5 replies to this topic

[Red94]

New post: No Dwight Howard? No problem.
By: Richard Li

The reoccurrence of Dwight Howard's knee injury will keep him out of action for at least one month, likely much longer. For Rockets fans, still haunted by the limping spectres of Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, Howard's injury seems like a latest iteration of a basketball jinx.

 

Once they shake off their collective gut punch, however, Rockets fans will see that losing Howard isn't as consequential as it might seem. Former backup center and current starting power forward, Donatas Motiejunas, has quietly established himself as a capable (and maybe even superior) replacement. In this article, I examine how Motiejunas compares to Howard in their shot defense, shooting, and passing.

 

(read full article at Vantage Sports)

[adonneus]

Great article! Nice to see some cool stats to back up what a lot of us already thought!

 

I'm not worried at all about Dwight's being out. As Alituro said in the Chicago post-game thread, the team's chemistry seems better when he's not on the floor wasting possessions by trying to post up. We were able to see D-Mo grow into what he is now during Dwight's previous absence, and I'm excited to see D-Mo grow further in this second Dwigh-atus. This could also be a great way to get Jones back into the starting lineup soon without losing any of D-Mo's confidence by undeservedly benching him.

 

I also wonder if it really can be Dwight's preference alone that contributes to his posting up. Maybe McHale and Hakeem both think that something will click and he'll be a post-up beast? Or maybe, as has been said before, it's just a good chance to allow our guys to rest for a possession on offense. I need to pay more attention to the context surrounding the Dwight post-up plays to gain a better opinion.

[Losthief]

It in my opinion all depends on where Howard gets the ball. If he gets it in the paint (within 3-5ft of the rim) he's fine/solid on the post. The fact that we struggle to get it to him that deep is part of the issue. If he gets it at say at 6-10ft he's a turnover machine, likely to get doubled, and can't finish from that far out. This was true in ORL, LAL, and last year as well. He needs to work on getting deeper position, and we need as at team to learn how to properly do a re-post for him to get deeper position and remove double teams without asking him to dribble or make cross court passes (which he's not capable of). Some of this is his health im sure, but alot of it is that our guys really suck at running a proper post play and we tend to abandon it with time on the clock (instead of re-posting) or we don't initiate early enough to allow for this technique.

 

That said, DMO's greatest post ability is his ability to take it in from outside to get deeper in the paint without help, something that makes him such a bigger post threat because he doesn't need perfect positioning to be effective. 

Edited by Losthief, 06 February 2015 - 12:39 AM.

[cointurtlemoose]

I also wonder if it really can be Dwight's preference alone that contributes to his posting up. Maybe McHale and Hakeem both think that something will click and he'll be a post-up beast? Or maybe, as has been said before, it's just a good chance to allow our guys to rest for a possession on offense. I need to pay more attention to the context surrounding the Dwight post-up plays to gain a better opinion.

 

I also wonder about this. At times, his postups have appeared strategic to me, to slow the tempo. But that they occur while DMo (a clearly better post up player and passer) is on the floor makes me wonder whether it's like a seniority type thing? I don't think "seniority" is necessarily the right word. But yall know what I mean.

 

I do think the twilight of Dwight's career has come, and so I'm eager to see if/how his style of play on this team will change. I think it should. But it's not a straightforward type of transition.

[cointurtlemoose]

Some of this is his health im sure, but alot of it is that our guys really suck at running a proper post play and we tend to abandon it with time on the clock (instead of re-posting) or we don't initiate early enough to allow for this technique.

 

Okay, this is also really true...

[John P]

Richard,  Great article.  One of your best...and something I have been really thinking on my own with just watching Dwight play.

 

I don't think Dwight is necessarily at the "twilight" of his career...it could be that he is just entering into the worn down phase after playing for so many years, ...and needs to manage his time more like Duncan, etc...  but I still think he can have many more great, productive years left.

 

I do think that besides the Portland series last year, Dwight has been painful to watch do post ups unless he can really ISO against lesser centers, like Lopez.   His actions are slow, mechanical, he loses the ball a lot, or gets it stolen, etc...  Like his free throws, I think he is thinking too much.

 

In my mind the best part of all of this is that now we don't have Dwight tied up for 5 years...when he could have issues....and he has a big incentive probably to exercise his option for that 4th year...when the salary cap jumps.

 

Also, DMo is young and still improving.  Having him already the second best offensive weapon and top 3 all around player on the team and his bird rights makes me happy.  

 

Does anyone see a better lineup going forward that will not be traded of Harden, DMo and for now Ariza and Dwight.  A nice place to be.

 

Thanks again for the great article.