Josh Howard: The Season So Far

A few weeks before the season started, I wrote an article depicting the individual off-the-court troubles of Mavericks' forward Josh Howard and Bulls' guard Ben Gordon.

We're still not all that far into the season, but allow me to detail how each individual situation worked out and how each player has dealt with it on the court.
Today, we take a look at Josh Howard.

Dallas is Doomed. No way around it, no second-guessing, the ship is sinking down there in Texas. Despite victories in their two previous games (including a great overtime showing against the Knicks), they are still a long way from the success of previous seasons.

A miserable 4-7 record (2-7 before facing the Knicks and Bobcats) is what they have been left with.

There has been controversy off the court as well. Dirk Nowitzki has begun calling out teammates. Jerry Stackhouse has been "Marburied" (coincidentally, my new favorite saying) and the owner is facing extremely serious legal action.

Still, there are embers in the fading fire. Jason Terry has been playing well. After a slow start, Dirk seems to be heating up. And, despite a dismal summer, Josh Howard has returned to good form.

Last week, Josh missed two games due to a wrist injury, which has apparently lit the fire in him. Since missing those two games, he has been averaging 24.5 points and is shooting 45.5 percent.

The bad karma surrounding Josh in the summer has been almost forgotten. As I wrote in the previous article, Josh basically disappeared last year after the Jason Kidd trade, and he quickly became the subject of trade rumors himself.

After the first round loss to the Hornets, it was obvious that some sort of shake-up would be needed if the Mavs were to continue their dominance of the decade.

Josh didn't help his case when off-the-court issues (marijuana use and his commentary on the National Anthem) surfaced.

However, the shakeup never came, minus the coaching change and adding Gerald Green. The Mavs headed into the season practically the same as they ended the last one.

It still remains to be seen if a shake-up will occur, though it seems a lot more likely that Josh will finish the season down in Texas. However, Dirk is leading the way and is undoubtedly the main man. There is no way the Mavs are winning anything with Howard.

If he were playing in the East, he would probably have a good shot at another all-star berth.

I'm not particularly a fan of Josh Howard. It's not that I've really got anything against him, he's just not one of my favorites.

I have never been a fan of Dallas. I can't say exactly why, but everyone has a team he/she doesn't like, and mine happens to be Dallas.

They've always been good (up until the playoffs at least) and I've respected that, even though I was praying Dirk would never get his hands on that M.V.P trophy, it was hard to argue that he didn't deserve it.

But, Dallas is doomed. Even if they do manage to scrape into this year's playoffs, which is highly unlikely, by the time the all-star game visits Dallas, I'm willing to bet it's not going to be going well.

Six of their players are thirty or over (and they are all big parts of the rotation) and the team hasn't been past the first round in two years.

They do have a chance to turn it around. Josh and Dirk will have to lead the way, Jason Terry will need to keep his level of play up, the bench will need to improve, and the new coach must show some leadership.

The ship hasn't quite sunk, but there's a pretty big leak.

Josh Howard, at least, is concentrating on the basketball once more, and is trying to stop that leak.