Here's how well prime Dwight Howard's scoring scaled up

[Im Still Ballin]

One common criticism of Dwight Howard was that he couldn't scale up his scoring. Shaq would always talk about how he should be putting up 28+ ppg or some arbitrary number.

The numbers players average don't really matter as much as some think. It's a team game and the goal is to win as a team. A couple of baskets a night is the difference between 20 and 24. It wasn't in Dwight's nature to be selfish and take a lot of shots.

But how well did Dwight play when he took on a greater scoring load? Did his efficiency crater under the extra burden? Did his turnovers increase? Well, I've got the answers for you below.


Dwight Howard played 100 regular season games with 15+ field-goal attempts between the 2007-08 and 2011-12 seasons.

- 27.0 ppg, 15.7 rpg, 1.5 apg, 1.2 spg, 2.6 bpg, 3.1 topg
- 58.2% FG, 59.9% FT, 66.71% TS


Dwight Howard played 15 regular season games with 20+ field-goal attempts between the 2007-08 and 2011-12 seasons.

- 34.6 ppg, 15.2 rpg, 1.5 apg, 1.6 spg, 2.8 bpg, 3.1 topg
- 62.1% FG, 59.1% FT, 65.04% TS

Dwight was actually able to increase his scoring efficiency while decreasing his turnovers. It's quite impressive if you ask me.

[RRR3]

Players shoot more when they are going off. I think that probably explains most of the data here. Dwight is hardly a guy looking to get rid of the ball once he catches it, so are you suggesting his coaches underutilized him? Dwight was a great player, but he wasn't capable of scoring like Shaq. Consider how rare (comparatively) 25+ PPG scorers were during Dwight's prime years. It seems shocking now but in 2013, Brook Lopez finished 10th in the NBA in PPG with an average of 19.4 points. Dwight also wasn't elite at creating his own opportunities by any means, so you couldn't just constantly dump it to him like you could with Shaq.

[Micku]

One common criticism of Dwight Howard was that he couldn't scale up his scoring. Shaq would always talk about how he should be putting up 28+ ppg or some arbitrary number.

The numbers players average don't really matter as much as some think. It's a team game and the goal is to win as a team. A couple of baskets a night is the difference between 20 and 24. It wasn't in Dwight's nature to be selfish and take a lot of shots.

But how well did Dwight play when he took on a greater scoring load? Did his efficiency crater under the extra burden? Did his turnovers increase? Well, I've got the answers for you below.





Dwight was actually able to increase his scoring efficiency while decreasing his turnovers. It's quite impressive if you ask me.

The funniest thing about that is that he did ask for the ball. Demanded it. And he didn't do anything with it a lot of the time. He did that with the Magic and the Lakers. There was a report saying that he was jumping up and down complaining about how many shots he took in the lockerroom.



After their 95-83 loss to the Bulls on Monday, Dwight Howard pointed to the stat sheet ( courtesy of the Orange County Register):

"Look at the stat sheet," Howard said. "Look at the stat sheet." Asked how he can get more shots, Howard said: "It's simple. Play inside-out."

Asked if it is out of his power, he said quietly: "Just continue to play. Not get frustrated. As hard as it is, can't get frustrated."


https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2013/1/22/3903902/dwight-howard-la-lakers-mike-dantoni

I believed he did that with the Rockets too. He averaged about 13 shots with the Magic and about 10 shots with the Lakers. With the Lakers, he came back too early. It hinder him.

But for the people who watched the games, he would get some touches. He just pass it out. He was never aggressive with it the ball. I remember the fans complain about it a lot. With Stan Van Gundy, he would utilize him with the pick and roll a lot. That's how he got a bunch of points and generate the offense within the team. But giving him the ball to go work in the post was weird to me. He did have a few moves, but he never was in the attack mode. Sometimes he acted like he could be like a Shaq or Hakeem. He wasn't. He never was able to do that in the post consistently like those guys. If he did score more, he would be a better fit with the Lakers. Kobe probably didn't have to go too hard and injure himself. But he didn't have a good coach that suit his play style with Mike D'Antoni.

It is true that you don't have to go ham (pts) in order to contribute to the team. You could be how Duncan was or something. But he wasn't as good as a passer as Duncan. He probably should've went to the GSW instead of the Rockets after the Lakers. The GSW would look wildly different, I do think that would be more efficient with his play style. Especially with the pick and rolls. The shooting that the GSW had, even back then, would be great for him.

Him scoring a bunch of pts is cool. How he got those shots is important. Too bad he couldn't replicate it consistently.

[Iverson3]

Dwight Howard should have been a top 75 player of all time

[Micku]

Another thing, I remember it got so bad that Shaq and Barkley had to go on TNT and be like, "Where is Howard learning how to post up? This is how you do it."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9JfeLnbyUw



Shaq further explains how to be a better scorer as a big man. Aim for 7 pts a quarter, but try to go for easy buckets. It sounds simple, but Howard doesn't do it.

[Micku]

Dwight Howard should have been a top 75 player of all time

He should've. Amazing that he didn't.

[Full Court]

In another thread, someone was trying to say that peak Dwight Howard wasn't elite offensively.

Silliness.

[ArbitraryWater]

that doesnt really make sense.

its not like he simply was told to shoot it more here or just chose to.


he got it going and/or got easier/better looks that the majority of the time werent available.

[iamgine]

With Dwight, you can't really go by FGA.

Cause in one game he'd have 15 FGA and 5 FTA.

In another game he'd have 13 FGA and 16 FTA.

These fluctuations are common with him.

[Im Still Ballin]

You'd be surprised to find out how much the post-up was a part of prime Dwight's game. Here are some Synergy numbers from his highest-scoring season:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dl3CslGUcAE2WK5?format=jpg&name=medium

The post-up constituted 58.7% of his offense. 50.3% FG, with a strong free-throw rate, and a 13.9% turnover rate. Good for 0.928 PPP - about in line with 2011 Orlando's 8th-ranked half-court offense. He wasn't a good passer but it would've added a little more to his post-up PPP. For reference, his overall half-court offense went from 1.005 to 1.095 with assists added.

That doesn't even include hockey assists. Orlando got a lot of assists swinging the ball to the weakside from Dwight Howard post-up plays.

Let's assume 58.7% of Dwight's 107 assists are from his post-up possessions. That gives us 62.81 assists from post-up plays. Then we multiply that by the average points per assist in the half-court (PPA) which is 2.578. That comes out to 161.92 total points.

946 post-up points + 161.92 post-up assist points = 1,107.92

1,107.92 points generated from Dwight Howard post-up plays / 1,019 total post-up plays = 1.087

That's it: 1.087 PPP. Pretty damn good. Elite half-court offense; top five most likely. Doesn't even include hockey assists and assists that don't count as hockey assists. Not even the off-ball gravity.

Conclusion? He was a strong post-up player. Anyone saying otherwise isn't looking at the numbers.

- 50.3% FG
- Elite foul pressure
- Post-up game segued into lobs, cuts, dump-offs, and offensive rebound tip-ins/put-backs
- Collapsed defense with off-ball gravity and created open shots for teammates
- Most likely resulted in a top-five half-court offense

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dl3HIuAV4AEhvSn?format=jpg&name=large

What's surprising and disappointing was how low his PnR roll man frequency was. Pretty much the highest PPP in the league and he was only doing it 6.8% of the time. There were no doubt guys doing double and more than that. He should be doing like at least 15%; he did 17.8% last year on LA. Maybe if he came up in this league, he'd be doing 20%+. Play the right way. His cutting frequency was 30.8% as well.

I still think prime Dwight gets a big shooting percentage boost in today's league. By virtue of an increase in PnR roll man and cutting alone he'd see a massive benefit.

[ralph_i_el]

Sure, but the nights that he took a bunch of shots were also probably the nights where they were facing teams with no interior defense. Of course he'd put up big numbers in those situations.

[Im Still Ballin]

Sure, but the nights that he took a bunch of shots were also probably the nights where they were facing teams with no interior defense. Of course he'd put up big numbers in those situations.


that doesnt really make sense.

its not like he simply was told to shoot it more here or just chose to.


he got it going and/or got easier/better looks that the majority of the time werent available.


With Dwight, you can't really go by FGA.

Cause in one game he'd have 15 FGA and 5 FTA.

In another game he'd have 13 FGA and 16 FTA.

These fluctuations are common with him.

A lot of speculation here with no evidence to back up said claims.