Dwight Howard

[slinslin]

Okafor is a good athlete...

 

[nowagimp]

no kidding. Okafor is an earth bound creature -- he barely gets off the ground. Too bad there aren't any CHA games on TV, I really want to see how he's blocked so many shots this year. true he has a low blk shots avg over his career, but this year he's averaging 4 bpg.

Stats over seven games dont mean much, the previous 100 games are probably more reliable and he's a 44% FG shooter in those 100 games(horrific % for an inside player). The Bobcats are also 1-6, so I'm not sure that the stats are meaningful as they have been getting abused by teams like Memphis(13 pt loss). I know he's a hustler, but the stats only mean something when games are closely contested. They only had 2 close games, a cleveland win, and a boston(1-6 celtics) loss in OT. The cleveland win was the second of back to backs for cleveland the day after the CAVS beat the spurs, so its unclear how good a win that was, and its their ONLY win. They are about to play the spurs, mavs, heat and piston in the next 7 games, we'll see how Okafor holds up against those teams. Beware of very good players(statwise) on very bad teams, they're not all they seem to be.

 

[PHX 32]

Sorry I think I stumbled into the Orland Magic forums instead of the PHOENIX SUNS forums. Give me a break guys, yea i know howard is a great player but if you seriously think hes better than Amare was, pre-microfracture, I think I might actually throw up. I can't wait til December 11th when Amare just rips this guy apart. You may think I'm stupid but after watching Amare in person last Saturday, the kid is back and hes gonna blow D howard off the map here pretty soon. Just watch.

 

[goldseraph]

Ok - Howard is at LEAST as good as Okafor on offense. He's also younger, taller, less injury prone, and more athletic. Of course Okafor is the more polished player right now, having gone through UConn, but in 5 years Howard will be a Tier 1 player , while Okafor will be Tier 2 or 3 (assuming his injury problems haven't screwed him). Who got you drinking Bobcats kool-aid Slinslin? Did we even get to Okafor shooting 44% @ 15ppg for his career while Howard shoots 53% @ 14 ppg?

 

[slinslin]

Ok - Howard is at LEAST as good as Okafor on offense. He's also younger, taller, less injury prone, and more athletic. Of course Okafor is the more polished player right now, having gone through UConn, but in 5 years Howard will be a Tier 1 player , while Okafor will be Tier 2 or 3 (assuming his injury problems haven't screwed him). Who got you drinking Bobcats kool-aid Slinslin? Did we even get to Okafor shooting 44% @ 15ppg for his career while Howard shoots 53% @ 14 ppg?

Who cares about career. Last season Okafor was injured pretty much this season he is healthy and averaging 20 ppg 13rpg 4bpg. He blows Howard out of the water and he is definately a lot better offensively than Howard. I couldn't care less if Howard is more athletic Okafor gets almost twice as many blocks.

Howard 15ppg 13rpg 2bpg 4topg
Okafor 20ppg 13rpg 4bpg 2topg

Howard has NO offensive moves really and can't shoot. The progress Howard made so far in his career isn't much. Still never had a 30 plus scoring game in his career. He went from 12/10 to 16/12 to 15/13 and his turnovers doubled as well as his assists 4 turnovers to 2 assists that's pathetic for someone who is not much of a factor on offense to average so many turnovers.

 

[goldseraph]

Wow youre really hung up on the first 7 games stats from this season which are pretty much worthless.

 

[Nash]

Stats over seven games dont mean much, the previous 100 games are probably more reliable and he's a 44% FG shooter in those 100 games(horrific % for an inside player).

Hey, easy..I was agreeing with your contention that Emeka doesn't have great hops. And I was merely stating a fact that he's been blocking very well this year. And yeah, we've had this discussion about stats before (only, I was telling you that you that one can't pin too much importance to shooting percentages after 3 or 4 games). Both then and now, we're only trying to show a trend 'so far'.

And I don't agree that stats don't mean much when your team is losing. You might have a point if you're talking about ppg because one can contend that the shots were ill-advised or that the player was a ballhog.
Statistically, ppg/shooting % can be deceiving because dude could be having a hot shooting streak.

Since both of us agree he's not a freakish athlete, we know its not a fluke that he's swatting so many shots. He definitely must be doing something right if he's blocking a good number of shots this year.

disclaimer: I'm not saying Emeka is going to finish the year as the top shot blocker. just that he's been pretty good so far.

 

[slinslin]

Umm Emeka was a monster shotblocker in college already, one of the greatest shotblockers in college basketball history...

He is a good athlete and has long arms and great timing. 7 games is also almost 10% of the season.

And over the last 4 games Emeka is averaging 25/16/4.

 

[slinslin]

Dwight 9 pts 6 rebounds 1 steal 2 blocks and game almost over. Camby 13 points 12 rebounds 2 assists 3 steals 2 blocks.

In the 3rd quarter
Okafor 13 points 4 rebounds 4 blocks 3 steals
Duncan 15 points 5 rebounds 1 assist 0 blocks 0 steals

 

[Nash]

emeka's frikkin lighting it up! my fantasy team needs all the help it can get.
he has 17 pts, 8 rbs, 5 bs, 5 stls!

better news : looks like the spurs are gonna lose a home game to the Bobcats.

 

[nowagimp]

Wow youre really hung up on the first 7 games stats from this season which are pretty much worthless.

I think its a fantasy thing, and there is alot of that going on. On a more stunning note Morrison smoked the spurs for a career high of 27 points last night as the Bobcats, now 2-6 beat the spurs in OT, I love it. If this guy can do that against the defensive minded spurs, he may have a shot at ROY.

 

[goldseraph]

I think Morrison will get ROY no doubt. The kid knows how to play basketball, the only criticisms were his athleticism, well if you can drop 27 on the Spurs in your seventh NBA game you should be fine. In Charlotte he will get enough PT and shots to put up 15ppg+, which should be enough for ROY. A dark horse could be LeMarcus Aldridge imo.

 

[Ronin]

Howard got the best of the match up tonight

Okafor
26 Points
9 Rebounds

D. Howard
24 points
21 Rebounds

 

[BOLDIN]

much better defender and rebounder, however Amare is a far superior offensive player. End of story, Dwight looks like a leaner young O'Neal, Amare is a offensive Power Forward...