Dwight Howard on his reduced role in Houston: ‘Why am I here?’
There is a reason Dwight Howard is on an image rehabilitation tour. Since turning in a (shoulda been) MVP season for the ages in 2010-11, he has rightfully been treated as the NBA’s top laughingstock that, in review, ain’t all that funny. The NBA’s owner-induced player lockout in 2011 was followed by a petulant and insincere turn from Howard in Orlando during 2011-12, then a wasted season with the Lakers, wrapping up with three disappointing seasons with the Houston Rockets.
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Now, with a player option to ease out of his current contract, Howard has a chance to become a free agent again this summer. The center turns 31 in December, and he has yet to prove that his athleticism-based game will age well. He is entering a player-friendly free agent market featuring several eager teams with money to burn, and the ability to talk themselves into thinking Howard is a franchise cornerstone. This will be Howard’s last big contract, and he has to push two major talking points across:
He’s sorry, for whatever misdeeds (perceived or real) you want to attach to him. And, also, none of the last half-decade was his fault. He has genuine and defensible points on both fronts.
The tour continued, recently, with a chat with venerable NBA reporter Jackie MacMullan at ESPN. They touched on his messy, extended breakup with the Orlando Magic during the 2011-12 season:
ESPN: So why did you decide you wanted to be traded?
Howard: “Right after the lockout ended, in December, I went to GM Otis Smith. But before that, I called Jameer Nelson and told him I was going to ask for a trade. I told him, ‘This has nothing to do with you, [coach] Stan [Van Gundy] or anyone else. I just want a different atmosphere. I’m too comfortable here. I need to grow.”’
Three months later, Dwight Howard waived his early-termination option, something no other NBA player has ever done in writing and at a press conference, stating that he wanted to stay with the franchise through 2012-13:
Then there’s this, on a team that did nothing but chase down veteran players while working with a win-now coach in Stan Van Gundy:
ESPN: If you could do it over, would you stay in Orlando?
Howard: “I loved Orlando. I loved the city, but at that time, I didn’t feel winning was a priority.”
Howard claims that earlier in the 2011-12 season he suggested to Magic owner Rich DeVos that the team promote ways to “grow our team,” including “Magic cereal, Magic vitamins with our players’ faces on it so they can get to know our team.”
MacMullan then brought up Howard’s more recent frustrations in Houston:
Howard: “There were times I was disinterested because of situations that happened behind the scenes that really hurt me. It left me thinking, ‘This is not what I signed up for.”’
ESPN: What specifically are you referring to?
Howard: “I felt like my role was being reduced. I went to [Rockets general manager] Daryl [Morey] and said, ‘I want to be more involved.’ Daryl said, ‘No, we don’t want you to be.’ My response was, ‘Why not? Why am I here?’ It was shocking to me that it came from him instead of our coach. So I said to him, ‘No disrespect to what you do, but you’ve never played the game. I’ve been in this game a long time. I know what it takes to be effective.”’
Morey declined comment.
Howard, in his age 30 season, shot a career best 62 percent from the field in 2015-16. He took just 8.5 shots per game in 32 minutes a contest, though, the lowest mark since his rookie year, and turned in his worst year yet at the free throw line with a 48.9 percent mark from the charity stripe. The center’s effectiveness waned in both the post and pick and roll game.
Teammate James Harden may have clipped 2015-16’s wings from the outset by showing up to camp out of shape, prior to a season spent volume shooting, and there had to be more creative ways to get Howard involved in the offense. Still, his production on either end is in decline (Houston finished 21st defensively this season), and Howard himself admitted to MacMullan that he “allowed not getting the ball to affect me.”
All of which is understandable. Harden’s usage rate in 2015-16 was about the same as Kobe Bryant’s usage rate during Howard’s lone year with Los Angeles, all while Dwight took the fewest shots since his rookie year as a teenager, a season he had to spend alongside Steve Francis.
Calling out Daryl Morey for not playing in the NBA is rather lame, though, especially when it was Howard and Harden’s poor production that led to the firing of former coach Kevin McHale and the hiring of J.B. Bickerstaff as coach – a man who never played in the NBA. A guy that, in comparison to McHale (in an admittedly super small – seven game – sample size with McHale in 2015-16) called for fewer shots per game for Howard.
This, however, is where the “buyer beware” noise sets in.
As was the case in his TNT intervention, Howard refused to commit to the idea that he would be opting out of the $23.3 million owed to him next season. This, unlike as was the case in 2012, is the smart move – if the free agent market isn’t to his liking, sticking with guaranteed money and forcing a trade might be his best option.
That, even with Howard’s on-court struggles, would seem to be an unconscionable scenario. The NBA’s salary cap jumps up to $92 million in July, with a handful of eager teams all boasting max-level cap space, most of whom are going to be dismayed when Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and other stick with their current teams. There are going to be franchises with lusty team owners that will want to overpay for talent.
Dwight Howard, even on the wrong side of 30 (an ESPN typo in the first paragraph of this interview listed him as a “32-year-old center,” which hardly drew a double-take from this reader as he considered Howard’s decline), would seem to be the sort of player that would feast on such a market. It’s him and Nicolas Batum and DeMar DeRozan, all thanking NBA fans that have yet to cut the cable cord.
And yet, even with old combatant Mike D’Antoni seemingly one interview away from becoming the next Rockets coach, Howard isn’t sloughing off that player option.
This isn’t Dwight attempting, once again, to stay everyone’s best friend as he did in 2012 with Orlando; he has legitimate career concerns with how a potential free agent spin could turn out. This unfortunately says all you need to know about his reputation as a performer and a teammate at this point in his career.
It’s good that Dwight Howard is speaking candidly and openly, and anyone who dislikes him because he didn’t hit more than half of his free throws this year or for his inability to toss in a Hakeem Olajuwon-styled turnaround jumper is a bit daft. Not when you have so many other reasons to roll your eyes at him.
If he opts out of his contract this summer, Dwight will have yet another chance to create his own fortune. To find the right confluence of comfort, competitiveness, and financial reward.
We’re hoping, even after all these eye-rolls, that he finds happiness in his eventual decision.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
