Dwight vs. Perk

Dirty Water · Post #1 » by **Dirty Water** » Wed May 13, 2009 3:51 am

This series is my first extended look at Dwight Howard and excuse me if my accusations are baseless, but the man has a LONG way to go. He is incredibly under developed offensively it's actually quite sad. To be honest, Perk is better polished offensively down there at this point. Back to basket, 1 v 1 he's such and easy guard. All his buckets are off of rebounds and good rotations by the rest of his team to get him open and have position. Perk just makes him look downright dreadful down there sometimes on the post.

I can't believe people were pulling for this guy to be MVP.

Sure, down the line his game hopefully will develop and after that, he will be unstoppable for the most part. Just right now, he's somewhat of a quasi best player for them because they are just not able to rely on him down in the post at the end of games. Most of the Magic's casual fans don't realize this for some reason. You can't just send the ball down to him on the block and expect him to score at will. He scores off of good ball movement and rotations and getting in position. Not in the 1 v 1 in the post. And certainly not against Kendrick Perkins.

BTW a side note. Anyone notice a how Perkins cute little 10 footer is coming along. He's progressing offensively.

Joyeuse · Post #2 » by **Joyeuse** » Wed May 13, 2009 3:56 am

I don't think it's really fair to judge everything about Howard based on this series alone. Howard is strong and can outmuscle most players in the league. Perkins is a terrible matchup for Howard because he doesn't have the polish to consistently score a lot on an elite interior defender with so much bulk. I have to tip my hat to Perkins.

EDIT: And yes, I am definitely liking Perkins at this point! So glad we drafted and re-signed him. He's a bargain at his salary!

JCizzle · Post #3 » by **JCizzle** » Wed May 13, 2009 3:58 am

Unless he has just been incredibly unlucky this series - Howard's only reliable offensive move is a dunk/easy layup. Your point about not just giving him the ball in clutch situations is right on, and I thought the same thing.

Dirty Water · Post #4 » by **Dirty Water** » Wed May 13, 2009 3:58 am

Thanks for the insight. Maybe Perkins is just making him look bad. I don't know. Has anyone watched him a lot this year outside of sportscenter highlights and can maybe give me an opinion? Maybe a magic fan but not sure they will be coming around on this board anytime soon.

Dirty Water · Post #5 » by **Dirty Water** » Wed May 13, 2009 4:01 am

JCizzle wrote:Your point about not just giving him the ball in clutch situations is right on, and I thought the same thing.

That's one of my main points. On the general and magic board a lot of posters are like "ZOMG DWIGHT HOWARD NO FGA IN LAST 5 MINS." But in my opinion, just giving it down to him on the block against Perkins is a matchup nightmare and he's not going to give you a great chance to score 1 v 1

DorfonCeltics · Post #6 » by **DorfonCeltics** » Wed May 13, 2009 4:01 am

Ghost of the Garden wrote:BTW a side note. Anyone notice a how Perkins cute little 10 footer is coming along. He's progressing offensively.

Yes! I turned to my buddy and said expect to see that a lot next year. Once he has the confidence and the ok from Doc, that will be Perk's bread and butter.

DarkAzcura · Post #7 » by **DarkAzcura** » Wed May 13, 2009 4:03 am

Notice how no one is giving Perkins any credit at all (except C's fans of course)?

All Magic fans and the media are talking about how the guards aren't getting Howard the ball. blah blah, but Perkins has nothing to do with that? Perkins forces terrible shots from Howard and that's why they don't pass it to him that much.

I even saw a Magic fan say that it doesn't matter if Perkins gets suspended or not (for that elbow) because he is a non-factor. :lol:

Non-factor?

Fencer reregistered · Post #8 » by **Fencer reregistered** » Wed May 13, 2009 4:14 am

DarkAzcura wrote:
I even saw a Magic fan say that it doesn't matter if Perkins gets suspended or not (for that elbow) because he is a non-factor. Non-factor?

I've seen much less idiocy from Magic fans than I expected. (They were pretty bad back in the days of the TMac fanboys, but on the whole seem pretty sensible now -- except, of course, for their opinions about refereeing and the like ...) But that's just moronic.

Dirty Water · Post #9 » by **Dirty Water** » Wed May 13, 2009 4:23 am

If Perkins is a nonfactor in this series, then Rondo was inconsistent in the Chicago series.

Post #10 » by **sully00** » Wed May 13, 2009 4:31 am

Perk is doing a great job on him as is Baby in limited possessions, he is not used to being pushed off his spot. But bigger than that is the kid is still so young he is a different player on the road than at home. He plays with a ton more confidence at home and is much more difficult to keep away from the rim.

Banks2Pierce · Post #11 » by **Banks2Pierce** » Wed May 13, 2009 4:35 am

There are probably 3 people in the league that can slow Dwight down: Yao, Perk, and Shaq. You can't deny Dwight's defense though. He makes that team good defensively almost all by himself.

Joyeuse · Post #12 » by **Joyeuse** » Wed May 13, 2009 4:40 am

sully00 wrote:Perk is doing a great job on him as is Baby in limited possessions, he is not used to being pushed off his spot. But bigger than that is the kid is still so young he is a different player on the road than at home. He plays with a ton more confidence at home and is much more difficult to keep away from the rim.

Not to dispute your point completely, but Howard played quite well on I think Baby when Perkins was out before Doc put in the starters at the end of the game. Missing Perkins was a big reason why we failed to pull ahead even while scoring.

Cyclical · Post #13 » by **Cyclical** » Wed May 13, 2009 5:34 am

On an semi-related subject, and for no reason whatsoever, in my house we now refer to Perk as Perkoglu and to Turkoglu as Turkins.

Perkoglu is a beast.

Dirty Water · Post #14 » by **Dirty Water** » Wed May 13, 2009 5:50 am

Cyclical wrote:On an semi-related subject, and for no reason whatsoever, in my house we now refer to Perk as Perkoglu and to Turkoglu as Turkins.

Perkoglu is a beast.

Ugh please. I can't stand Turkoglu. Just looking at his face makes me want to vomit.

BillessuR6 · Post #15 » by **BillessuR6** » Wed May 13, 2009 8:37 am

Perk is the best big man-to-man defender in the league. He is doing a fantastic job on Howard. I am not surprised by Howard`s offensive inability he is one of the worst offensive big men in the league...

MyInsatiableOne · Post #16 » by **MyInsatiableOne** » Wed May 13, 2009 10:59 am

JCizzle wrote:Unless he has just been incredibly unlucky this series - Howard's only reliable offensive move is a dunk/easy layup. Your point about not just giving him the ball in clutch situations is right on, and I thought the same thing.

This is actually the truth. He has no offense beyond this. If he develops one, he'll be a beast, but as of now if you keep him 4 feet from the hoop or more, he's useless...

Bad-Thoma · Post #17 » by **Bad-Thoma** » Wed May 13, 2009 12:18 pm

Dwight didn't average 20+ppg this year just on putbacks. While he is far from a polished offensive product this year he stepped up quite a bit with his post game and his off the ball awareness, and he's still damned young. I really think Perk is just that bad of a match-up for him and SVG hasn't really attempted to get him in a rythm. If he improves his foul shooting and learns to use his agility instead of just relying on his strength in the post I think he'll win an MVP trophy someday.

As someone stated though Dwight does pretty much single handedly make their defense good, his presence in the paint is what has allowed the Magic to stick on Ray Allen and Eddie house so well this series. It makes me miss KG even more, his presence next to perk allows our perimeter to stay home instead of helping as much, we'd be giving up a lot less uncontested shots if he was out there.

CourtsideTV · Post #18 » by **CourtsideTV** » Wed May 13, 2009 12:30 pm

Dwight has more than dunks. He has a low post hook shot but he isn't being patient. Whent he double comes, he is turning the ball over. He needs to learn how to play out a double team better. Celtics defense is doing a good job gettin Dwight physically and mentally out of the game. If you see our series vs Philly, Dwight had a lot of hook shots and post moves 1on1. Even during the regular season he was showing some skills. I'd give more credit to C defense than Dwight''s lack of offense.

MyInsatiableOne · Post #19 » by **MyInsatiableOne** » Wed May 13, 2009 12:35 pm

CourtsideTV wrote:Dwight has more than dunks. He has a low post hook shot but he isn't being patient. Whent he double comes, he is turning the ball over. He needs to learn how to play out a double team better. Celtics defense is doing a good job gettin Dwight physically and mentally out of the game. If you see our series vs Philly, Dwight had a lot of hook shots and post moves 1on1. Even during the regular season he was showing some skills. I'd give more credit to C defense than Dwight''s lack of offense.

Dwight is still VERY raw offensively...he needs to polish that up and then he'll be a legit superstar...

Mahoney_jr · Post #20 » by **Mahoney_jr** » Wed May 13, 2009 12:43 pm

How he blocks shots into the stands instead of to his teammates,
how he bulks up the upper body instead of his leg muscles,
how he plays better when he is in good moods

leads me to believe that he's more style than substance.

I still think that he is the core piece of the Magic success and that Nelson/Turk/Lewis would be worse without his presence in the middle (esp. on defense), but he could clearly be a better basketball player.