Here at NBA Playbook, I have dedicated a post or two to Dwight Howard’s post up game. I didn’t plan on doing another one until the season started, but while working on something for another project I noticed something wrong with Dwight’s post up game that I haven’t discussed here.
We all know that Dwight Howard doesn’t get good position in the post, and this can be attributed to a lot of different things. The fact that he has tiny legs and relies on using his upper body to get position and the fact that defenses are allowed to be very physical with him are all major reasons why. However, something I have noticed recently is that Dwight actually gets good initial position, but then he gives it up:
In both of these clips, Dwight is initially deep in the post, but by the time he gets the post he is far from being in good position. Some of this is on his teammates for not getting the ball to him in time, but there is a flaw in Dwight’s post up game. When posting up, Dwight has a tendency to meet the basketball rather than let it come to him. Let’s take a closer look:
Look at the post position Dwight has when he first makes his seal. For a post player like Dwight, this is perfect position. If he can hold it, all he has to do is make the catch, quickly turn baseline, and attack the rim. However, as the pass gets made, Dwight meets the basketball and comes out to make the catch, rather than holding his seal and letting the basketball come to him.
The result is he now catches the basketball in an area he is not comfortable working from and is too far out to be a threat.
Again, look at how deep Dwight Howard is in the paint here. Both feet in the blue, and if he makes the catch here, he can quickly hit a hook (or he will be fouled). However, once again as the basketball gets passed to him, he meets the basketball rather than holding his seal.
Now look where Dwight catches it. This is still decent post position, but compared to where he was when the pass was made, I consider this a loss for him.
Another flaw that I noticed with Dwight is that when the pass comes in, he stands straight up in anticipation of recieving the ball. When he does this, he loses all of his lower body strength and this allows for the defense to give one last push and force him to make the catch farther away from the basket then he would like.
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Now, I didn’t get a chance to see Dwight’s preseason game, and Hakeem has been working with him all offseason (seriously, go watch that video posted by MagicBasketball.net – It is amazing) so maybe this isn’t an issue anymore. However, this is something you can look for because if Dwight is able to hold his initial post position, he can be really tough to guard.
