]

Davis has only played 75 games twice in his 12-season career. Dwight has double the All-NBA teams, 3 DPOYs to Davis's none, and beats AD in Win Shares, 141-102. And Davis hasn't won any MVPs or Finals MVPs to make up the ground.

And then as far as team success as the #1 option, Dwight led the Magic to the Finals, and the Conference Finals twice. AD on the other hand only played in 13 playoff games, never making it out of the first round, prior to joining the Lakers.

I just don't get it. If you want to say AD is a better player when healthy, that's fine. But you can't say he's had a better career up to this point. Not even an argument.

[HeartBreakKid]

Davis has only played 75 games twice in his 12-season career. Dwight has double the All-NBA teams, 3 DPOYs to Davis's none, and beats AD in Win Shares, 141-102. And Davis hasn't won any MVPs or Finals MVPs to make up the ground.

And then as far as team success as the #1 option, Dwight led the Magic to the Finals, and the Conference Finals twice. AD on the other hand only played in 13 playoff games, never making it out of the first round, prior to joining the Lakers.

I just don't get it.

Some of these are stressing on technicality. Yeah, he wasn't DPOY, MVP, or "the #1 guy" but he was pretty much at the same level as what those accolades suggest.

[Statlanta]

AD played against better teams, had better seasons and is the more complete player. What’s not to understand?

[Dr Positivity]

I'd rather have Davis offensive skill than Dwight's physicality, the longevity is close to me as I don't value Dwight that much after leaving the Magic.

[bigboi]

AD played against better teams, had better seasons and is the more complete player. What’s not to understand?

AD has never had a season better than 08-09 Dwight lmao. Dwight beat a peak athletic Lebron when everyone thought that Cavs vs Lakers were a shoe in for that year. AD could never lead a team either. Great secondary player but no, he doesn’t hold a candle to Dwight

[AEnigma]

Anthony Davis simply should have guaranteed his team shot 41% from 3 while his opponent shot 32%.

[sp6r=underrated]

Davis has only played 75 games twice in his 12-season career. Dwight has double the All-NBA teams, 3 DPOYs to Davis's none, and beats AD in Win Shares, 141-102. And Davis hasn't won any MVPs or Finals MVPs to make up the ground.

And then as far as team success as the #1 option, Dwight led the Magic to the Finals, and the Conference Finals twice. AD on the other hand only played in 13 playoff games, never making it out of the first round, prior to joining the Lakers.

I just don't get it. If you want to say AD is a better player when healthy, that's fine. But you can't say he's had a better career up to this point. Not even an argument.

Howard having a better career than Davis is arguable. With Davis you have significant durability issues that have plagued his career from the beginning while Howard's durability issues only occurred later. It does impact his value and it is fair game to point out his one long, full campaign occurred with a mid-season break and a bubble.

But the argument against Howard is really strong. Howard was really dim as a player and never grasped why those Orlando teams succeeded. He actively rebelled against it and preferred a style that minimized his value. And his personality was so strong that it cant be ignored or carefully managed away with a great coach.

[Cavsfansince84]

Just want to say that in terms of vorp(which rewards minutes/games played and thus should work against AD here) that Dwight has 4 top 20 seasons to AD's 8. You could also almost argue that Dwight's prime ended when he was only 26.

[Djoker]

AD is a much better offensive player and thus comfortably better to me overall.

[SHAQ32]

AD played against better teams

Played better teams as the sidekick in LA, or when he was in NO?

[SHAQ32]

But the argument against Howard is really strong. Howard was really dim as a player and never grasped why those Orlando teams succeeded. He actively rebelled against it and preferred a style that minimized his value.

I'm still waiting for the really strong argument here.

Dwight never grasped that he himself as the defensive anchor was the reason the Magic succeeded. I'm having a hard time believing that.

And his personality was so strong that it cant be ignored or carefully managed away with a great coach.

I wouldn't call Stan Van Gundy a great coach. I wouldn't call him a bad coach either.

[eminence]

I prefer Dwight in this comp, mostly for longevity reasons (though '16 onwards is really not but marginally contributing), but I can see folks taking AD. I'd have Dwight with 5 prime seasons ('08-'12) and Davis with 5 as well ('15, '17, '18, '20, '23), and pretty comparable in overall level across those seasons. Some arguments for '14/'19 inclusion respectively. Neither has any sort of sustained best player in the league arguments, but both pretty strong top 5 type guys on average across those seasons.

I do find a lot of the AD arguments more stylistic than anything related to effectiveness.

[SpreeS]

Davis more skilled, but DH more healthier. Howard was done at 29-30y as elite player.

[Woodsanity]

I think Dwight is the better peak player but its an odd case. Even though Davis is injury prone he is still capable and a good player.

After Dwight left Orlando he declined FAST. I don't value post Orlando years that much. So dwight's prime was extremely short.

[Mogspan]

AD played against better teams, had better seasons and is the more complete player. What’s not to understand?

AD has never had a season better than 08-09 Dwight lmao. Dwight beat a peak athletic Lebron when everyone thought that Cavs vs Lakers were a shoe in for that year. AD could never lead a team either. Great secondary player but no, he doesn’t hold a candle to Dwight

2011 Howard > 2009 Howard; his team just performed better in '09. I've recently been arguing for Dwight in the Top 100 Project, but I think AD is clearly the superior player. He was legitimately the best or second best player in the league from 2018-2020. In 2018, he completely mogged the 3-seed Blazers in the first round before losing to the most stacked team of all-time. That Summer, he worked on his handle and wound up comfortably leading the league in box score and impact stats before the Pels shut him down after the trade request. His teams were just remarkably bad, and it's hard for non-Jokić centers to uplift trash (people forget that Kareem was missing the playoffs at his athletic peak in the freaking 70s). In 2020, AD was arguably simultaneously the best playoff scorer and defender in the league and gentleman swept the West en route to a Finals W. Dwight was great but never close to as versatile and impactive as AD, whose peak and longevity I believe are super underrated.

[WintaSoldier1]

I honestly think that winning bias and off-court personality( How much you like/dislike a character) has done damage to the genuine and transparency of dialogue

[Texas Chuck]

Agree Howard has had a better a career. But people don't like Dwight for other reasons, plus his game isn't as modern, plus lots of people have gone all in on AD as a player he simply never was and its hard to acknowledge otherwise.

Popularity should never matter, but it always always does.

[kcktiny]

In terms of games played and his service to his team, this is clearly Howard. Davis has simply missed a ton of games.

But in terms of ability on the floor, the gap in their defensive abilities is far far less than the gap in their offensive abilities.

On offense Howard committed far more turnovers and missed far more FTA and thus was far less efficient on offense than Davis. Add to this Davis was the far better scorer. And this is over more than a decade.

[MiamiBulls]

Dwight Howard, imo was never head & shoulders the best Offensive Player on any playoff team he's ever played on. Dwight Howard's Offenses were Offenses by Committee. Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkoglu, Jameer Nelson, Vince Carter were all as good or better than Dwight Howard on Offense.

Despite Dwight Howard's Scoring Efficiency, his decision making & Turnover Economy was disastrous. 2010 Playoffs: 51 Turnovers to 19 Assists. 2011 Playoffs: 33 Turnovers to 3 Assists in just only 6 games played. Prime Dwight Howard's Touch on the basketball was terrible similar to what Russell Westbrook has been the last couple of seasons in LA. They're moving before they even fully receive legitimate control of the ball. Since Dwight can't map the court he just forces the issue, he overrelys on his athleticism to bail him out.

[bigboi]

AD played against better teams, had better seasons and is the more complete player. What’s not to understand?

AD has never had a season better than 08-09 Dwight lmao. Dwight beat a peak athletic Lebron when everyone thought that Cavs vs Lakers were a shoe in for that year. AD could never lead a team either. Great secondary player but no, he doesn’t hold a candle to Dwight

2011 Howard > 2009 Howard; his team just performed better in '09. I've recently been arguing for Dwight in the Top 100 Project, but I think AD is clearly the superior player. He was legitimately the best or second best player in the league from 2018-2020. In 2018, he completely mogged the 3-seed Blazers in the first round before losing to the most stacked team of all-time. That Summer, he worked on his handle and wound up comfortably leading the league in box score and impact stats before the Pels shut him down after the trade request. His teams were just remarkably bad, and it's hard for non-Jokić centers to uplift trash (people forget that Kareem was missing the playoffs at his athletic peak in the freaking 70s). In 2020, AD was arguably simultaneously the best playoff scorer and defender in the league and gentleman swept the West en route to a Finals W. Dwight was great but never close to as versatile and impactive as AD, whose peak and longevity I believe are super underrated.

AD has never been top 3 ever in his life lmao. 2018-2020 is even more laughable Lmaooo. Y’all just love talking at this point. AD hasn’t even been better than Bron at any point of his career either. Again, AD on the 09 Magic prob loses to the Celtics in the second round. Prime Dwight with Bron is the best team in league. There’s levels to this