When you think of great and dominant centers in the history of the NBA Wilt Chamberlain, Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and David Robinson may come to mind but not Dwight Howard.
Howard is in 8th season in the NBA and pretty much the same player he was eight years he is a great rebounder and great defensive arguably the best in the NBA. Dwight is 27 years old and apparently in his prime but still has the same post game or lack there of that he had when enter the NBA. Now he shows some different post move every now and then but nothing constant. Howard will never be that center that you can threw the ball into the post and say ok go get 25-30 points and that type of center doesn't exist in the NBA anymore.
You may thinking will why many people ans so called experts called Howard the best bigman in the game? Well that's just by default because there are very few true centers in the NBA and as far as best center in the NBA goes Brook Lopez and Marc Gasol are not too far behind.
When Kobe Bryant went down before the playoffs started that gave Howard somewhat of a test or a tryout. Can Howard step up in the spotlight of Los Angeles put the Lakers on his back,carrying the team, and be the constant dominant force that everyone in L.A. was hopefully for.
Throughout the first round against the Spurs, Howard displayed flashes of dominance but once again he wasn't constant with his play when he gets frustrated his play goes down and body language gets poor evident when Howard got ejected Game 4.
And the Lakers are going to sign this guy for five years $120 million.
If Howard would have shown up throughout the whole series against the Spurs like Stephen Curry has been killing the Nuggets when David Lee went down and showed that he could be the man and carry a franchise in L.A. not necessarily win but be a force maybe he would be wroth $120 million well not $120 million but able to say he's the man for the next five to six years.
Howard isn't a superstar he is a star that needs the right pieces around him to be successful.
Howard should with Houston it would be like being Orlando again. Not a major city, they have shooter there and most importantly have an rising star in James Harden which would take a lot about pressure on Howard. Then Howard could focus on what he does best rebounding and defense. Howard wants to be big fish in a little pond with no pressure that just wants to be liked.
Howard is one most physical presents in NBA history but he just doesn't have that bigman mindset and mentality to dominant both ends of the court to be a true franchise center.
No comments:
Post a Comment