That’s because he got hurt, but he was better than Dwight as well.I see y'all don't rate Yao Ming judging by his omission on these list
Where does Dwight Howard rank on your all time Center list
- Thread starter Houston911
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Dwight was clearly better than Yao. I never liked the comparison. Just because Yao struggled with Dwight didn't mean nothing because Yao impact waned greatly depending on the matchup. Dwight was always a defensive nightmare.
This one is tough. Dwight came in the NBA so young so at the same age, some of these guys were still good while Dwight sucks right now. But Dwight had a dominate run for 5 years. That's quite long but man, his stay at just being good or very good was like three seasons. His last three seasons have been complete negatives. People love to say his style is over but really, he can't move anymore. He's slow as shyt. Dwight in his prime was as fast as a guard. In his prime, I'll easily take him over everyone till the top 6 of your list. But for his career. He's probably 12 ahead of Bill Walton. Walton like Dwight, had a shytty stay at elite and his stay at elite was shorter than Dwight's. No way his career has been as good as Mikan or Robinson but his prime was better than D. Rob's. Dwight would be elite in any era defensively. I remember how much of a terror he was back then.1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
2. Wilt Chamberlain
3. Hakeem Olajuwon
4. Shaquille O’Neal
5. Bill Russell
6. Moses Malone
7. David Robinson
8. George Mikan
9. Willis Reed
10. Elvin Hayes
11. Patrick Ewing
12. Bill Walton
13. Wes Unseld
14. Bob McAdoo
15. Walt Bellamy
16. Dwight Howard
Right outside the top 15 for me
dwight aint 1/2 the player Yao was stop it
No way I could put Zo or Deke ahead of him. Dwight was actually dominate. I seen Deke and Zo often in their prime, it was very good but it wasn't HOF. It wasn't even elite. Dwight's prime was HOF good. @Malta is wrong on Dwight's prime comment. There is no way anyone in this era was as good as prime Dwight. Embiid can be better but he plays under 30 MPG and he doesn't even play back to backs. Besides, he's not in his prime yet. I have no question, Embiid if healthy, can be a ATG and surpass Dwight and maybe even Shaq in the long run. Joel is like 22 or 23?
In what world? There is no data to back you on this claim. This sounds like a preference. You can prefer Reggie Miller over James Harden but there is no data you can prove to say he's even in the same area code as Harden.
Zo and Deke played against good centers and actually didn't suck when it came time to matchup with someone on their own level, Dwight's numbers vs Yao and Marc say all there is to say about his "prime".
12ppg on 49% shooting vs Marc Gasol and this is supposed to be a center better than someone who played well against Shaq? Nah.
There actually is data, but limited. Yao only had 3 injury free seasons before he broke down. All signs were pointing to 25-10 seasons from Yao if you were watching the games.
Long Live The Kane
Tyrant Titan
That there's a legit argument to be had that Dwight Howard is a top 15 center of all time...Makes me strongly consider that I've been giving the position way too much credit
Dwight played them like twice a year in his prime. Using F2F matchups means nothing if Dwight gives elite production over the course of the season and the playoffs. I could care less about Dwight's F2F matchups.
Back to the 90's had better top level centers. It did, but why should this be used to discredit Dwight when he was dominate defensively and we haven't seen a center with this type of production since on the defensive end. Embiid is getting close just to mention.
Yao throughout his prime of his career has been a very good offensive center and a very good - good defensive one. Dwight prime is HOF elite defensively and very good offensively. So if Dwight is as impactful on offense as Yao and superior on defense, how is this even up for debate. All of the stats, adv stats, metrics say Dwight in his prime was a superior player to Yao. Dwight's stats was rivaling LeBron's for best player in this period. Yao was never close to the merit.
Just to note, I am on record for saying Dwight in his prime is a special player and the Dwight we see now, is not just a shell, but he's trash af.
Dwight's production dropped like a rock in the playoffs whenever the other team had a center that wasn't physically over matched. Those head to head matchups are a window into how he would fare against centers now, his prime falls right in line with Marc Gasol starting his career and outplaying him from the start, how can you claim him an ATG level center when Big Spain basically sonned him from the second he started?
Breh, I get that he's your fellow Georgian, but he's not that great in historical sense and benefited from a very weak era of bigs. His prime coincides with KG, Shaq and Duncan all being older and out of their primes, while his own contemporaries were injured. This has nothing to do with Embiid, and even if you removed him from the equation the C spot is better today than it was when Dwight ruled the position, Hassan Whiteside would have had the same success as Dwight during that time period.
That’s where we disagree. How is Dwight such a good offensive player when the numbers against legit opposition in his prime indicate otherwise? He was an athletic freak of nature who was able to “dominate” a position by almost default. Sorry breh, the head to head matchups are telling ESPECIALLY against Yao
Dwight had a three year period where he was the 3rd-4th best player by data in the playoffs with Orlando with LeBron, Kobe and at times Wade being ahead of him. Where is this center that matched up with him at Orlando. I am looking at the numbers and I don't see it.
I don't even like Dwight like that. Ask @AVXL but I remember what he was quite vividly and I don't agree with your hot takes.
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The problem with this statement is sample size. You have 78 games plus 15-22 playoffs games compared to four games. You're point just can't be warranted as there isn't anything saying that this is a trend.
You can say he was an athletic freak of nature but he did dominate regardless of whatever take you would have next. He was one of the most dominate two way bigs in his generation. I just can't see your point on this one. It's too limited.
Just so you remember a part of what he used to be, before his back went to shyt like T-Mac's.