It's been a month... now Dwight is dropping hints that he'd be open to leaving LA if he doesn't feel they are a contender.
http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2012/12/3/3721530/dwight-howard-lakers-championship-magic
Just a reminder that both Dwight Howard and Chris Paul are unrestricted free agents at the end of this year. You'd think this would be a bigger deal. I believe Dallas is in position to make a run at both of them.
Clips are poised to make a strong push this season. Don't see CP3 leaving to play with Howard. He already has a stronger supporting cast then Howard and Dirk.
I really strongly disagree. Dirk is a better leader and scorer than anyone on the Clips, Dwight is a better defender and rebounder than anyone on the clips. I guess you could argue Blake is better than Dirk, but Dirk has something Blake doesn't, and that's the ability to score at will, from anywhere. Dwight is already better than Blake.
Dirk will be 35 before next season starts. I don't think he has too many "score at will" years left.
I had two joke responses:
1) at what age does he stop being 7 feet tall with an unblockable jumpshot?
2) Don't Germans measure years in metric years? If a kilo gram is more than a pound, isn't Dirk actually 32 in American years?
But it's a fair point. I'd say Dirk has more than 2 years remaining as potentially dominant scorer at the 4, but he surely has less years left than Griffin, CP3, or Howard as an elite player.
We'll see. Right now the only players 36 or older that ever got 20 a game were MJ, Kareem and Malone.
That doesn't mean there hasn't been plenty of 36 year olds that can score at will. It means teams have a replacement ready because nobody plays much longer than 36. Instead of being left high and dry they try to integrate other guys into the offense, typically while the older guys sit back and coast to the playoffs.
Sometimes there's a replacement scorer, but I doubt that it's the case for all but 3 players in nba history. And Malone and Kareem are the only players in that age range that played more than 1 series in the playoffs and averaged 20 or more points, so I don't think that that coasting for the regular season is the issue either.
If Dirk is still getting 17 shots a game next year, there's no chance he scores less than 20. Much more likely some of those shots are going to OJ Mayo (or Collison and Crowder).
If KG and Ray were both getting 17 shots a game they'd be averaging well over 20 a game. The point isn't that players that age can't score efficiently, but they can't carry the load as often or as long as they used to.
1. Well first of all there's less than 40 guys period (let alone scorers) 36 or older that played 70 games and averaged 30 minutes. Most dominant scorers call it quits earlier whether it's because they want to retire dominant, they want to enjoy their money/family, they don't want to accept smaller roles, or because defensive players typically last longer (it's way easier to hide a guy on offense than defense). And again, it takes a lot of shots that aren't there for the guys left to score 20.
I bet you I can find a lot more instances where there's younger replacement guys getting more shots as a star nears retirement than you can find where there's an older star being "the guy" (and failing) on a roster full of garbage.
2. The reason why is because neither is on a team with poor enough players to warrant that many shots, which kinda makes my point. Put them back on a team like the Wolves or the Sonics and see what happens. Younger stars command more assets and are much more likely to be on a team all by themselves. Do you really think someone like 36 year old Duncan couldn't carry the load on a below .500 team and average 1 more point the rest of the season? Without Parker, Manu, and all the young guys they're trying to develop.