A breakdown of Dwight Howard's impact on the Houston Rockets

Most of you would now know about Dwight Howard‘s move from Los Angles Lakers to Houston Rockets. He arrived there amidst chaos, hate (from Lakers fans) and confusion. However, things have now settled down. The Lakers and their fans have mentally prepared themselves for a less than satisfactory season. On the other hand, Houston fans are on cloud nine. After all, they just secured the best defensive centre in the league right now.

Howard is an excellent rebounder and a brilliant shot blocker. He also manages to score around 18 points in addition to 12 rebounds and 3 blocks, every game. His stat line looks amazing. There’s no doubt that he’s a player who would have an immense impact in whichever team he plays for. In this article, we shall have a look at what exactly would be Howard’s impact on the Houston Rockets.

Offense

The Rockets weren’t exactly what you would call a talented offensive team. They had talented offensive players, but as a team they were found lacking in creating offensive plays. They had a plethora of perimeter shooters on whom they could depend on: James Harden, Jeremy Lin, Fransisco Garcia and Carlos Delfino. Also, they went on fast breaks a little too often. They were found lacking in big men down under who could wrestle their way in and score. Their best PF or Centre was Omer Asik and he was not very good offensively.

In short, their offense went something like this: Harden gets into isolation mode, lets the clock dwindle and passes it to a perimeter shooter or decides to go in for a contested shot himself. This made their offense very predictable and had it not been for their ability to run fast breaks, the Rockets would have found it hard to make it to the playoffs.

Howard’s inclusion to the team would solve most of their offensive difficulties. He can score from pretty much anywhere around the paint irrespective of which or how many players are guarding him. This would take the pressure of Harden to go into iso mode and would also free up the perimeter as more often than not, Howard attracts double teaming.

This does not mean that Houston should run the offense through Howard every time down the court. Howard is just not that good an offensive player. However, his addition adds a spark to their offense which the Rockets badly needed last season.

Defense

Houston were 28th in the league last season on points allowed (102 PPG). This was mainly due to the fact that they did not have the best of defenders and their defense suffered proportionally. Last season, their best defender would have been Omer Asik, who is decent, but compared to Howard, the guy looks like Steve Nash.

Defense is by far, the biggest advantage of having D12 in your team. Howard can rebound, block and shut down pretty much anybody in the league. He is after all, a 5-time NBA Defensive player of the year.

Their head coach, Kevin McHale was a legendary Power Forward/ Centre for the Boston Celtics. He was one of the league’s best bigs ever and arguably had some of the best post moves. I can imagine McHale practically salivating at the thought of coaching Howard. Having been a centre, McHale can also understand Howard’s mentality and help him improve his own game while at the same time, utilise his defensive abilities to whip the team’s defense in to a proper shape.

Experience

Howard is 28-years old. While this is considered young, he’s the oldest player in the team after the 39-year-old Marcus Camby. The Rockets team, after the inclusion of Howard, has an average age of 24, which is pretty young. They badly need some guidance from an experienced player and Howard’s 9 year career in the NBA would certainly do them no harm.

Harden and Howard also have the experience of playing in NBA finals and they can probably share a few tips on how to get there with the rest of the team.

Team chemistry

It would be interesting to watch the Harden-Howard collaboration and how far their relationship can carry the team forward.

Howard had this to say on Harden:

Ah man, I’m very excited. I’m very excited. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been in contact with James and we’ve just been talking about developing a good relationship so we can lead that team as far as we can. We’ve been talking about winning championships.

Howard is a gregarious player and will be able to life the mood of the entire team with his humour. This will work only as long as he’s happy (we all remember the change in Howard’s mental state from Orlando to LAL).

Improvement to Howard’s game

The team in Houston closely resembles Howard’s best teams in Orlando. He is a player who depends on perimeter shooters to clear up the paint for him to charge in and dunk in the opponent’s centre. In Orlando, he had Hedo Turkoglu and Rashad Lewis (in addition to Vince Carter for some time). Here, we already saw the list of perimeter shooters who would greatly help Howard develop as an offensive player.

Howard doesn’t play second fiddle. He plays better when he’s “The Man” in the team. The one everybody looks up to when they need someone to step up and lift the team. He’s also happy when he has a shooting guard who helps his game rather than make him wish he had never joined the team in the first place (hello, Kobe Bryant). Harden fits this role perfectly. Having played with players who accumulate the usage percentage (Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook), he knows how to diversify his own game to suit “The Man” of the team.

Howard is going to be coached by Kevin McHale. Also, Hakeem Olajuwon, “The Dream” regularly drops in to check on the Rockets. Working with these greats can only improve Howard’s game. They might also teach him to not be such an emotional player and to attain the right attitude required for a player of his stature.