Dwight Howard Discussion: The Taiwan Terror

That's a freeze frame looking for new tears to happen ....

 

Dwight is going to be tested this year by everyone and everything. He is gonna struggle to not react even if he is in the right. That is very tough to do when you are a player that will eventually be a Hall of Famer.

The only way Dwight avoids this issue is if he turns into Dennis Rodman in the rebound department from game 1 and beyond. I do not know if he can be the blocking machine he was but, in this p**** a** league, less likely to have to with all the shooting going on.

 

Well since I'm drumming the center depth chant, allow me to address this one.

Last year we had McGee, TyChandler, Zu and Moe. Yet we were messing around with Bron's health in tryimg some gimmicky small ball "death lineup" with Bron at the 5. Later we introduced Kuz into that role and I'm figuring that's cuz Bron was like "I ain't f***ing around with that s*** no more."

When you look at clutch stats, McGee last year had next to no run, so we didn't/couldn't rely on him to close winnable games.

Now that can entirely be a Luke thing or its a roster that was void of a legit starting center thing.

This season it was McGee and Boog. That's it. And if you have a superstar free agent requesting he not play the 5, you better make sure he doesn't. He already gave up his trade kicker (and by proxy a 30% max extension) to get superstar help. You damn we'll get him a regular season starting caliber center then.

Boogie was a great get for us, but based off his health history, you knew you had to bring him along slow (in 30 games played last season he played about 25mins per).

Imo, we did not have enough centers in July and it's glaringly obvious if/when one of them goes down.

Meanwhile in Philly they continue to protect their investment and of course they should... They were one bounce away from being in the ECF and could have just as easily been eventual NBA champs with Giannis's inexperience and Durant's injury.

 

Philly scraping the barrel to fill out the roster.

 

mo doesn't count, because we obviously had zero plans to play him in any consequential situations. we also didn't play zu early, so we were in essence running one center last year until we were forced to pick up chandler 8 games into a tire fire. this year, we had two bona fide nba centers ready to go versus last year's one. one went down, and we hired a replacement, who, despite the fact that we all hate him, is a bona fide nba center. carrying more than 2 is unnecessary, imo. unless you have a project or something.

as for mcgee getting no burn late in games--i honestly always expected our closing lineup to have lebron at pf and davis at c. just for 5 minutes or so. teams have done that for years (dirk often closed at center in dallas, but never played there full-time, for example). if davis was naive enough to think that wouldn't happen, i'm not sure what to say. that will happen wherever he plays unless he's next to embiid or jokic or something. that was never going to happen here.

anyway, he's not going to walk because we didn't sign enough mediocre centers. and he didn't give up his trade kicker so that we would.

 

He played well enough to warrant a 15th spot IMO. Dude was nailing 3's.

 

After the Kobe burnout tour just to make it to the playoffs, you need star insurance to get there. Kawhi showed us that. #TheRealSeason

If Boogie is encouraged to take it slow till he's near 30mpg into May and Javale isn't closing 4th quarters, that's just more on AD.

Caruso and Rondo are our only overdribbling playmakers (with Lance the only departure from last season). So that's more on Bron.

I'm sorry but I just disagree wholeheartedly about center depth. Who cares what the rest of the league is doing (unsuccessfully may I add), you got catch your own wave.

Philly is a perfect example in that if you have star power and play the traditional big lineup, you can really compete for a chip. That's why I brought them up in my previous post. Their "big4" from last year needed a bit more run together, but we've seen Vogel have success with big lineups in Indy. We've seen AD and a traditional big like Boog do well, so we know that tall frontline dynamic would work, especially since AD has guard skills.

I agree that AD won't walk...but we've seen crazier things and if we don't hold his health/livelihood at a premium, then that's enough to leave the door ajar. Rob being a player's agent should know that better than anyone when Kob was this close to going to the cLips in free agency and then again demanding Mitch "to do something and do it now".



Give your stars what they want, especially in a league that's completely star driven at the moment (see pre-agency).

Anyways, agree to disagree cause I don't place a premium on the regular season and playoff seeding. If you got your stars at close to 100 as humanly possible in May, that's all that matters to me, which is why I valued the 3star alignment so much cause they can each cover for each other during the regular season and not experience burnout.

Anyways, dude ain't getting that bag this year, but the banks open.

 

What does overdribling mean if you're going to tag Caruso with that? He plays a smart game on the floor and can pass, penetrate and handle the ball plus has size and plays D and can shoot, so should get a lot of minutes. And selective memory much? Quinn Cook was good enough to play quality minutes for the NBA finalist Warriors at PG and can handle and shoot and Avery Bradley says hello as well. Bron will be fine with them all to take handling duties off him if needed plus AD and Kuzma can handle as well.

 

And Howard above .... anyone besides me starting to get excited strictly from a basketball sense what he will bring to this team paired with McGee at the 5? Looking in great shape! All that said .... after all these years in the league .... anyone else thinking he is traveling on most of those spin moves starting at .44 in?

That J he is practicing does not have really bad form or anything so I hope at the very least he should be able to build with Penberthy or whoever is guiding him at this point and shoot better from the FT line.

 

Last time AvBrad played the traditional point, he was with the cLips and played awfully there. Last year he played the point position for all of 1% of his total minutes.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/bradlav01.html

As for Cook, dude played 14mpg and you expect him to get extended run as a playmaker? Really?

It's actually not even his calling either. Both Zo and Dragic played limited games last season (due to injury) and had a higher total of PnR than Cook where they were the ball handler. Even Caruso in his 25 games played last year recorded 102 possessions (frequency of 42%) to Cook's 133 possessions (frequency of 27%)...but Cook played in 74 games last year. It's just not Cook's game at all.

https://stats.nba.com/players/ball-handler/#!?sort=POSS&dir=1&SeasonType=Regular Season&PerMode=Totals

And when it comes to isolation, Cook and Av don't have that type of juice. Playmakers they ain't bro.

https://stats.nba.com/players/isolation/?sort=POSS_PCT&dir=-1

 

I don't understand all this negativity from you vash. Do you enjoy it now? Devil's advocacy is one thing and OK I guess if that's your thing. But this seem's way beyond that and not really that. It seems like you continue to just find a negative slant and pretty much expect the worst to happen. And like you're not aware of what held Bradley back and how he reportedly looked good in Memphis and allegedly is healthy now. Cook? F*** yeah I expect him to do great just to counter you're going ...




.... on him and the roster.

 

How is being worried about the playoffs (which I expect us to make) being negative? I believe we got a real shot at title contention with health and some luck on our side.

I'm concerned about depth impacting our stars' performances in the postseason. Its a pretty legit concern when you consider that making the playoffs isn't the expectation...it's winning a chip this year that we're expecting. Bron & AD are expecting that for sure.

So a 30m+ investment towards SGs (Green/Kcp/Bradley/Daniels/THT/Novell) isnt proper insurance for playmakers to limit & protect Bron and a center battalion to limit & protect AD.

I'm "positive" we'll make the playoffs. I'm concerned that our stars will be gassed once we get there which will negatively impact our chances.

 

Then unsolicited 2 cents .... stop it and enjoy this ride. A healthy still athletic head on reasonably straight Dwight Howard just became better for us than Snake Leonard. If we stay healthy.

 

Come'n man...I drop my dime only for others to chime in. And you seriously want me to stop knocking some cents into them?



Anyways...Kob said his 2cents about Shaq and then Shaq gave his and brought up Dwite...



#2wrongsDontMakeItDwight

 

Wow loved how clear Shaq's voice was for a change .... not a hint of a mumble .... and loved his advice to Dwight because I think it's obvious to all of us that he knows this is his golden opportunity for redemption and the chance for a ring(s). And I love Patrick's studio!!

 

@vasashi17 .... a lot better looking than Unimpressed Squirrel if you have to be always worried ... will give you that.

 

man what a a hole, im not a jersey type but did buy 1 of his d12 one with nash n this thurd just had to change it to some random a** #....i hope nobody buys any of his new # jersey lol