I was talking about this with some of the guys in the chat room earlier tonight. One of the regulars on this message board was nice enough to send me a videotape with the USA-Serbia game from the world championships two summers ago. Milos Vujanic started for Serbia in that game. To be honest it was kind of difficulty again a feel for his style from that game. With Vlade Divac, Stojokovic, Jaric, and several other high-profile Serbian players on the team Vujanic was clearly not the focus on offense. Of course that was also a couple of years ago. He hit his only three-point attempt I believe. He showed good ballhandling skills and played pretty decent defense.
The third game on the tape was the Dwight Howard game that was on ESPN a coup a few months ago. He was facing another top high school big man, Randolph Morris. I thought Howard showed that he has good ballhandling skills. He is already a very good passer for a big man. He showed good hands when receiving the ball in the low post despite the fact that he was often triple teamed. I liked that he kept the ball above his head and went straight to the basket instead of bringing down below his waist like young big men have a tendency to do.
Dwight Howard is very long. It's hard to get a good feel for his height against a bunch of high schoolers, but my guess is that he is every bit of 6'11". It looks like he has very long arms, and they aren't as thin as linguine either. I'll bet he was 240-250 pounds at the time of that game.
Now for the bad. From the get-go he was trotting up and down the court. He honestly looked like he was putting forth a minimal and for most of the game particularly on defense. In all fairness he get into early foul trouble when Morris posted him up a few times. I think Howard either fouled Morris or allowed him to score every time Morris caught the ball down near the paint. At one point the ball was loose around his feet and he barely attempted to bend over to pick it up. I definitely did not like his effort in the game, especially considering he knew how many NBA scouts in general managers would be there. I mean he was playing in front of legends like Jerry West and Pat Riley for gods sake.
I saw one or two of Kwame Brown's high school games and saw Amare Stoudemire in McDonald's All-American game. I was much, much more impressed with the those guys than I was Howard. I also think both of them move much more quickly than Howard. He took a couple of three-point shots, but he didn't make either of them.
Overall, Dwight Howard did not impress me as the kind of guy is going to come right in and play great basketball. He looks like he is at least a few years away from really contributing. Based on the game I saw he would foul out of NBA game faster than Alton Ford.
Joe Mama
The third game on the tape was the Dwight Howard game that was on ESPN a coup a few months ago. He was facing another top high school big man, Randolph Morris. I thought Howard showed that he has good ballhandling skills. He is already a very good passer for a big man. He showed good hands when receiving the ball in the low post despite the fact that he was often triple teamed. I liked that he kept the ball above his head and went straight to the basket instead of bringing down below his waist like young big men have a tendency to do.
Dwight Howard is very long. It's hard to get a good feel for his height against a bunch of high schoolers, but my guess is that he is every bit of 6'11". It looks like he has very long arms, and they aren't as thin as linguine either. I'll bet he was 240-250 pounds at the time of that game.
Now for the bad. From the get-go he was trotting up and down the court. He honestly looked like he was putting forth a minimal and for most of the game particularly on defense. In all fairness he get into early foul trouble when Morris posted him up a few times. I think Howard either fouled Morris or allowed him to score every time Morris caught the ball down near the paint. At one point the ball was loose around his feet and he barely attempted to bend over to pick it up. I definitely did not like his effort in the game, especially considering he knew how many NBA scouts in general managers would be there. I mean he was playing in front of legends like Jerry West and Pat Riley for gods sake.
I saw one or two of Kwame Brown's high school games and saw Amare Stoudemire in McDonald's All-American game. I was much, much more impressed with the those guys than I was Howard. I also think both of them move much more quickly than Howard. He took a couple of three-point shots, but he didn't make either of them.
Overall, Dwight Howard did not impress me as the kind of guy is going to come right in and play great basketball. He looks like he is at least a few years away from really contributing. Based on the game I saw he would foul out of NBA game faster than Alton Ford.
Joe Mama
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