Dwight Howard
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Player Facts

Height: 6'10"
Weight: 265lbs.

Wingspan: 7'4.5"

Date of Birth: Dec. 8, 1985
College Experience: N/A

Selections

All Star: 8
All-NBA: 8
All-Defensive: 5

Player Grades

Speed/Explosiveness: 8
Physical Strength: 10
Positional Size: 8
Positional Wingspan: 10
Paint Scoring: 9
Midrange Scoring: 2
Three-Point Scoring: 1
Dribbling: 2
Passing: 3
Perimeter Defense: 5
Interior Defense: 9
Rebounding: 10

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JUMP TO SECTION

> Intro

> Paint Production

> Robust Rolling

> Clearing the Path

> Turning Misses into Makes

> Power Post-Ups

> Blocking Shots

> Post Defense

> Rebounding

> No Jumper

> Free-Throw Woes

> Not a Playmaker

> Haphazard Hacking

> Beacon Bacon

>Link to Player Contract & Salary Info

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*All statistical data courtesy of NBA Advanced Stats

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STRENGTHS

Intro

Dwight had as dominant a peak as some of the better big men to ever play in the NBA. Since then, he has wisely adjusted his game and had success within a more refined role. Currently, he brings rebounding, rim running, physicality, and interior defense. He brings an intimidation factor on defense with that 265-pound frame and 7'4.5" wingspan.

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Paint Production

In his heyday, he was as efficient a paint scorer as you could find. In his prime, he would routinely reside in the top three for both paint scoring point totals and efficiency (for volume scorers).

During his Orlando days, he would often flip-flop with LeBron James for the title of best interior scorer – despite them getting these buckets in distinctly different ways.

Fast forwarding, the current iteration of Howard is still an absurdly accurate scorer right at the rim. His shot diet lends itself to this, comprised of rolls, short cuts, and putback jams. It is well-known that Dwight has never been much of a jump-shooter.

2021-2022 had him in the cream of the crop when it came interior scoring efficiency. Very dunk-heavy, he connected on 70.7% of his restricted area shots, on a high volume. Only Nerlens Noel was more efficient among players with 60+ field goals inside.

Robust Rolling

He spent his 2019-2020 season in Los Angeles, ultimately winning a title in the purple and gold. He played a meaningful role here, often situated beside Anthony Davis in the frontcourt. He roughed it up on both ends and added a vertical element (both offensively and defensively) to that squad.

During that championship season, he posted monster scoring efficiencies on rolls and second-chance opportunities. His 1.30 points per play on rolls outpaced Rudy Gobert, Domantas Sabonis, Nikola Vucevic, and Karl-Anthony Towns. It helped that he played with perhaps the greatest pick-and-roll passer of all time.

While he may have lost a step or two, Dwight remains very spry and springy for a center. His giant 7'4.5" wingspan allows him to snag lobs with ease before powering them down into the basket. He also gets out of screens quickly, diving to the hole with pace and purpose.

Clearing the Path

D12 also has set and continues to set bone-crushing screens. At a wide, musclebound 265-pounds, he discards perimeter players with both on-ball and off-ball picks. Ball-handlers from James Harden and Kemba Walker to Bradley Beal and Ben Simmons have benefitted from his space-clearing.

The eight-time All Star piles up screen assists. His 2019-2020 season had him with 157 of them for the year. That number was better than that of Joel Embiid, Serge Ibaka, and Mitchell Robinson, just to name a few.

Turning Misses into Makes

The second big component of his current-day offense is the putback point-getting. What sets the table for gaudy numbers here is his prolific offensive rebounding rate. In 2019-2020 he snagged an insane 4.7 O-REB's per-36 (3rd on offensive rebound percentage).

The five-time rebounds champ has a rough-and-tumble style under the bucket. He aggressively carves out space with his huge frame. Besides his strength, Dwight can go up and get high-up boards too.

As a Laker, he collected 125 contested offensive rebounds (2019-2020). That put him in the top-15 leaguewide, despite being a backup center. This paved the way for an 84th percentile position among putback scorers. He remained solid in 2021-2022 with a 65th percentile placement here.

Power Post-Ups

The 265-pound behemoth was once a high-volume scorer with his back-to-the-basket. Nowadays, he still gets some post touches here and there. He employs his mass to barrel through skinnier defenders before powering upwards.

The 76th percentile was where he landed for 2019-2020 post-up scoring. Going back a few years, the ppg out of the post may have been higher, but not always more efficient. As a Laker and now as a Sixer, he has traded in some volume for a higher points-per-possession mark.

Blocking Shots

Over on defense, Dwight has always been a stalwart that his teammates funnel people towards. His great physical tools, shot-blocking instincts, and timing make for a premium help-side defender. The HOF-bound big man has been top-ten in total swats during nine different seasons.

The defensive anchor can still sky to get a piece of even some floaters. Incoming slashers may think better of attacking Dwight head-on. That total paint deterrence factor is invaluable, and difficult to quantify.

He contested 362 two-point shots in 2019-2020. What is more, his size and wingspan led to opponents shooting below their normal average here. He denied plenty of shots too of course, with the sixth-best block percentage that season.

Post Defense

The 6'10" Dwight is extremely strong, and this strength plays against post players. He's either just as strong or even stronger than his opponent on the low block. His elite length can also bother and alter what his matchup is trying to do.

D12 has even become a more willing perimeter defender. When he's out on an island, he can give you decent defense as long as he's crouched in his stance. In 2019-2020 he spent just over 80 minutes on guards and interestingly held them to 31.1% shooting from deep.

Rebounding

The last pillar of Dwight's modern-day defensive resumé is a big one – defensive glass-cleaning. The extremely physical technique used here doesn't change much from what he does on the other end. A 9.2 defensive boards/36 mark beat out Jarrett Allen, Bam Adebayo, Julius Randle, and Steven Adams (2019-2020).

Dwight has led the league in defensive rebounding percentage on two occasions. Additionally, he had a jaw-dropping six-year stretch in the defensive rebounding department a while back. Spanning 2007-2008 all the way to 2012-2013, D12 pulled down the most D-REB's in the league in each of those respective seasons.

WEAKNESSES

No Jumper

A consistent jumper has always eluded Dwight Howard. Once in a while, he'll hit a face-up bank shot. All told though, he is absolutely not a floor-spacing big man.

D12 has never embraced the three-point movement. To be fair, he entered the league at a time where this was far from a requirement from bigs. Still, range out to 18 feet would have been nice so that he could mix some pops in with his rolls.

Free-Throw Woes

Another ever-present downfall of Dwight's game is free-throw shooting. This is not nearly as detrimental to the team now versus when he used to live at the charity stripe in his All Star days. The straight-out-of-high-school player has just never ironed out the kinks in his form.

Dwight has dipped below 50% from the line in multiple seasons. Zooming out, his career average falls within the 50's. Hack-a-Dwight instances have made coaches wish he was a more reliable foul shooter.

Not a Playmaker

Playmaking has also been a pain point in Howard's game for years. His passing out of double-teams in the post has never quite gotten to elite territory. He's also not a guy who will serve as the offensive hub in the half-court, save for the odd finding of a cutter.

Dwight has posted a negative AST/TO ratio in each and every one of his NBA seasons. A lack of vision/playmaking willingness has kept him from being a high-end short roll threat. That and the absence of a stop-and-pop floater/midrange game, of course.

As a final offensive note, his handle is pretty loose, and his coaching staff would not be happy seeing him take more than a couple of dribbles. He is the epitome of a catch-and-finish type at this point. That's more than fine given his effectiveness in that role, but a little more juice on the margins would be nice.

Haphazard Hacking

The main gripe with his defense has always been the over-fouling. Outside of that, he's a formidable rim protector. Just for an example, he committed the fifth-most fouls in 2019-2020. This was with everyone else in the top-ten playing 200-1000 more minutes than him.

Pulling in the reigns and knowing when to just get vertical has been a problem area for him. He goes to block almost everything, a double-edged sword. From time to time, some silly fouls or frustration fouls are not foreign to Dwight.

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bacon
Beacon Bacon

After his dominant 2008-2009 to 2010-2011 stretch, Dwight became the first player in NBA history to win Defensive Player of the Year three years in a row