The Dwight Howard interview on ESPN with Jackie MacMullan raises the question: Is he a viable option for the Rose City?
There are red flags everywhere saying not to sign Howard. He has been on three teams in six years. He’s a cancer, ruins the chemistry in the locker room, and there isn’t a coach who has made it work with him. He gave up on the Houston Rockets. All of those have been said about Howard and are good enough reasons to write him off in Portland.
However, it might be in Portland’s best interest to give him a serious look. No disrespect to Mason Plumlee and Ed Davis, but Dwight Howard is a different kind of monster. Neither Blazer center has averaged more than 10 points or 10 rebounds.
Howard averages a double-double just by walking out onto the court. He has career averages of 17.8 points and 12.7 rebounds. His scoring production was down last season, but men with Howard’s size, strength, and athletic ability don’t grow on trees. If you have a chance to sign a motivated 6’11”, 265-pound center who was once the most feared center in the league not named Shaquille O’Neal, you do it no questions asked.
America is the country of second chances, or fourth in Howard’s case. We really don’t know who Dwight Howard is. The only thing we have to go on is what we see on television and read on the Internet.
Imagine the possibilities. Howard has everything to prove; he is searching for a team with strong chemistry.
Excerpt from Dwight Howard Q&A: Superman returns?
ESPN: You have a reputation of being a little thin-skinned. How hard is it for you not to be affected by what people say about you?
Howard: “It bothers me when I hear certain things. Like when people call me a ‘cancer.’ I know I’m not that person. I want my team to be close. I’m pushing for my team to be together. When I was in Orlando and we went to the Finals [in 2009], we had so much chemistry. We were always together. When I got to L.A. [with the Lakers in 2012], they told me, ‘You don’t need team chemistry. You just need to be able to play basketball together.’ So which is it? It’s confusing.”
Portland’s 2015-16 squad had no ego; it was more family than team in a lot of ways. If Damian Lillard needed to massage Howard’s ego at times, he could. He did it with LaMarcus Aldridge, and could do it with Howard.
If you’re a team that is a five to eight seed (like Portland) in the Western Conference, then adding an all-star caliber center thrusts you into the thick of the west.
Howard is a beast when he gets the ball near the basket. I envision alley-oops and bounce passes to him all day. Damian Lillard already gets into the lane and hits open teammates with regularity. What happens when you have to decide between stopping Lillard’s drive to the basket or stop Howard streaking to the hoop for a dunk? On top of that, CJ McCollum or Al-Farouq Aminu will be spotted up for an open three. Howard changes the game for the Blazers.
Portland should take a page out of the San Antonio Spurs book and rest Howard on back-to-backs, and whenever he starts to show signs of fatigue. The Blazers don’t need him to be Superman in all 82 games. If the Blazers had him for 60-70 games, that’d be plenty, so think Tim Duncan’s range of the last five years. Duncan has averaged 67.6 games in the last five seasons. They need him for the playoff run more than the regular season.
Sign him to a LeBron James type deal – two years with his second year being a player or team option.
The risk-reward of signing Howard tilts far to the reward side from my view. If you miss, the worst thing that happens is it was another year without a championship. Howard is the problem everyone says he is. Neil Olshey cuts him and the Blazers move forward without him. It wouldn’t be the first time a Blazer center didn’t workout as planned.
On the flip side of that, if you hit a home run, maybe that three-week run this postseason turns into the Blazers battling Golden State in the Western Conference Finals next season.
Howard says he is hungry; he wants to prove every player, coach, and fan that they are wrong about him. He wants to show everyone he isn’t soft, he’s not a cancer and he can fit into a team.
There’s a city that will forget all of his past transgressions, a team that is going to bring him in and treat him like a brother, and stylistically fits because he can still run the floor.
That city is Rip City.
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