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#3 Dwight Howard
Howard is a 6'11 center who was once a franchise player. He was drafted 1st overall in the 2004 NBA draft by the Orlando Magic. In his 14th season, Howard has piled up a number of distinguishing career moments.
He was an 8-time All-Star, a 5-time rebounding leader in the NBA, a 3-time Defensive Player of the year, NBA Slam Dunk Contest winner in 2008 and a 2-time blocks leader. Howard was extremely athletic. He used that athleticism to terrorize offensive attackers averaging 2 blocks per game for his career.
If Howard is on the floor, the backboards belonged to him. He averages 12.7 rebounds for his career and had his best rebounding season in 2012 averaging 14.5 rebounds a game.
He was never really a shooter at the offensive end and still is not. However, Howard used his powerful 265 pound 6'11 frame to dominate around the basket. Often the roller in the pick and roll, Dwight Howard would finish lob passes above the rim.
When isolated on the low post block, he would overpower his defender. His high 58.3% field goal percentage is largely a result of his work under the basket in the offensive zone. Howard has also played in 95 career playoff games for Orlando, the Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets and Atlanta.
During the 2011-2012 season, Howard averaged 20.4 points and 14.5 rebounds per game developed back problems with a herniated disc. Howard required surgery to fix the problem and would only play in 54 games for Orlando.
He was traded in the summer of 2012 to the Los Angeles Lakers and would proceed to have a strange season. He did dominate on the glass recording an average of 12.4 rebounds per game, which was the best in the NBA. However, his offense always limited to post dominance was slightly off In Los Angeles.
Playing with Kobe Bryant, Howard felt he was not getting the ball enough. His scoring average dipped to 17.1 points per game his lowest scoring average since his third season. Howard's field goal percentage of 57.8% was second in the league.
Kobe Bryant and Howard just didn't understand how to play with each other and Kobe stated the following about the situation:
"I've tried to go out of my way to get him the ball," Bryant told Y! Sports. "Sometimes I end up looking like an idiot, because I get up in the air, I've got a shot, but I try to find him. But he thinks I'm going to shoot, so his back is turned. I'm trying to think about getting him the ball a lot – take care of him as much as I possibly can. It takes me out of rhythm a little bit, but I'm fine with that. If that's going to help our team, I'm more than willing to do that."
Just several months removed from his back surgery Howard was struggling in Los Angeles. He was not effective offensively and his defensive prowess came and went. He was simply inconsistent.
Since that one season in Los Angeles, Howard has kind of bounced around the league. He has always been able to run the floor and defend but teams just do not isolate and set up post players anymore. Howard acknowledged this about his time in Houston.
“I haven’t had a system where I can be who I am since I was in Orlando. The fact that I played with a Kobe [Bryant], a James [Harden], and they were ball-dominant, affected me. But I’ve been in this system before, and I know how dominant I can be. I think I’m smarter now, and that is going to allow me to use my quickness and explosiveness in a better way.”.
After Los Angeles, Howard signed, as a free agent, in Houston. He spent three years there missing 59 games over three years due to injuries. Howard's scoring average dropped to 13.7 points per game in 2015-16 his last season in Houston.
Howard then signed a three year $70 million contract to play in Atlanta where he played one season averaging just 13.5 points per game. He remained a rebounding machine at 12.7 per game. Howard was then traded by the Hawks, in 2017, to the Charlotte Hornets where his scoring average took an upswing to 16.6 points a game.
The 2017-18 season in Charlotte was great for Howard. He was able to play in 81 regular season games. Seemingly healthy, this was the highest number of games he had played since 2009-10 when he played all 82 games.
This past summer for the third straight year, at age 33, Howard was traded to the Brooklyn Nets for Timofey Mozgov, Hamidou Diallo, a 2021 second-round draft pick and cash considerations. The Nets waived Howard and he signed on July 12th, 2018 with the Washington Wizards.
Dwight Howard's career is currently in question. After missing all of training camp, preseason and the Wizards first 7 games, Howard has played in 9 games this season. However, a sore back which kept him out of the start of the season now requires spinal surgery and he will be re-evaluated in 2-3 months. An player who has been an NBA Finalist and an All Star it has been a long strange 15 years for Dwight Howard. One thing is clear, when healthy, he finds ways to produce.
