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Howard admits of not being completely back physically

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Howard admits of not being completely back physically 

Post#1 » by GAME TIME » Mon Dec 24, 2012 3:27 am

Dwight Howard continues to feel the effects of his April surgery to repair a herniated disk.

Howard returned from the surgery ahead of schedule, but he still hasn't played to his pre-surgery form.

"I'm still in that process," Howard said. "People don't understand that. They just come out and see me make a couple dunks and blocks and say, 'Oh, he's back.' But it does take a while for all this stuff to heal. This is not something easy, so I understand that. It will come."

Howard is averaging 17.8 points, 11.9 rebounds, 2.6 blocks and 1.1 steals per game, but the full influence of his play on defense hasn't been felt yet by the Lakers.

"Tingling in my legs all the way down to my feet," Howard said as he described his current state. "There's times when sometimes I really can't even feel my feet. (The doctors) said that's going to happen. It takes at least nine months for you to get strength back in your legs and all that stuff. So I'm still in that process."
Via Sam Amick/USA Today
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Re: Howard admits of not being completely back physically 

Post#2 » by iamworthy » Mon Dec 24, 2012 3:44 am

You can see it when he plays. The fact that he is averaging 18/12 and 4th in the league n blocks is pretty amazing. A lot of NBA analysis didn't expect him to play until dec- jan timeframe. He's a trooper, no doubt about it. When healthily I expect him to avg around 24/14
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Re: Howard admits of not being completely back physically 

Post#3 » by Cashin out » Mon Dec 24, 2012 4:13 am

Yeah you can tell he is still not 100% healthy,you can tell when he runs that his back is still sore.Hopefully he is 100% by the playoffs.
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Re: Howard admits of not being completely back physically 

Post#4 » by b shaw20 » Mon Dec 24, 2012 5:01 am

so I guess this proves he is a liar then. Didn't he say he was not playing until he was 100% ?
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Re: Howard admits of not being completely back physically 

Post#5 » by AcecardZ » Mon Dec 24, 2012 8:50 am

b shaw20 wrote:so I guess this proves he is a liar then. Didn't he say he was not playing until he was 100% ?



Wtf are you talking about? The guy comes back early from a pretty big injury and is less than 100% and you'd rather call him a liar than a gamer??? c'mon douchbebag you can do a lot better without trying nearly as hard...
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Re: Howard admits of not being completely back physically 

Post#6 » by Optms » Mon Dec 24, 2012 9:04 am

I hope this isn't a long term thing which will creep up and nag him for the rest of his career. The words 'back surgery' together scare the living hell out of me.
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Re: Howard admits of not being completely back physically 

Post#7 » by Dissent » Mon Dec 24, 2012 9:48 am

My fear is that he never returns to the old Dwight, and settles in to this lesser version. Then the question to ask is whether or not this current version of Howard is worth a max contract, because if he's not, we're going to be bad for a long time assuming he signs with us.

Problem is there really isn't anybody else to replace him, even in free agency. The Lakers future is tied to Dwight, whether or not he plays here after this season, and whether or not he returns to old Dwight.
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Re: Howard admits of not being completely back physically 

Post#8 » by GeneralNash » Mon Dec 24, 2012 12:00 pm

He is young and he will recover. Cannot wait until we see him at 100%

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Re: Howard admits of not being completely back physically 

Post#9 » by rhp1990 » Mon Dec 24, 2012 3:33 pm

Dissent wrote:My fear is that he never returns to the old Dwight, and settles in to this lesser version. Then the question to ask is whether or not this current version of Howard is worth a max contract, because if he's not, we're going to be bad for a long time assuming he signs with us.

Problem is there really isn't anybody else to replace him, even in free agency. The Lakers future is tied to Dwight, whether or not he plays here after this season, and whether or not he returns to old Dwight.


Lakers would be stupid if they did not sign him to the max even if he's playing the way he is unless a serious injury occurred this season.
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Re: Howard admits of not being completely back physically 

Post#10 » by BEazy » Mon Dec 24, 2012 5:58 pm

Some people are being too hard on him these past few games. Dwight Howard has no feeling in his left leg sometimes and he's still swatting out shots like it's nothing. I don't know how you can't give the guy a max contract for his efforts. The dude gets 20 rebounds like nothing....I always knew Dwight wasn't 100%. I mean you can't be called the most dominate center for no reason.
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Re: Howard admits of not being completely back physically 

Post#11 » by Kilroy » Mon Dec 24, 2012 6:44 pm

Kevin Ding via WT wrote:Howard underwent surgery in April to repair a herniated disc in his back. Back then, even doctors told him he could "never play basketball anymore."

"I never had a major injury before," Howard said. "And I just have to keep fighting through it."


This scares me more...
So if I'm reading this right, Doctors told him that even after surgery he wouldn't be able to play basketball anymore?
He says he just has to play through it.
It's a confusing article because the first part of it talks about the consequences of waiting for the surgery... So maybe that's all it is.

But the last part got some alarms going off for me.

Do we need to lower our expectations for Howard?
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Re: Howard admits of not being completely back physically 

Post#12 » by iamworthy » Mon Dec 24, 2012 7:43 pm

Kilroy wrote:This scares me more...
So if I'm reading this right, Doctors told him that even after surgery he wouldn't be able to play basketball anymore?

Going off of the Kevin Ding tweet it reads "could" never play basketball anymore. The fact that he's now playing and avg 18/12 and 4th in the league in blocks kinda solves that mystery for me.



Kilroy wrote:Do we need to lower our expectations for Howard?


Lower them to what? apparently it takes 9 months for this to heal. If we had a little more ball movement, and he hit a couple more freethrows a game he would easily averaging 20/10. I fully expect him to average at least that once Nash gets his legs back. Also he's second in rebounding for all centers and second in points. The website Im looking at has Bosh as a center so he's number one in scoring. I think we just need to give him time.
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Re: Howard admits of not being completely back physically 

Post#13 » by what would jack bauer do? » Mon Dec 24, 2012 7:48 pm

I thought this was common knowledge, he looks like half the player he was right now. I remember the dude that would jump over his own teammates to get a block, just ask Courtney lee and his broken cheek bone. He looks like a plotter right now. his gait looks abnormal when he runs up and down the floor and he's not rim running like he would normally.Hes playing at a level that's better than any center in the league but not anywhere near his norm.
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Re: Howard admits of not being completely back physically 

Post#14 » by what would jack bauer do? » Mon Dec 24, 2012 8:07 pm

I thought this was common knowledge, he looks like half the player he was right now. I remember the dude that would jump over his own teammates to get a block, just ask Courtney lee and his broken cheek bone. He looks like a plotter right now. his gait looks abnormal when he runs up and down the floor and he's not rim running like he would normally.Hes playing at a level that's better than any center in the league but not anywhere near his norm.
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Re: Howard admits of not being completely back physically 

Post#15 » by DEEP3CL » Tue Dec 25, 2012 4:47 am

I said during the time of pursuing him that it would be an on going issue, until he gets stronger he's going to be up and down most games. Just something they have to deal with.
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Re: Howard admits of not being completely back physically 

Post#16 » by Anklebreaker702 » Tue Dec 25, 2012 5:43 am

Its pretty obvious he's not 100% but I'm happy with him. No one truly knows if he'll ever be that same D12 but if not he'sstill playing well and I think we all want that dominant Dwight.
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Re: Howard admits of not being completely back physically 

Post#17 » by b shaw20 » Tue Dec 25, 2012 6:49 am

AcecardZ wrote:
b shaw20 wrote:so I guess this proves he is a liar then. Didn't he say he was not playing until he was 100% ?



Wtf are you talking about? The guy comes back early from a pretty big injury and is less than 100% and you'd rather call him a liar than a gamer??? c'mon douchbebag you can do a lot better without trying nearly as hard...


who the f you think you are coming at me like that son? Whar are 13 yrs old? You miss my point completely...I get that he may be playing now despite not being fully recovered. And I am glad he is as even at 70%, he is still pretty damn good.

My point is that alot of people questioned how honest he was with all that went down in Orlando. Then he kept telling the media he would come back only when he was back at 100%. Instead of simply saying he would play when he was cleared or when he felt good enough, he kept harping on the 100%. Now he says he's not 100% yet he's playing. Is this to excuse his subpar numbers or what is the reason to say it?

If he is being honest now, he looks like a schmuck (or a liar) for having stuck to his standard answer during training camp. He just needs to come clean or get some media training.
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Re: Howard admits of not being completely back physically 

Post#18 » by crazyeights » Tue Dec 25, 2012 7:58 am

b shaw20 wrote:
AcecardZ wrote:
b shaw20 wrote:so I guess this proves he is a liar then. Didn't he say he was not playing until he was 100% ?



Wtf are you talking about? The guy comes back early from a pretty big injury and is less than 100% and you'd rather call him a liar than a gamer??? c'mon douchbebag you can do a lot better without trying nearly as hard...


who the f you think you are coming at me like that son? Whar are 13 yrs old? You miss my point completely...I get that he may be playing now despite not being fully recovered. And I am glad he is as even at 70%, he is still pretty damn good.

My point is that alot of people questioned how honest he was with all that went down in Orlando. Then he kept telling the media he would come back only when he was back at 100%. Instead of simply saying he would play when he was cleared or when he felt good enough, he kept harping on the 100%. Now he says he's not 100% yet he's playing. Is this to excuse his subpar numbers or what is the reason to say it?

If he is being honest now, he looks like a schmuck (or a liar) for having stuck to his standard answer during training camp. He just needs to come clean or get some media training.


No man, your first post was **** garbage and now you come in with "subpar numbers"? Dude is averaging essentially 18/12/2.6 on 57% shooting after coming off of back surgery and you're taking exception to that?

Why? Because he said he was going to come back when healthy? You wanted to see what the Mike Brown era Lakers looked like without Nash, Pau playing injured AND Dwight out? We would have been in complete disarray, and we'd be even further out of the playoff hunt. Besides, the point is this: Dwight is only gonna get to be his old self by playing in games. He was 100% as far as rehabbing goes. He's gotta be on court to get it all back.

Any talk of Dwight is a "shmuck" for saying he's going to come back when 100% means that you either don't get how guys get into game shape or you actually take everything anyone says literally.

How's that Mayan calendar working for ya, bro?

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