Dwight Howard is maturing, learning lessons from Orlando exit
Dwight Howard admits he did not handle his call for a better supporting cast well in Orlando, admitting he needed to be a better leader and lift his team up
Dwight Howard is still a sore subject in Orlando.
The return of Shaquille O’Neal, the franchise’s other great center who left on less than friendly terms, dredged up some memories both good and bad and brought up the debate that will surely rage among Magic historians and fans between O’Neal and Howard for the title of greatest Magic player of all time.
Many Magic fans are probably not ready for that debate. Some were not ready for O’Neal’s Hall of Fame induction nearly two decades after he left.
Healing begins with maturity and mea culpas. They will slowly come from each side as time mends all fences.
Howard, now at an interesting time in his career as he approaches 30 years old, reflected on some of the mistakes he made in Orlando in an interview with Jared Zwerling of Bleacher/Report:
"At the time, I was super upset about the team and I wanted to get players that I felt could help us win. And me coming out and saying, ‘We need better players and we can’t win with what we have,’ I kind of made a lot of the guys who were on the team upset. When I look back on it, I could’ve handled that a lot better, instead of throwing them under the bus. How could I have gotten those guys better to where we would’ve had a chance to win?"
Indeed, part of maturity is understanding how to be a better leader. Those were frustrating times for the Magic and for Howard. The team had just lost in the Eastern Conference Finals and Miami had just seemingly taken the East away by signing LeBron James and Chris Bosh.
Howard wanted that support. And by saying he hoped the team would go after a guy like Deron Williams or Chris Paul, he inadvertently threw his teammates under the bus.
Then there were the disparaging remarks he made about the 2009 team and playing with a “bunch of nobodies” and getting to the Finals. Howard was not careful with his words and the impact he had on his teammates as their best player and their leader.
Howard’s play was always enough to make the Magic a Playoff team, but he was not enough to win them a title. And when the Magic stripped his teams of just about everything, they lost in the first round. The team’s time at the top had run out.
Dwight Howard is not the player he was in Orlando. Look at Howard’s stats from his final season in Orlando to now:
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 4/25/2015.
It is a hard and fast fall thanks to injuries that have sapped him of the consistency. At the end of his tenure in Orlando and his lone year in Los Angeles, it was his back. In Houston this season it was a knee injury that knocked him out for half the season.
The Playoffs have provided a glimpse into what a healthy Dwight Howard can do.
In Games Two and Three, Howard posted 28 points and 12 rebounds in the Game Two win and 13 points and 26 rebounds in the Game Three win for the Rockets. He was dominant defensively as the Rockets have posted a 99.5 defensive rating with Howard on the floor through Game Three. He has a gaudy 25.7 percent rebound rate.
The Rockets are on the verge of escaping the first round, Howard’s first Playoff series win since his 2010 trip to the Eastern Conference Finals.
It is a nice renaissance for Howard. Even though he still has fun things all over his Houston house — lots and lots of snakes and a randomly diverse gun collection — Howard appears to be maturing and realizing his mistakes.