Dwight officially signs

[Jody23]

Wait a minute, Smitty wore number eight for the Hawks and he was one of my favorite Hawks.  That aside, I wish Dwight would have stayed with 12, but oh well.  If it makes him happy, cool.

[High5]

Howard might look weird with those shoulders and a single digit number.

[Sothron]

He is really going with 8? That's Steve Smith's number. I wish he'd stick with 12, that's been his number.

[Twinblade]

I'm still gonna call him D12.

[hazer]

"If man is 5, then the devil is 6, and God is 7" ~ Frank Black

Then Dwight is 8.....

[BigDog90]

4 hours ago, cam1218 said:

I bet many of the posters here are from Atlanta too--it is rare someone randomly picks the Hawks to be their team. This makes me happy in so many ways.

I wasn't a huge Dwight fan when he played for Orlando, mainly because of the historically bad playoff sweep. We eventually beat him with Jason Collins playing C but that sweep was ugly. I will never forget it. 

Yada Yada Yada, he finally had a chance to come home, embrace his hometown team and try and attract the likes of CP3. Instead, he goes to Houston. I remember a Houston fan I met while living up north laugh that my Hawks couldn't even sign our own guy. I couldn't really disagree..

I've said many bad things about him over the years. All because he was afraid to play for his city--to play for our city. It seems like he has grow up a lot. It seems like he is happy to be back home. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and be one of his biggest supporters.

Don't let us down, Dwight. Welcome back home.

I also love Buds comments about being a positive impact in the community. The "true to Atlanta" thing is a little cheesy and overplayed at times, but I see Koonin and the organization trying to get guys who do more than play basketball every night. Joe was great but him being "true to Atlanta" was going to strip clubs. We need help building a brand and Dwight can help.

Yeah Dwight be in music videos produced in ATL, go to Dream games, etc. You would think he was a Hawk for years.

[RandomFan]

http://es.pn/29CvfuC

[Diesel]

On 7/12/2016 at 8:48 PM, IheartVolt said:

Just the rebounding this guy brings will make everyone forget #thatotherwhore really quick. Bud says he thinks he can revitalize D12's career and I believe him. Hurry up and start regular season.

I have a feeling D12's gonna put the east on notice

  Question... Didn't Dwight give us what we were looking for?

[TheNorthCydeRises]

1 hour ago, Diesel said:

  Question... Didn't Dwight give us what we were looking for?

53 double-doubles ( 6th in the league )

Defensive presence in the middle. ( #5 overall Defensive Rating . . . basketball-reference.com )   

Yes, he did.

 

[thecampster]

5 hours ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

53 double-doubles ( 6th in the league )

Defensive presence in the middle. ( #5 overall Defensive Rating . . . basketball-reference.com )   

Yes, he did.

 

I always go back to the easiest metric.  Dwight's per48 PER 23.9. His Center opponent 15.2. Net PER +8.7. He did his job.

[Lurker]

Basketball reference sucks and is a horrible source.

[Plainview1981]

Doubles doubles is a meaningless stat

[TheNorthCydeRises]

10 minutes ago, Hotlanta1981 said:

Doubles doubles is a meaningless stat

A lot of meaningless players on this list then.

http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/player/_/stat/double-doubles/sort/doubleDouble/seasontype/2

[Plainview1981]

Just now, TheNorthCydeRises said:

A lot of meaningless players on this list then.

http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/player/_/stat/double-doubles/sort/doubleDouble/seasontype/2

 

2 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

A lot of meaningless players on this list then.

http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/player/_/stat/double-doubles/sort/doubleDouble/seasontype/2

There are two players in that top 20 who have won a title and they play on the same team.

Moreover, few of those players are as flawed as Dwight.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

19 minutes ago, Lurker said:

Basketball reference sucks and is a horrible source.

Accurate sources and assessments shouldn't be viewed as "fake stats".

[TheNorthCydeRises]

1 minute ago, Hotlanta1981 said:

 

There are two players in that top 20 who have won a title and they play on the same team.

Moreover, few of those players are as flawed as Dwight.

So double-doubles are meaningless, unless you win a championship?

OK.  Making a note of that in the future.

[Plainview1981]

9 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

So double-doubles are meaningless, unless you win a championship?

OK.  Making a note of that in the future.

Lebron is the only one on that list who made his team a contender.

The fact of the matter is Dwight's post Orlando career is mostly a trainwreck. Dwight lacks intangibles.

Edited June 28, 2017 by Hotlanta1981

[TheNorthCydeRises]

9 minutes ago, Hotlanta1981 said:

Lebron is the only one on that list who made his team a contender.

The fact of the matter is Dwight's post Orlando career is mostly a trainwreck. Dwight lacks intangibles.

2013 LA Lakers:  45 wins - 1st round loss 

2014 Houston:  54 wins - 1st round loss

2015:  Houston:  56 wins - WC Finals loss

2016:  Houston:  41 wins - 1st round loss

2017:  Atlanta:  43 wins - 1st round loss

 

First off . . . not a train wreck, but the 1st round losses were disappointing, even if they weren't his fault.

When you look at all of those teams, the only constant . . . was Dwight's play.  He gave you exactly what you needed from the center position.  He wasn't a superstar.  But he gave you top 5 play at the center position.   You can point to a lot other things that were far worse with some of those teams, than the play of Dwight.

[Plainview1981]

1 hour ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

2013 LA Lakers:  45 wins - 1st round loss 

2014 Houston:  54 wins - 1st round loss

2015:  Houston:  56 wins - WC Finals loss

2016:  Houston:  41 wins - 1st round loss

2017:  Atlanta:  43 wins - 1st round loss

 

First off . . . not a train wreck, but the 1st round losses were disappointing, even if they weren't his fault.

When you look at all of those teams, the only constant . . . was Dwight's play.  He gave you exactly what you needed from the center position.  He wasn't a superstar.  But he gave you top 5 play at the center position.   You can point to a lot other things that were far worse with some of those teams, than the play of Dwight.

Is there anything really impressive there? 2015 was solid, but that's about it. This team was even worse than the 43 games they won when you consider how often they got blown out. A bunch of first round losses. Yeah, it's never poor Dwight's fault. 

The bottom line is that Howard is an outdated player. The fact that he has never improved him game goes to show just how lazy he is. He offers no locker room leadership. He doesn't make his teammates better. He has almost no mobility at this point.

Dwight was not a top 5 center this year. He didn't even sniff the all star game.

 

I mean, if he is so valuable..... Why are teams so happy to see him go? Where are all the Hawks players giving him well wishes? 

 

 

 

Edited June 28, 2017 by Hotlanta1981

[Diesel]

1 hour ago, Hotlanta1981 said:

Is there anything really impressive there? 2015 was solid, but that's about it.

 

 

First off... Somebody should take you to task for saying that a WC finals is just Solid. .... Especially being that the Hawks  In the last 50 years, the Hawks have been to a conference finals 1 time and were swept.   

However, aside from that... I can't let you get by saying that 1 player is responsible for a team's outcome.  In a time of Superteams, 1 player is meaningless.  It's a team sport and this era proves it.  So no 1 player can do anything.  Just like KG did nothing in Minnesota... even though he was a Hall of Fame player then... Just like Kobe couldn't get the LAL teams to the playoffs without help.  None of these things diminish the player.