Are Howard, Crawford & Melo career over??

[SparzWizard]

I thought howard was under contract for wizards. I know people will hate me but I would take him on celtics

i would now , i saw him on a show week ago.....i was impressed , it took him 12 years to grow up,mentally.   I liked what i heard , very impressed ,  don't knowcwhat he has left to give.

He’s been fooling people in interviews for a long time and there were posts exactly like this one going back 5+ years.

Ya, you look at Dwight, it's not like he's Jared Sullinger, clearly in great shape.  You look at the stats, his per minute/per possession and PER make him look like a bargain and you start to think "dude looks like he's just a good situation away from being an All-Star/All-NBA again..."  But then you look at his track record and start to wonder.

Houston was openly shopping him in his last season there, found no takers.  Didn't try to re-sign him (AFAIK), and got better soon as he was gone.

Signed a 3 year deal with Atlanta.  They dumped him after 1 year.  They took on a worse player with a longer contract (Plumlee) and traded down 10 spots in the draft to get rid of Howard.

Traded to Charlotte.  They dumped him after 1 year.  At least Atlanta was trying to rebuild.  Charlotte was a 36 win team trying to make the playoffs, and they didn't want him after a year.  Charlotte got Mozgov ($33m left) and immediately flipped him for Biyambo ($34m left), and preferred either rather than paying Howard the $23m left on his deal.

Traded to Brooklyn.  They bought out his final year rather than have him play for them.  And they were trying to make the playoffs.

Signed a cheap ($11m/2yr) deal with Washington.  They're trying to make the playoffs next year, right?  They dumped him after 1 year, preferring to pay CJ Miles $9m rather than Howard $5.5m.

4 teams in 4 years tried to dump him, plus 2 other teams got him only to immediately waive him.

You look at him and think he should be able to help, but just stay away.

Didn't injury derailed his season in Washington

[gouki88]

I thought howard was under contract for wizards. I know people will hate me but I would take him on celtics

i would now , i saw him on a show week ago.....i was impressed , it took him 12 years to grow up,mentally.   I liked what i heard , very impressed ,  don't knowcwhat he has left to give.

He’s been fooling people in interviews for a long time and there were posts exactly like this one going back 5+ years.

Ya, you look at Dwight, it's not like he's Jared Sullinger, clearly in great shape.  You look at the stats, his per minute/per possession and PER make him look like a bargain and you start to think "dude looks like he's just a good situation away from being an All-Star/All-NBA again..."  But then you look at his track record and start to wonder.

Houston was openly shopping him in his last season there, found no takers.  Didn't try to re-sign him (AFAIK), and got better soon as he was gone.

Signed a 3 year deal with Atlanta.  They dumped him after 1 year.  They took on a worse player with a longer contract (Plumlee) and traded down 10 spots in the draft to get rid of Howard.

Traded to Charlotte.  They dumped him after 1 year.  At least Atlanta was trying to rebuild.  Charlotte was a 36 win team trying to make the playoffs, and they didn't want him after a year.  Charlotte got Mozgov ($33m left) and immediately flipped him for Biyambo ($34m left), and preferred either rather than paying Howard the $23m left on his deal.

Traded to Brooklyn.  They bought out his final year rather than have him play for them.  And they were trying to make the playoffs.

Signed a cheap ($11m/2yr) deal with Washington.  They're trying to make the playoffs next year, right?  They dumped him after 1 year, preferring to pay CJ Miles $9m rather than Howard $5.5m.

4 teams in 4 years tried to dump him, plus 2 other teams got him only to immediately waive him.

You look at him and think he should be able to help, but just stay away.

Didn't injury derailed his season in Washington

There was also a constant stream of off-court distractions coming from Dwight. Not entirely his fault, but still unnecessary distractions for a team with lots of young players.

[Muzzy66]

I honestly would be up for taking a chance on Howard if he was willing to sign for a vet min.

At the very least he is an elite rebounder, a solid post defender, and a capable scorer.  That already puts him at least on par with the best big man we currently have on our roster. 

The only real question marks are his health and his attitude, but:
* Health I don't worry too much about, because if he misses games we have a REALLY good backup center in Enes Kanter
* Attitude I don't worry about too much because assuming he is on a min contract, just waive him if he creates drama

Dwight might not be the defensive monster he once was, but even in his current condition he is still a HELL of a lot better defensively then Enes Kanter,  and he's just as good on the boards too.  He's not nearly as good offensively, but scoring is one thing that Boston should have plenty of in the starting lineup.  All the Celtics would really need is for him to control the boards and protect the rim for 20 - 25 minutes.  Provide a little toughness and physicality. 

Another benefit?  Starting Howard would allow Boston to bring Kanter off the bench, and that second unit really needs that extra scoring punch that he could provide.

[obnoxiousmime]

Not worth it.

One of my greatest disappointments was him choosing to leave the Lakers when they desperately wanted to re-sign him.

[LilRip]

The problem with Dwight has gotta be something more than just basketball. This is something us fans can only speculate as probably only front offices will know.

In terms of skill, I’d take him on though. He’d be a good back up to Kanter

[moiso]

The problem with Dwight has gotta be something more than just basketball. This is something us fans can only speculate as probably only front offices will know.

In terms of skill, I’d take him on though. He’d be a good back up to Kanter

When other problem players, like Irving this year for example, leave their teams you still have a lot of players saying positive things about them.  When Howard leaves a team, all the players openly rejoice.  It's not just management that is happy when he leaves.  Howard is extremely unpopular with other players.  They just don't like him for the most part.

I think Howard the basketball player would help us.  But if the team didn't want anything to do with Cousins who is the better teammate and better player, I don't see why they would consider Howard.

[mr. dee]

Dwight is the Center version of Kyrie. And I thought we don't want another locker room cancer as we already passed from guys like Boogie.

[Jamilmac99]

Yes, yes, and yes.

[nyceltsfan]

Isn't Robert Williams just a very raw version of Dwight Howard right now?  I think it could benefit us to have Howard around so Williams can at least observe him defensively.

[Birdman]

I wouldnt mind Howard as a backup..at this point of his career, he would take anything..plus he has child support to pay like me

[makaveli]

I got a better question:

Is Fultz’s carrer over?

[gpap]

I'd say so.

[Jamilmac99]

I got a better question:

Is Fultz’s carrer over?

Is water wet? Is the sky blue? Is Ozzy the Prince of Darkness?

Flutz is probably in the top five draft busts of all-time and that's saying something!!

[makaveli]

I just saw a piece with jaylen rose, and orlando gm being quoted that he doesn’t know when will he return, but that he is in great shape etc.

[Muzzy66]

Dwight is the Center version of Kyrie. And I thought we don't want another locker room cancer as we already passed from guys like Boogie.

If Kyrie was in his mid-30's, desperate to earn a roster spot anywhere, and was on a one year vet-min contract - maybe he wouldn't have been such a locker room problem. 

From what I have seen Howard does appear to have matured to some degree.  At the very least he's always kept his body in exceptional shape, which suggests that he has a quality work ethic at the very least.  And for all his criticisms he DOES have quite a bit of playoff experience, and does have the experience of having led a fairly weak Magic team tot he ECF.

More importantly, unlike Kyrie, Dwight does not need to have the ball in his hands in order to contribute to a team.  He can get you some extremely efficient points purely off put-backs and lobs.  Even when he isn't scoring himself, he can give your offense second chance opportunities through his offensive rebounding.  He's a guy who can score, rebound and defend yet would not need to take ANY touches away from Kemba, Jaylen and Jayson or Gordon.  Just stick him in the middle and let him do the dirty work.

He also is one of the greatest players in NBA history at actually drawing fouls and getting to the line - and even though he shoots free throws at a poor percentage, his ability to draw fouls on opposing defensive players is valuable in itself.  This is one area that has been publicly brought up as one of Bostons big, big weaknesses last year.

I really doubt that there are any big men available for vet min money who have the ability to contribute more then he could.  His ability to defend at an at least 'acceptable' level immediately makes him a better fit for Boston's starting 5 then Kanter IMHO.

I actually think the biggest issue for Kyrie right now is that he is still young, and still feels like he has something to prove as an individual. He clearly feels that he was robbed of his "time to shine" when Cleveland got Lebron, and so he is still out there focusing on his personal legacy, trying to prove to the world that he is an elite individual talent.  Maybe 3 or 4 years down the road he will start to feel that the only way to take his legacy to the next level is to prove he can win a title without Lebron, and at that point he will start to believe that winning games (whatever it takes) is more important then getting his numbers.  And maybe he grows into that role as a leader.   For now I just don't think he's ready for that yet mentally.