Five Reasons You Won't Want To See an Angry Dwight Howard This Year
Dwight Howard has vowed "no more Mr. Nice Guy" this season and has promised to turn up his intensity, and play with a much rougher image and purpose.
What does that mean for the rest of the league? With Dwight Howard already dominating, will a focused and determined Dwight mean doom and peril for all the other 29 teams?
At times, Howard's play is dominant in every sense, ripping down game-altering rebounds, changing clutch shots, and starting fast breaks with a block are all aspects Dwight already excels at. This slideshow will take a look at five reasons why the rest of the league should be in awe and fear of Dwight minus the happy kid demeanor.
Dwight Howard Will Go After Every Shot
1 of 5
In Game 3 against the Bobcats, an offensively frustrated Howard blocked seven shots. While offensively, he was hindered by the hack-a-Dwight approach, he changed the game on the defensive end.
Bobcat players became intimidated to even go to the basket, and the lane closed up when they did.
Dwight carried the team that night from the defensive end, as he did so often all season. When Dwight is challenging every shot, scoring on the Magic can be near impossible.
A Focused Howard Can Avoid Silly Fouls and Technicals
2 of 5
Once you remove Dwight's playful insistence with the referees that he never committed a foul, you have a player that is going to pick up less technicals, and stay on the floor longer.
As if 34 minutes of Dwight wasn't enough, do you really want to see 38? Miami? Anyone?
Dwight Howard is in the physical shape to torment a team for nearly 48 minutes a night. With an angry Dwight, you're less likely to see him pick up silly fouls, and he'll play more minutes.
Dwight Howard Has The Potential To Be a Real Leader
3 of 5
Dwight being more serious means he is ready to take on a larger leadership role. With Jameer Nelson fearlessly taking charge of the Magic, a committed Howard could help them stay focused even better, especially defensively.
If Howard ever wanted to, he could take a Garnett-like approach to defense, verbally calling out shifts and making his teammates that much stronger defensively. Garnett was the last non-Howard player to win the defensive player of the year, and there's no reason why Dwight shouldn't receive the award every year of his prime, except the media likes to give everyone a chance, of course.
Dwight Howard Will Continue To Work on His Free Throws
4 of 5
Every player seems to have an Achilles' heel, and we all know what Dwight's is.
To avoid the frustration of opponents hacking him, he needs to start connecting on a higher percentage of his free throws. There is no incentive to play him straight up when he's hitting less than 65 percent of them.
For Dwight to become an elite offensive player, averaging 70 percent from the stripe would go a long ways towards that happening. There is no reason why he couldn't shoot 70 percent from the line, and until he bears down and does it, he will have to be avoided during crunch time.
Dwight Won't Back Down From Challenging The League's Best
5 of 5
He's already went toe-to-toe with LeBron James and has taken him down. Dwight has absolutely no fear of there being a better basketball player than him, and he wants to be the greatest big man ever.
What's stopping him?
With a 40-plus inch vertical and the body of a Greek god, Dwight has every opportunity to be the dominant big man of this generation. They said Shaquille O'Neal was a once in a lifetime talent, but Dwight is too.
They don't come this defensive-minded and dominant very often, and Howard has drawn comparisons to Bill Russell. I'd be interested to hear what Bill Russell would have to say to that comparison, but one thing's for sure, he probably wouldn't take offense to it.
Howard is doing for the Magic what Russell did for his Celtics. It's just a matter of pairing Dwight with another elite superstar.
Certainly when Vince Carter's contract expires after this year, the Magic will have a legitimate chance to pair him with someone, perhaps Chris Paul, maybe Deron Williams.
All that matters is that the player is a legit second fiddle, which the Magic do not currently have. Only one thing remains clear: Dwight is on his way towards being something very special, and it's only a matter of time before he is able to hoist a banner to the rafters of the Amway Center.
