I’m legitimately curious: if a team could go back in time and draft Howard or Ben Wallace, how many take Wallace?
I'd take Howard. I don't even think it is all that close. Wallace basically had a 7 year peak which started 5 seasons into his career. During that peak he was a 4 time DPOY with 5 1st Team Defense and 1 2nd Team Defense along with 3 2nd Team All NBA and 2 3rd Team All NBA. He led the league in rebounding twice and scored above 8 ppg just twice. He had 3 seasons over 3 or more bpg (leading the league once). He led the league in Defensive Win Shares 4 times. He had 3 seasons of MVP votes finishing a best of 7th.
Howard's prime was over a decade, he had 4 separate 20+/13+ seasons and 14 seasons in which he averaged a double/double (and didn't have less than 12 ppg until his last 3 seasons). He led the league in rebounding 5 times and blocks twice (though never 3 per game). He had the 3 DPOY and 4 1st Team All Defense with 1 2nd Team All Defense and had 5 1st Team All NBA, 1 2nd Team All NBA, and 2 3rd Team All NBA. He had 4 seasons in which he led the league in defensive win shares. Howard had 5 seasons of MVP votes, including a 2nd place finish and 3 other top 5 finishes.
Wallace arguably had a slightly higher absolute peak from an impact standpoint, but it was just so much shorter and he was just so much worse offensively, that if you were drafting them and had their full career, Howard is the easy no brainer choice every single time.
The problem is, Dwight's attitude doesn't make him a no-brainer. I mean, the guy should have been a perfect fit next to Kobe, and then Harden. If he could have essentially been a rich man's version of Robert Williams, he'd still have a job in the league. Instead, he wanted touches for himself, at the expense of Kobe and Harden, despite never developing much of an interior game.
Howard was certainly more talented than Wallace, but as a coach do you want the dedicated, hard-working leader that a team galvanizes around, or do you want the unserious clown who won't play his best role?
He didn't play with Kobe until his 9th year and the Lakers were 42-34 in his 76 games that year (3-3 without him). Kobe was 34 and clearly on the downswing (they were 42-36 with him, 3-1 without him), then Pau played 42 games and Nash only 50. They had very little consistently a guy in Kobe that couldn't let go of who he was. I really don't fault Dwight for that season as the Lakers were absolutely better with him on the floor (their bench was atrocious, especially with all the injuries). The Lakers got rid of Dwight and then just cratered and started racking up very high draft picks.
Howard then went to Houston for his 10th, 11th, and 12th seasons (his 11th year he played just 41 games). Houston was a 45 win team the year before he got there (lost in the 1st round in 6) and then in his 3 years, they won 54 (1st round), 56 (WCF), 41 (1st round), but that last year he was 12 years in and on the wrong side of 30. I'm not sure that is as much a disaster as you are remembering. That last year seemed to go poorly, but they also fired McHale during the season, and in all 3 years, the Rockets were better when Howard was on the floor as opposed to on the bench.
12 years into Wallace's career he got traded mid-season from the 33 win Bulls to the 45 win Cavs that lost in the 2nd round (to Boston) and the Cavs were 11-11 with Wallace.
You give me just Orlando Howard and I'd be good as that was better than Wallace's entire career.
Topic: What exactly is Shaqs problem with Dwight Howard? (Read 4560 times)