lettuce be reality, this is the first time anyone's actually watched Dwight play

[Lebron23]

Dwight is still a good NBA player. It sucks that he's being under-utilized in LA.

[Whoah10115]

Shaqattack shut this thread down. People act like there isn't any video footage of Dwight from previous seasons, where he's CLEARLY playing differently. It's so obvious.

There is no footage!

[ShaqAttack3234]

There is no footage!

Unlike Nixon, they will destroy the tapes!

[Whoah10115]

Unlike Nixon, they will destroy the tapes!

[SCdac]

Offensively what Howard is missing is fundamental offense to fall back on and natural finesse around the basket. If this is any indication of what Dwight will be start to become a few years from now (at 31 years old), it's quite alarming IMO. This is a player who has regressed before. So much of his game relies on athleticism, not necessarily world-class moves and finishes. He's not the playmaking type and his dribbling is average at best. He has no reliable jump shot whatsoever, which is an overall weakness (not necessarily causing the Lakers to lose), and it's getting to the point where he might forget about improving that aspect of his game altogether. He took 120+ shots from 10 feet-and-out in 2011, but that shrunk to about 20 shots last year. From that distance this season, Howard has shot horribly. He doesn't have the lift and normal explosiveness of that past few years, but, clearly his game is limited with or without it (much like other great players)... Regardless of his weaknesses, I've been pretty adamant in other threads that he needs more touches, more lobs, more cuts to basket with multiple screens, etc. It doesn't have to be pure post ups (like we saw so much in 2011). From a basketball standpoint, it's clear that's how the Lakers will be successful. Kobe, and D'Antoni's system alike, don't seem to have the patience for Howard's back-to-the-basket game. To quote Andrew Bynum, "he's going to have to get accustomed to playing with Kobe and not touching the ball every single play". And that's the truth.

[taucesays]

Notice the spacing? This is what Dwight needs to operate. The Lakers don't have the shooters to make that happen but that's beside the point. The Lakers proved that Dwight+shooters isn't a winning formula when they spanked Orlando in the finals. Now we see Dwight in an offense that isn't tailor-made for him and he's getting stripped or fouled before the shot.