Dwight Howard is poison. He's been poison to every team he's played for. He's very good at certain things, but he's probably only half the player he could've been if it wasn't for his poor attitude. He's never led a team to the promised land, and there's no reason to think he'll change his tune now.
He carried a pretty crappy Magic team to the Finals.
That's a very good point.
He also transformed the Rockets from nobody to somebody. They were pretty crap before Howard came over and nobody took them very seriously. Last year they made quite a bit of noise in the playoffs.
In fact if you think about it, other than the Lakers superteam (which was a disaster) Howard really hasn't played on any bad teams. All of his Orlando teams were competitive, and the Rockets have been competitive pretty much the whole time he's been there.
Hard to argue with that.
I don't think Orlando would've gotten past Boston in the conference semis if KG had been playing. As it was, it took the Magic 7 games to beat the Celtics.
I never intended to suggest that Howard's teams haven't been good—his raw talent alone is going to be a big help to any team—but he's had a lot of attitude problems throughout his career, and I don't think he's done much to improve as a player—he's never developed a midrange shot, or developed a post game beyond an ugly running half-hook. I agree that he's (seemingly) been better in Houston, but I just don't think his head's in the right place.
I agree that he's been (at least seemingly) a better presence in Houston,
The thing is though, he's never really needed a mid-range shot or a post game.
He is 4th all-time in FG%, 25th All-Time in FT attempts. The guy averages 18 PPG for his career on only 11 FGA, which is absolutely ridiculous.
That's the value of Dwight.
He doesn't need a million plays called for him, or the entire offense run through him, in order for him to be productive and efficient on offense. You can run your game as you please, and he will get his points in the flow of the offense. He's not going to shoot you out of games Kobe/Westbrook style by chucking up contested long range jumpers all night.
He is the perfect complimentary star - run your offense though Isaiah Thomas as your go to guy, and Dwight will quietly get his points off P&R, offensive rebounds and hustle points.
Then on the other end of the floor, he will make every team that faces us think long and hard about whether they REALLY want to try drive into the paint.
Plus it would be nice to be on the other end of all those elbows for a chance - let us be the ones dealing them instead of being the ones taking them lol