ESPN First Take: D-Ho one of greatest centers of all time?

Ckay · Post #1 » by **Ckay** » Wed Oct 10, 2012 11:50 pm

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVjipkVpWtw[/youtube]

Speedlot · Post #2 » by **Speedlot** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 4:30 am

The chicks on espn are getting hotter.

Ckay · Post #3 » by **Ckay** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 4:47 am

a lakers fan too xD

AAAAA1 · Post #4 » by **AAAAA1** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 5:59 am

Lol Steven A. said dwight could be top 5 all-time. There is noway that will ever happen

Wilt
Russel
Kareem
Shaq
Hakeem

To name a few.

Dr Aki · Post #5 » by **Dr Aki** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:33 am

AAAAA1 wrote:Lol Steven A. said dwight could be top 5 all-time. There is noway that will ever happen

Wilt
Russel
Kareem
Shaq
Hakeem

To name a few.

dwight entered the league straight outta high school.

like kobe, longevity/effectiveness will play a major role where he finishes up. but at the end of dwight's career, if he has 2 rings as "the man", he'd be in the conversation, particularly if hakeem is #5

especially if he continues to accrue DPOYs

GoldKnightRises · Post #6 » by **GoldKnightRises** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:50 am

People seem to forget Dwight won 3 DPOY awards, could have been 4 if not injured last season, and he is barely in his prime! The rebounding is there as well, and the rings should come now with a more talented team.

Post #7 » by **Jakay** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 10:27 am

Wallace won a bunch of those too.

Dr Aki · Post #8 » by **Dr Aki** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 11:05 am

Jakay wrote:Wallace won a bunch of those too.

im going to go out on a limb here and say dwight is a little bit more talented than ben wallace

Kobean · Post #9 » by **Kobean** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 3:44 pm

He could end up a top 5 all time center, he's awesome now and still has years to improve especially now he's learning from Kareem.

TheXFactor · Post #10 » by **TheXFactor** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 4:15 pm

At the tail end of Shaq's stint with the Lakers, I wished he played more like Dwight Howard, being the 2nd option and concentrate on playing defense and rebounding, than worrying about touches (offense).

Dwight won't be as dominant as Shaq on offense, but I like the options surrounding him.

Dwight will make his mark on defense. I believe Shaq never led the league in rebouding, or block shots or ever gotten a DPOY award.

Frantik · Post #11 » by **Frantik** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 5:31 pm

This is insane talk im hearing... Listen folks: sometimes, its not that black and white with regards to who won what.
stats stats stats and more statistics.... goodness gracious! its not ONLY about statistics! stats are just one of the many things to consider.

How many rings did Horry win? but guess what... No way would i ever start a team with him as cornerstone. I wonder what would be of top50-Pippen if he had never won all those rings with MJ.

DWIGHT WILL NEVER BE or surpass SHAQUILLE O'NEAL aka & IMO the most dominant freak of nature my eyes have ever witnessed on a basketball court. They changed rules because of that absolute-monster. folks escaped when they saw him approaching.

Dwight is a beast, Shaq was the Kraken!
Dwight's on beastMode, Shaq was on KillMode!

Enough of the obsession with stats! Greateness is determined by much more than Stats!

Kobean · Post #12 » by **Kobean** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 5:43 pm

Frantik wrote:This is insane talk im hearing... Listen folks: sometimes, its not that black and white with regards to who won what.
stats stats stats and more statistics.... goodness gracious! its not ONLY about statistics! stats are just one of the many things to consider.

How many rings did Horry win? but guess what... No way would i ever start a team with him as cornerstone. I wonder what would be of top50-Pippen if he had never won all those rings with MJ.

DWIGHT WILL NEVER BE or surpass SHAQUILLE O'NEAL aka & IMO the most dominant freak of nature my eyes have ever witnessed on a basketball court. They changed rules because of that absolute-monster. folks escaped when they saw him approaching.

Dwight is a beast, Shaq was the Kraken!
Dwight's on beastMode, Shaq was on KillMode!

Enough of the obsession with stats! Greateness is determined by much more than Stats!

Nobody said he'll be better than Shaq what people are saying is that he'll go down as one of the best centers of all time.....which he probably will.

supaflash · Post #13 » by **supaflash** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:38 pm

I'm in the Steven A boat on this one. Kobe didn't say anything that crazy, he's talking about potential, which Dwight has plenty of. And by saying he's going to be one of the greatest of all time doesn't necessarily mean he has to pass one of those 5 guys, he could be 6 or 7 and in the conversation. As of right now, aside from scoring average, he's fairly on par with Shaq in is career. For what Shaq was offensively Dwight has been defensively, taken a team with average talent to 60 win seasons and a finals trip, so he's on the right path and with his work ethic he can last a while. Dwight isn't going to be a 30ppg bulldozer, but if he ups his FT% a little and continues his offensive growth he can be a pretty special player. His efficiency is quite high and combined with his rebounding and defense, his impact is up there with anyone. If Shaq would have conditioned and played more like Dwight then he would have been the GOAT hands down, but he ended up relying on his size and offensive game for the majority of the second half of his career.

I liked Dwight before, and was always impressed with how much better he was at holding position on offense and rebounding then other guys that were bigger then him. But now that I've been watching Laker practice footage I'm really impressed at how strong he is. He seems to cover so much ground, move guys around, and get to shots, he's just so much a different player then Shaq or Hakeem, more of a hybrid between the two. He doesn't quite have the mass and base of some guys like Bogut but his massive shoulders and upper body strength combined with his speed really separate him from the taller skinnier guys like Chandler, Pau, Bynum, etc. He's a beast for sure, I'm excited to get to watch him a lot more closely this year and how he changes the defense.

ennui · Post #14 » by **ennui** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 8:09 pm

Speedlot wrote:The chicks on espn are getting hotter.

i know right :love:

TheMidnightSun · Post #15 » by **TheMidnightSun** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 4:19 am

AAAAA1 wrote:Lol Steven A. said dwight could be top 5 all-time. There is noway that will ever happen

Wilt
Russel
Kareem
Shaq
Hakeem

To name a few.

also moses malone, he came straight out of high school to the aba, he averaged a double double for 15 straight seasons 2 leauge mvps, a finals mvp, 6 rebounding titles (5 consecutive), 76% career ft average,

GoldKnightRises · Post #16 » by **GoldKnightRises** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 4:36 am

Jakay wrote:Wallace won a bunch of those too.

I'm just going to assume that wasn't a serious response.

Dr Aki · Post #17 » by **Dr Aki** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 7:59 am

someone's gotta change the title to say: "D-Ho will be one of the greatest centers of all time"

TruSkool · Post #18 » by **TruSkool** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 9:39 am

dwight will be top 10-15, never top 5.

shaq, olajuwon, russell, kareem, ewing, and wilt will always be better than him.

dwight has potential to be better than alonzo mourning in his prime, if he isn't already, but he won't match up with the others

richboy · Post #19 » by **richboy** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 12:14 am

TruSkool wrote:dwight will be top 10-15, never top 5.

shaq, olajuwon, russell, kareem, ewing, and wilt will always be better than him.

dwight has potential to be better than alonzo mourning in his prime, if he isn't already, but he won't match up with the others

Ewing?

Lol

I'm going to say what if Dwight does these things in his career.

1 MVP- shouldn't be that hard to imagine since he almost won MVP just 2 years ago.
2-3 NBA Titles -with the Talent on the Lakers not that far fetched he could get 1 this year.
6 DPOY -already half way there and should have been 4
here some big ones

3rd all-time rebounder. Very likely and going after Bill Russell isn't crazy depending on his longevity.
25,000 points once again
Top 5 all-time in total blocks.

One of the most crazy things to do is try to say where you think a player will end up in the all-time rankings. It isn't out of this world for Dwight to be a top 5 all-time because many have Moses Malone as number 6. Also considering someone like a KG or Barkley are considered top 15 all-time. Dwight is still very young. Realize at this time of his career nobody had Hakeem as a top 5 center all-time. Hakeem spent a lot of years with people saying he was great defense but just power on offense. Now people talk like they always had Hakeem in the top 5. If Dwight plays at a high level for another 8-10 years where talking about one of the most productive centers in history. Perhaps one of the 5 best two way players in league history. If he wins multiple titles and even more DPOY he going to have a resume equal if not better than Hakeem.

Post #20 » by **Jakay** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 9:50 am

GoldKnightRises wrote:
Jakay wrote:Wallace won a bunch of those too.

I'm just going to assume that wasn't a serious response.

Oh I don't know, it was as serious as it was factual. Wallace won some DPOYs and a ring. So did Rodman. In fact Rodman won a few rings and killed Dwight in rebounding, and Wallace won more DPOYs.

How anyone connects the dots beyond that is up to them.