Dan Fegan repeat: Dwight Howard is the best player in the world.

[Ballscientist]

Result:
Magic spent 110 million in player salaries.
Magic are the 13th best team in the nba now, IMO.
Magic are out in the first round in the weak East.

How to solve the problems in the summer?

http://blogs.hoopshype.com/blogs/bar...-any-decision/

[Adam]

Yeah, the best player in the world can't get out of the first round. Right.

He would barely be the sixth best center if he played in the '90's.

[Dornado]

Originally Posted by Adam

Yeah, the best player in the world can't get out of the first round. Right.

He would barely be the sixth best center if he played in the '90's.

I believe he's been out of the first round.

And exactly what year of the 90's are we talking about, and who are the 5 you'd put ahead of him?

[OneBadLT123]

Originally Posted by Dornado

I believe he's been out of the first round.

And exactly what year of the 90's are we talking about, and who are the 5 you'd put ahead of him?

Dream
Shaq
Robinson
Ewing
Mourning

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Dornado

I believe he's been out of the first round.

And exactly what year of the 90's are we talking about, and who are the 5 you'd put ahead of him?

He's been out of the first round because it's a playoff system and who you play determines tournament success. He barely beat Philly and an injury decimated Boston team that year he went to the Finals. Can you defend his results this year?

Olajuwon, Robinson, Ewing, Mourning, and Shaq are all better than him. Mutombo's defensive stats in the golden age of defensive NBA centers is what makes Howard barely #6. I highly doubt Howard would dominate the boards in that era to put up numbers to solidify him as #6 but I give him the benefit of the doubt. However, no way is he winning those Defensive Player of the Years over Mutombo or Mourning.

[Dornado]

Originally Posted by OneBadLT123

Dream
Shaq
Robinson
Ewing
Mourning

Right, I guess my point is you'd have a hard time finding a year where Howard's current level of production ranks last among that group. If you take them all in their peak seasons, sure...

Even if you take '93-'94 for example, where Dream, Admiral, Shaq and Ewing all finished in the top 5 in the MVP voting and Mourning was up and coming - I'd argue that a current Howard is as good, if not better than Ewing was that year... same with 'Zo.

I just think it is a little disingenuous to say he'd be the 6th best because you're taking their entire careers into account, which is a handicap for the 25 year old Howard.

[Adam]

Why would they have to all play the same year to show how low he is on an all-time chart? You're analyzing it a different way. I'm rating him against players and showing that even just limiting it in scope to the '90's he still doesn't stack up.

[Dornado]

Originally Posted by Adam

He's been out of the first round because it's a playoff system and who you play determines tournament success. He barely beat Philly and an injury decimated Boston team that year he went to the Finals. Can you defend his results this year?

Your boy 'Zo failed to get out of the first round in six different playoff appearances... Dwight has done that twice now, and been past the first round three times. Just a weird argument to me.

[Dornado]

Originally Posted by Adam

Why would they have to all play the same year to show how low he is on an all-time chart? You're analyzing it a different way. I'm rating him against players and showing that even just limiting it in scope to the '90's he still doesn't stack up.

Yeah, we are looking at it differently... I just don't think you can take a 25 year old and stack him against the careers of a bunch of hall of famers who have already played out the string.... my point is that if you drop current Dwight Howard into any NBA season in the 90's he's likely a top 5 center.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Dornado

Your boy 'Zo failed to get out of the first round in six different playoff appearances... Dwight has done that twice now, and been past the first round three times. Just a weird argument to me.

Miami and New York was a mirror matchup so it became a coinflip. The situations aren't analogous.

If you're the best that means you are favored in every matchup. That's what it means to be the best, so when people argue him being the best in the NBA they're being absurd. You can't lose to Atlanta and be called a great center. It's not possible.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Dornado

Yeah, we are looking at it differently... I just don't think you can take a 25 year old and stack him against the careers of a bunch of hall of famers who have already played out the string.... my point is that if you drop current Dwight Howard into any NBA season in the 90's he's likely a top 5 center.

Against the competition of the '90's? He would be destroyed. A second tier center back then was a Sabonis or Smits. Like I said, if he played in the '90's his numbers would leave him being rated 6th behind those guys and he might not even put up the numbers Mutombo did. Mutombo did some amazing stuff relative to that era.

[futuristxen]

Dwight got a lot lot better this year. And he's still so young. I think eventually he'll go down as one of the great NBA centers. His combination of size and athleticism is pretty much unheard of, and now he's got a post game to go with it. I don't think he'll pass Hakeem or Shaq, but I think he'll be regarded better than Ewing, Robinson, and Mourning by the end of everything.

Dwight's a lot stronger than than most of the NBA centers from back then. Shaq was able to push a lot of those guys around like rag dolls. Dwight's not that strong, but he's probably as strong as Shaq was his rookie year, and with a higher jump.

[croco]

Originally Posted by Adam

Against the competition of the '90's? He would be destroyed. A second tier center back then was a Sabonis or Smits. Like I said, if he played in the '90's his numbers would leave him being rated 6th behind those guys and he might not even put up the numbers Mutombo did. Mutombo did some amazing stuff relative to that era.

And Moses Malone would have averaged 30/20 if he had played his entire career in the 90's.

[futuristxen]

The one big thing that hurts Dwight in today's game is that the center position is basically dead, and as great as he is offensively, he's not great enough to make teams double team him, really. Because it hurts your defense more still to double him than to guard him straight up one on one. Because he's not really a 50-60 point threat quite yet. Both because of his skills, and because it appears his teammates are always going to be incapable of giving him the ball down low enough times to do it.

It's a guard's league, and even a center as great as Dwight becomes an afterthought offensively sometimes, to dreck like Jameer Nelson and Gilbert Arenas.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by croco

And Moses Malone would have averaged 30/20 if he had played his entire career in the 2000's.

I agree. How many times did Kevin Love go 20/20 last year? But you probably believe Love = Malone, right?