How long will Dwight be happy with so few touches?

[Admin]

Several times he ran the court hard and never touched the ball. He played so hard all game and I don't expect him to complain while in the honeymoon period but we have to find a way to get him the ball more, especially in transition and in the PnR fame.

He looked like a man child out there snatching rebounds tonight. Haven't seen that since Kevin Willus retired.

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[ATLHawks3]

He needs to be fed the ball when he's in the deep post. He's almost unguardable  at that position.

[Atlantaholic]

Dwight will get his. Impressive we could put up 114 points on 50% shooting without him having to do much on offense.  Dwight will en up averaging around 12 shots and 18 points a game this year. 

[hazer]

I suspect he'll take 11/19/3 all day long as long as his team is winning and they make ECFs. I'll go on record as projecting him at 18/13/3 for the year and no fuss from The ATL Kid...

[BigDog90]

He looked good. I'm glad he fixed his fouling from preseason. I was hoping that wouldn't be a problem. I liked how he did have eyes to pass the ball too, he wasn't a blackhole on offense. 

[Atlantaholic]

1 minute ago, hazer said:

I suspect he'll take 11/19/3 all day long as long as his team is winning and they make ECFs. I'll go on record as projecting him at 18/13/3 for the year and no fuss from The ATL Kid...

Yup. My projection is pretty damn close. 18/14/2.5 and with both FG% and FT% above 60 this year. Howard has looked great in almost every game wearing a Hawk's uni so far, and I think all the work he has done on his shooting in the offseason will start paying off dividends at some point this season.

[High5]

He has a part to play in that as well. His activity level was really low in the second half. On a couple of occasions it looked like he was nursing his hand a little bit (hopefully my imagination), but maybe he just gassed out a bit after exerting so much energy in the first half of opening night. I really don't remember him fighting Gortat at all for position. Just kind of standing there not making himself available for anything. 

It's going to take time for our offense to figure things out. There were a lot of unforced turnovers and stagnant possessions. I just hope we see steady improvement in execution during these early weeks. 

[aali34]

He only missed one free throw too. Granted he only took four, but still...

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, High5 said:

He has a part to play in that as well. His activity level was really low in the second half. On a couple of occasions it looked like he was nursing his hand a little bit (hopefully my imagination), but maybe he just gassed out a bit after exerting so much energy in the first half of opening night. I really don't remember him fighting Gortat at all for position. Just kind of standing there not making himself available for anything. 

It's going to take time for our offense to figure things out. There were a lot of unforced turnovers and stagnant possessions. I just hope we see steady improvement in execution during these early weeks. 

Agreed, Dwight needs to make himself available in half couet sets. But like Dolf said a few times the ball should have been passed to him in the post and it was missed. I'll chalk it up to the learning process. We haven't had that kind of post action in awhile.

[hazer]

D8 almost had a DOUBLE double/double. D8 will be just fine and an All-Star...

[hazer]

What did Whorefart have in his first game with the Selltix, 11pts/6rebs barely beating the lowly Nitz? His replacement had 11/19 beating the supposedly superior Wiz by 15. All. Day. Long...

[Sothron]

I counted at least seven times Dwight was wide open enough on transition or in a deep post with  a little guy on him that he should have gotten the ball. We gotta feed him. This isn't about his ego, its about maximizing possessions and point opportunities.

[aali34]

He also earned more than he was given tbh

[Lurker]

Howard paired some nice moments with moments where he looked completely lost. I mean he was just standing near the perimeter on some possessions and not moving.

[hazer]

We won our season opener by 15 against a team who's supposedly better than us. What's there to be miserable about? 

[RedDawg#8]

Guys, can we please stop acting like we didn't already know that we were better than the Wizards? Barkley can say what he wants, nobody here really thought they were better than us and tonight was not some upset win. We handled our business against a lesser opponent. It was a good win, but an expected one at that

[NBASupes]

The Wizards have great quick hands. They weren't allowing a lot of extra passes and long post ups. We will see more of Dwight v. Philly and Sacramento. If you look at the hustle stats, Washington is right at the top.

Washington wasn't bad but they like us needs some more chemistry

[DUrce1]

It's going to take until the 1st of the year for our new starting lineup and rotation to hit their stride. Luckily we have an easy early winnable schedule while they figure things out. Schröder wasn't good tonight (2 assists, 4 to's), so I put it on him that Howard didn't get enough touches. It will work itself out in time.

I also doubt that Howard imagines averaging 20/15 for the season. If he gets 15/12 he's an all star and performing better than Horford did for us. Plus 7 offensive rebounds! He could get himself enough touches.

[bleachkit]

Dennis was not getting him the ball. 

[NBASupes]

10 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

Dennis was not getting him the ball. 

It had less to do with Dennis and more to do with Washington's defense. Which was good at deflections and having quick hands. Even in the pre-season, they were causing a lot of turnovers.