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Dwight Howard: The Face, The Franchise, The Future
Who is Dwight Howard? Brian Hill and the Magic coaching staff want him to be Tim Duncan: a dominant low post presence. Dwight Howard himself wants to be Kevin Garnett: a dominant, rangy forward. Who Dwight Howard gravitates to more will foreshadow the style and, ultimately, the success of this franchise.
Let's first look at Dwight Howard's strengths. He is athletic; almost too athletic for his body. He is big; he was measured at 6'11" in shoes at the Chicago Pre-Draft camp before the draft in 2004 and it is said that he has grown since then. He is strong; I've seen him wear out some of the best post players in the game. He is dedicated; Dwight Howard recently stated that he will hire a shooting coach to work with this summer. This is Dwight Howard's biggest and most important strength. Many big men only play because they are tall. They have no passion for the game and are not the type of players you want on your roster - just ask Larry Brown.
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For all "The Incredible Hulk's" strengths, he is still only a 20 year old NBA sophomore with many weaknesses. He has trouble finishing; when he doesn't dunk it, he's shooting a less-than-stellar .447 from the paint. Dwight Howard's problems down low stem from his freakish athleticism. He is like a superball down there and until he learns to tone it down, he will continue to have problems in this area. He is a horrible free-throw shooter; this isn't a huge deal since many big men, including Duncan and Shaq, have trouble in this area. He is foul prone; he's actually gotten a lot better at not picking up cheap fouls, but he has got to learn to stay on his feet more often than not. As he gets better, refs are going to call him for "ticky tack" fouls, so he's got to learn to stop trying to block everything. Tim Duncan is widely regarded as one of, if not the, best post defender in the game, and he has never led the league in blocked shots.
So now that we have analyzed Dwight Howard's strengths and weaknesses, who does he measure up to better: Duncan or Garnett? The answer, of course, is neither. Despite their similarities, Duncan plays the game so differently from Dwight Howard and Garnett does the things he does in Minnesota because he has to. In order for the Magic to be a great team, Dwight Howard and the coaching staff need to find the right balance of Duncan and Garnett. A good start would be working on his jump shot. Coach Hill has stated he doesn't think "The Incredible Hulk" should practice his jumper until he is a highly polished low post monster, but this is unrealistic. The truth is, if Dwight Howard can work on his jumper, it will make his trips into the low post that
much more productive. Right now, teams are giving Dwight Howard room to work, because they know he is a poor finisher. As soon as he starts draining 15-18 footers on a regular basis, teams will start to pressure him and that will get him easier baskets as he can use his speed to blow by them. I'd also like to see "The Incredible Hulk" pass more from the post. Too many times I see him force bad shots instead of passing it back out to the perimeter or to his partner-in-crime, Darko Milicic. Finally, Dwight Howard needs to get his free-throw percentage up by about 5 percentage points. As Dwight Howard progresses, he's going to see more time at the charity stripe, so 5 more percentage points could be the difference in some close games.
So will Dwight conform to his coaches wishes and become the next Tim Duncan, or will he get his way and be allowed the freedom to become the next Kevin Garnett? It's probably still too early to tell, but it will certainly be exciting to watch his development first hand.
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