Dwight Howard at PF

[Legends66NBA7]

Dennys is the nastiest. shittiest restaurant chain in USA. Everything is either undercooked, overcooked or plain disgusting. Their food tastes like it's 2 months past expiration date. My local Dennys is always empty and looks/smells like the most depressing place in the city. Only time I ate there I felt like throwing up and burning the place down. Just cook at home, ANYTHING is better than their garbage.

The Denny's I've been to in my area isn't bad. I love their appetizers, it gets pretty hectic around the night time, though, especially on the weekend and you go in at 2-3 in the morning.

[Mr Exlax]

We're only going to do it in the Preseason I would think. Working with Hakeem and McHale though he might develop a pretty reliable midrange jumper. I mean, he's got that ugly ass elbow one down pat.

[ZenMaster]

I dont think I know all. I think I know more than most on most basketball issues because I care to investigate them.

If I seem jaded it probably is because ive heard too many "That wont work!" claims about things that on reflection were dumb to question to begin with.

Ive heard "Can a scoring champion win the title? and "Can a team that takes a lot of threes really win in the playoffs" and on and on.

I was on ISH reading dumb arguments about how guys like Peja and Rashard
Lewis would be the best non bigs the league and AI and Kobe wouldnt be able to maintain elite status once zones were allowed.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand...the golden age of swingmen quickly followed and Kobe and AI had 30ppg seasons before they even removed handchecking.

Always someone asking "Will this work?

or questioning how some great player is gonna cope with some percieved hardship. And every time...its a non story in retrospect.

When I see laughing emoticons in posts acting like a team that is likely to be great wont work....because of two very good bigs on the floor together for 190 seconds at a time...

Cant help but think back to decades of bullshit arguments over nothing.

People making things out to be more of a problem than they are like a topic on Rose having too loose a handle to beat NBa players off the dribble. Or reading about Lebrons broken mechanics likely having him out of the league in three years when ISH was watching him in the summer leaagues.

Its always....every time...a lot of talk about nothing. Barring injury or the impossible to predict most teams that should be good...are good.

The Rockets will be good. How good? We will see. But they are a good team even if Asik cant shoot and Howard cant either and they end up getting time together.

The rest is just more "This will never work" talk that almost always ends up being a lot of talk about a non issue.

They will play together a bit, the Rockets will probably win like 53 games, or 58 if they gel quickly, they will get knocked out by the clippers and this topic may get bumped with a "So what happened kblaze?!?!?!" because the Clippers have a 4 with range in Blake...who just uses it to miss jumpers the other team loves to see him take....so it doesnt spread the floor too well anyway.

Then next year Nash will be rumored to join the Nets and I can hear the 2014 version of the "Kidd and Parker in one backcourt? Lol. Pop is an IDIOT" topics I heard when the spurs were after him and people wanted to know how basketball works with 2 natural points in at once. As if they had not seen it 400 times.

I dont know if im jaded. But ive gotten a little tired of "How can that work?" topics when ive seen power forwards at the point, 2 guards play the 4, an average team beat 67 win team playing 2 points and 3 swingmen, and the pistons own teams with a lineup of 7 seven footers getting out of the paint for a 60% shooting 6'4'' small forward to operate on the block.

The game just isnt that rigid. The idea that anything cant work is just laughable to me. At least anything as often seen as....2 non shooting bigs getting a few minutes together.

There is no rule requiring conformity. And while I always appreciate a real basketball topic...

I just feel like a little more non conforming is needed to be asking "Can this work". Not that thats the question you asked. But it seems many are of the opinion that it cant. and I just dont get it.

And the moment the rockets win by 22 with Dwight and asik together forcing bad shots over the top of them as the other team fails to make a run to cut it close....its gonna be obvious that it was odd to question in the first place.

I might be mistaken but I believe I've heard you use that one yourself in an old discussion about TS% and missing mid-range game of modern NBA.

[Kblaze8855]

So. Think its fairly obvious that the Rockets can use them together just fine. Even without the all important "spacing".

And I say that knowing they are about to play the Clippers and be pick/popped to death by Paul and Blake but I don't care.

Ive watched some of every game they have played. That two centers lineup shuts down the lane and they have been fine on offense too.

Only question is will they win in the playoffs....which...was the only question no matter what lineup they put out there. They were destined to be good to great. How anyone thought Asik/Dwight together could ruin that is beyond me.

And again...I am prepared for laughing emoticons quoting this post when Blake is left open for 11 midrange jumpers.

But hes gonna miss 7 anyway.

[Kblaze8855]

Little article on it:

The issue for the [COLOR=#0066cc]Rockets[/COLOR] was how coach Kevin McHale would use Howard with [COLOR=#0066cc]Omer Asik[/COLOR], the big man Houston signed to $25 million in the summer of 2012. Neither player stretches the floor on offense, nor is either comfortable guarding smaller, mobile fours on the perimeter. But so far, the two have played together and it's working.
There was no question that the combination would dominate the glass and in three games that's exactly what has happened. In 34 minutes on the floor together, the Howard-Asik combo is rebounding at a 57.4 percent rate, per [COLOR=#0066cc]NBA.com[/COLOR] stats.

all your rebound are belong to us
— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) [COLOR=#0066cc]October 31, 2013[/COLOR]

Well, not all of them but yes, a lot of rebounds belong to the Rockets. Howard leads the way, pulling in 17 per game and Asik is collecting 11.3. Houston, as a team, is second in the NBA in rebounding at 48.3 per contest.
The pairing's defense is a bit of a wildcard as neither player is comfortable guarding smaller, mobile forwards on the perimeter, but so far that hasn't been too much of a problem. Through three games, the Howard-Asik combo has a defensive rating of 87.9, per [COLOR=#0066cc]NBA.com[/COLOR] stats.
Rockets small forward [COLOR=#0066cc]Chandler Parsons[/COLOR] said after Saturday night's 104-93 win against the [COLOR=#0066cc]Jazz[/COLOR] that Houston has a chance to be great defensively with Howard and Asik. (h/t [COLOR=#0066cc]Fox Sports Southwest[/COLOR]):

"We have the potential to be a very good defensive team. With those two big guys behind us, it makes us want to be more aggressive and we were out in passing lanes, disrupting their offense and making them uncomfortable," Parsons said

The offense has stagnated a bit with the two on the floor as teams are able to collapse the floor and suck away spacing. That's because neither Howard nor Asik has the ability to stretch the floor with an outside shot.
Houston may also run into the same problem that the [COLOR=#0066cc]Clippers[/COLOR] face wherein its two big guys can't finish games because of poor free throw shooting. Neither player is even close to an average shooter from the charity stripe and it'd be tough for McHale to leave them in late to close out games.
But the combination is working on defense and is murdering the glass. Houston is cooking on all cylinders early as it has won its first three games of the season. It's a weird thing to see two centers listed in the starting lineup but if it keeps working, then McHale will keep using it. We better get used to it.

They are rebounding all over....but Dwight is straight up robbing teammates in position. Yells out "I got it!" 5 times a night when someone else had position first. And they just bow down to him....

[RoseCity07]

I remember Aldridge's eyes would light up when Howard was guarding him. I think a lot of good PF's like to use their quickness on Howard. It's a good move for the Rockets because Howard is probably faster than Asik, and thus more able to keep up with elite PFs. I bet the Rockets will play Howard at center against a team with a weak PF and a more skilled big man.

[LosBulls]

Denny's blows. I go more for proximity and convenience. And there's not many places open 24/7. I know the chick who's worked right now's shift, because she's been working it for years, and out of hundreds of waitresses she's hands down the best I ever had. The french toast is usually fine (an edible corporate take on what french toast should be) but tonight is was not even cooked fully (isolated incident I'm sure). some new cook apparently, who was also the manager? is that common? whatever. They were cool about it. there's other options in a city as big (and fat) as san antonio, about a thousand taquerias, but yea cooking at home is the way to go.

Different Denny's variate. Some are horrible but the one by where I live at or well most of the Denny's in the Chicago area are very good.

You can tell apart the good ones from the bad ones by just looking at the amount of people that go there.

[SCdac]

Did this experiment fail already?

[Kblaze8855]

They say they arent trading anyone so we will have to see how the next several months go.

[SCdac]

They say they arent trading anyone so we will have to see how the next several months go.

I'd like to see it work.... or get Asik on the Spurs!

Dwight should be improving his range and skills, regardless of his team.

I don't understand why he's not. (other than maybe not being capable)

A Howard/Asik pairing is questionable particularly if there's no chemistry.

Still plenty of season left, though.