Breaking Down Dwight Howard's Fit with James Harden, Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik

Soon after making the biggest splash of the offseason by signing Dwight Howard away from the Los Angeles Lakers, the Houston Rockets were hit with a barrage of questions about how they would put together their roster. They had signed Omer Asik to be the team's starting center no less than a year prior to the Howard signing, and the move for Howard seemed to relegate the promising Turkish big man to a backup role. 

But that's not exactly how things have played out so far. Rockets coach Kevin McHale has elected to start Howard and Asik together in each of Houston's four games this season. The early returns of Houston's big front line are consistent with what everyone expected: The Rockets have played good defense with Howard and Asik sharing the floor (100.1 points per 100 possessions allowed, per NBA.com), but the offense has struggled to generate points due to strained spacing. The Howard-Asik duo has produced 87.1 points per 100 possessions in 47 minutes of floor time, compared to 117.3 all other Houston lineups have racked up in 145 minutes. 

Howard seems to be meshing just fine with Houston's starting backcourt; Houston has scored at a rate of 107.5 points per 100 possessions when Howard and James Harden have been on the floor together and 110.6 points per 100 possessions when Howard's shared the floor with Jeremy Lin.

However, in the 39 minutes all four of those players have been on the floor together, the scoring rate has plummeted all the way to 87.3 points per 100 possessions. (All per-100-possession stats courtesy of NBA.com.)

What's happening? For one, Howard post-ups aren't resulting in good looks. According to mySynergySports, 27 Rockets possessions had ended with Howard post-ups entering Monday's game with the Los Angeles Clippers (including derived offense, meaning any field goal that resulted from a direct pass or hockey assist-style pass), and those plays produced just 0.566 points per possession, an anemic output. 

When Howard catches in the post, he, Harden, Lin and Asik have often looked like this when they share the floor. Look at how much Houston is straining to generate spacing here. Chandler Parsons is stationed five feet outside the three-point line. Asik is stashed in the short corner on the weak side, where he's almost a complete non-threat to do anything, while Howard's facing the opposite direction. And when Lin cuts through the lane to the weak side, the entire defense collapses on Howard. They're perfectly OK ignoring Asik and Lin and leaving them open for jumpers.

Watch what happens in the video above after Lin enters the ball to Howard in the post. Jamaal Tinsley leaves Lin to double Howard, letting him run free to the weak-side wing. And when Howard drives baseline, Enes Kanter feels perfectly fine leaving Asik in the weak short corner because he knows he's not a threat to make a jumper. The result is a forced reverse layup that Kanter blocks. 

Luckily for the Rockets, pick-and-rolls with Harden or Lin and one of the two big men are creating much better scoring opportunities. Consider these two Harden-Asik pick-and-rolls against the Utah Jazz. 

In the first video, a Parsons-Howard high pick-and-roll doesn't generate a shot, but it flows directly into a Harden-Asik side pick-and-roll, and the offense looks a whole lot like last year's. Both defenders follow Harden around the screen, and Lin's defender collapses into the paint to guard against an Asik roll to the rim, typical of pick-and-roll defense around the league. At the time Harden winds up to make a pass, check out the court spacing. 

Lin makes a catch and has a wide open corner three. The shot doesn't go down, but the process is there. That's a good look for a player shooting 45.4 percent from three so far this season after shooting 40.0 percent in his last 33 games of the 2012-13 campaign. 

The Harden-Asik pick-and-roll in the second video nets an even better shot for the Rockets. Asik gets a better piece of Harden's man with the screen this time around, which lets Harden attack Kanter off the dribble. Kanter's a good defender, but he's no match for Harden with a head of steam. The bearded shooting guard easily gets into the lane, and when he does, Derrick Favors is reluctant to leave Howard underneath the basket. No matter what choice he made there, Favors was giving up an easy look. He just chose a Harden layup over a Howard dunk. 

Change the principals and it's more of the same. Utah has Kanter hang back near the free-throw line when Lin comes racing around a Howard screen at the top of the key, trying to bait Lin into a jumper. But Lin doesn't take the bait; instead, he attacks the space Kanter gifts him. By changing pace and drawing both his and Howard's defender, Lin is able to open an easy dunk for Howard.

This type of aggression is why Lin's drives had generated more points per game entering Monday's slate than any other player's in the league, per SportVu player tracking data released by the NBA. 

Even when teams more aggressively guard Lin as he comes around the screen, as Charlotte does here, Lin's aggression nets a dunk. While teams are afraid to give Harden space on the pick-and-roll, for fear he'll nail an open jumper, they can't give Lin space either if he's just going to take it and attack.

Passive pick-and-roll defense works if you can bait a poor outside shooter into taking inefficient long jumpers; once he uses the space against you, it's a failing strategy. But you can't rush out at Lin if he's going to beat your defender to the corner, either. 

The Lin-Harden-Asik-Howard foursome is going to see a lot of time together this season. While the early returns have been mixed, there are encouraging signs. Pick-and-rolls featuring Harden or Lin with either Howard or Asik are consistently generating open looks at the basket. In time, Howard post-ups should as well. It will just take time, patience and creativity.

Jared Dubin works for Bloomberg Sports, writes and edits for the ESPN TrueHoop Network sites Hardwood Paroxysm and HoopChalk, is a freelance contributor to Grantland, and is coauthor of We'll Always Have Linsanity.