J-KiddWith some time to kill in Vegas before hitting the unveiling of the Nike Zoom LeBron V, I figured I’d check out the final Team USA practice before the FIBA Americas (Olympic qualifying) tournament tipped off on Wednesday. The practice, held at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center on the same court where the ‘07 All-Star Game was played, was closed to the media until the last half-hour or so, which pretty consisted of some shooting drills and individual position work.
On the way to the gym with a group of reporters, one guy was talking about how he’d seen Nene in Vegas earlier that day. “He’s got a huge Afro. He looks like Darnell Hillman!” the guy said. That’s how you age yourself; I probably would have said Ben Wallace or Josh Childress.
Once I was inside the gym, right off the bat I could tell who are the alpha dogs on the U.S. squad: J-Kidd, Kobe, ‘Melo, LeBron and Amare – who also happen to be the likely starting five. On the other end of the spectrum you have Tyson Chandler and Tayshaun Prince, who carry themselves with a kind of “little brother” vibe around the other guys.
For the position work, the team split up: guards/wings on one side of the floor, bigs on the other. Given all the injuries (Bosh, Brand, Marion), no-shows (Boozer) and recent cuts (Collison), you wondered how the interior rotation is gonna look. From the way they split it on Tuesday, it’s Amare, Dwight Howard, Chandler, Prince and Carmelo, with ‘Melo and Prince playing the four.
Gus Johnson: “Deron Williams for thraaaaay!”Dwight is a freak of nature. He easily gets his head at the rim, doing windmills and double-clutch dunks with absolutely no effort. He only shows his human side when it comes to jump shots; he can’t buy one. While Amare had a nice 18-footer going – where he talks to each ball on its way to the cup – Dwight couldn’t even stick a 10-footer. In the entire time I was there, I never saw him make a shot that wasn’t a dunk.
At one point, ‘Melo missed a three because the rim was still shaking after an Amare dunk. “Stop dunking!” Carmelo shouted with a laugh. ‘Melo was the comedian of the day; when guys broke off into free throw shooting, he had everyone cracking up by imitating their free throw strokes, especially going after Tayshaun’s unorthodox style.
1 & 1AAmare is sporting a couple new tats – I can’t tell what they are from my vantage point, but it looks like matching ones on each arm. He’s also got a band-aid over one ear, like you’d do back in middle school when your ear was freshly pierced and you couldn’t take it out yet. During one drill where STAT was posting up an assistant coach holding one of those big pads to simulate a defender, Amare shouted “Mouse in the house!” whenever he posted up the pad.
On the other side of the court (Kobe, Deron Williams, Chauncey, Redd, Miller, Kidd, LeBron), they spent most of the time playing four-on-four in a drill where the point was to get an open three. Duke assistants Johnny Dawkins and Wojo stepped in to fill the gaps. (Wojo looks like he could still play.) Redd and Kobe were on fire – I don’t remember seeing either one of them miss from the corner. Even in the drill, LeBron seemed hesitant to shoot unless he was wide-open. It’s not a bad thing; it just shows he’s a natural passer. He’s like KG in that way — people get on him for sometimes passing up game-winning opportunities, but it’s in LeBron’s nature to make the right play and be a little too unselfish.
Carmelo’s iceAfter practice, a few guys hung around for interviews. Kobe of course had the biggest group around him, with Carmelo coming in second. ‘Melo had his right shoulder on ice for some reason – not sure if it’s just his standard or if he’s hurt. It was hard to push through the mob and get close enough to Kobe to hear him, but it sounded like he steered clear of Lakers questions.
After the Team USA practiced, Team Virgin Islands took the court. I recognized ex-Pitt PG Carl Krauser, but that’s it. From the Thomas & Mack it was back to the Wynn Hotel for the LeBron sneaker unveiling, which you can read about here.
That was pretty much it for my Vegas trip. A 7:15 a.m flight back to New York made it hard to stay out late after the LeBron event, so I called it a night to get up early and get to the LV airport, which is kind of a zoo any time of day.
Things you would only hear in the Vegas airport at 5:45 a.m.:
1st guy: “Oh $#!&, where’s my ticket?”
2nd guy: “Don’t worry, dude, I got your back.”
1st guy: (trying to figure out if that makes any sense at all) “OK.”
August 22nd, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Russ says:
Glad to see that someone else finally realized Howard can’t make ANY shot but a dunk. He’s not the most over-rated player in the league, but he’s up there.
Considering international teams just pack in the zone and fill up the paint, that offensive ‘repertoire’ is pretty useless.
Now hopefully he can atleast get some rebounds from all of the other bricklayers on our squad, and maybe block a couple shots. Unfortunately, he did very little of either last time around. That’s in addition to the fact MOST international teams are perimeter oriented (witness we can’t defend a simple pick and roll) , so shot blocking is kinds of a useless thing as well when guys are shooting all threes and pick and pops.
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Bron42 says:
lol how can you call him overrated when hes a)only been in the league how long? b) no one ever tries to sell him as a jumpshooter. c) sure he can only dunk but if thats all he tries to do, and no one can stop him, wheres the flaw? was kareem overrated because he pretty much only sky hooked and wasnt shootin 18 footers? Dwight is young and athletic and we ALL know he isnt nick anderson behind the arc but callin him overrated is crazy when he does what hes asked, dunk, block shots, rebound and dunk for now. Also dwight was probably the most consistant big last time. Both bosh and elton brand didnt do crap and brad miller was nice the first game and then had court side seats the rest. IF dwight can stay out of foul trouble (questionable) he’ll do fine.
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:59 pm
FreedomJoe says:
DHo
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:00 pm
Russ says:
a) this will be his 4th year in the league. time for him to get it, or atleast show that he has added to his game. if you look at all the great centers just from the last generation(robinson, hakeem, ewing, etc.), they were all considerably further ahead than he is at this point. more blocks, commands double teams, etc.
b) never tried to say he is/should be a ‘jumpshooter’. but it’s pretty pathetic when a dunk is LITERALY the ONLY shot you can make with regularity to be put on a pedastal as much as he is. he misses layups with entirely too much frequency, let a lone a jump hook or a nice little 8-10 foot bunny. all of the big men from the dream team could atleast hit 6,8, 10 footers consistently, that’s not asking much.
your also missing out on the fact that kareems skyhook actually takes quite of a bit of SKILL to pull off, and is actually a go to move. not to mention that it actually WAS unstoppable, as evidenced by the fact he is the leagues all-time leading scorer and averaged almost 30ppg as a rookie. you could give him the ball and clear out, and he’d get you buckets. you give d howard the ball and clear out…and you get bloopers, big difference.
dwight howard is FAR from unstoppable. he has NO go to move. he has catch an alley-oop, or get a rebound and put it back. he rarely commands a double team, and it’s not like he’s any good at passing out of it if he did considering his assist numbers. he also leads the league in total turnovers, and shoots less than 60% from the free throw line..which makes you somewhat of a liability at the end of games. he also only averages half the assists AND blocks as kareem ever did in his first 4 years.
whether or not he was the most consistant big last time I don’t know, but if he was…it ain’t saying much. with the exception of the one game miller had that you mentioned, all of those guys looked like crap the whole tournament.
i’m not saying he’s not a talent with great potential, or that he won’t go down as an all-time great at some point if he works at it and adds to his game like guys from the last generation..all i’m saying is he ain’t there yet…and his game is not really useful in international comp…..so people need to calm down on the boy.
August 23rd, 2007 at 2:04 am
nick says:
first off D12 came straight out of high school. all the great centers spent at least 2 yrs in college. so robinson, dream, ewing, etc all had considerable amount of time to grow. so the comparision at this stage is not really fair. cause i bet if dwight went to college the offense would have been run through him, thus him learning how to do more then just turn and dunk.
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:03 am
Amar says:
moses malone came out of highschool… amare is like a center? kg has a similar body to Dhoward, both came out of highschool too . . .
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:24 am
Celts Fan says:
Amare was the same til that knee injury forced him to work on shooting cuz he literally couldn’t jump. It may’ve been the best thing that ever happened to him. Dwight is over-rated now, yes, but it’s not like he’s 30 and he is what he is. At this point, I’d take Big Al Jefferson over him (for this team, and for this year only, he’s got a MUCH better offensive game, can rebound too) but Dwight’s got all the talent in the world, and you can teach someone to shoot J’s, you can’t teach someone to be 7 feet tall and be able to jump high enough to slap a sticker on a backboard 12 feet up! Dwight will be fine, just give him time to develop his offensive game. Is he kind of over-rated now? Yes, definitely, but he’ll develop more offense and grow into that rep. Like I said, I’d take Big Al over him now, but within 3 years, at most, Dwight will be the best (maybe 2nd - Amare) center in the NBA with that developed offensive game and will dominate the paint for the next decade.
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:13 am
DOC says:
all them other centers were 25 26 their 4th year in, whats Dwight 21. Slow down. When the dream team came out they were all damn near 30. Give the youngbuck some time. They used to say the same just dunk shit about Shaq until he got his chips. So all Dwight might need is that dumb ass jumphook Shaq got. And a trade for Kobe or Dwade.
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:15 am
Shawn says:
Dwight is a beast!!
http://www.squidoo.com/dwighthoward
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:42 am
Celts Fan says:
I agree Doc, I’m not saying Dwight’s crap by any means. I think LeBron’s over-rated too (he’s a top 5-10 player definitely, but this Best in the NBA crap needs to stop until he starts playing some D and making outside shots at a higher percentage.) That’s no knock on either guy and I’d kill for my team to get either one, just an opinion that their games haven’t quite caught up to their hype just yet (though I fully expect that they will w/ both of them very, very soon)
August 24th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
kudabeen says:
17 and 12 at 21 years old is overrated?
Russ:
I guess Shaq is overrated too right? So when he was dominating those skilled players it was just because he was so overrated and could just dunk all over them.
The game is not about taking more difficult shots, it’s about doing what you do best better than your opponent. Give me the guy that avgs 17ppg on 10 fga shoots above 60% and 12+rpg. How many layups do he really miss. I guess he and Shaq should make 90-100% of their shoots right, because no other big men in the league misses contested layups when banging downlow? right?
Dwight gets doubled everynight, because otherwise it’s a dunk. What are you talking about. Brian Hill main concern was teaching Dwight what?…HOW TO PASS OUT OF THE DOUBLE TEAM! Jameer was not a very good setup guy at all this year and they didn’t have any real distributors on the team. He sees doubles every game…
People aren’t getting it. He only averaged 10 shots a game! Why do he need a jumpshot on his team. Did Shaq ever shoot pull ups. He is a Big Man with a Big Man game! Guys start shooting jumpers when they can’t handle getting their shots off in the inside. No he doesn’t have a go to move yet, but so what?!? 60 fg%!
No one calls Dwight the best anything in the league right now. Everyone talks abut his body and athleticism. So what makes him overrated? What prize or praise have you come across that he did’nt deserve. He shouldn’t be considered an All-Star center in the East? He shouldn’t be on the Olympic team? If you watched last year the team was a lot more stable with him in the game. He controls the paint and he doesn’t make many silly fouls.
Celt’s Fan, I’m disappointed that you are being a homer and saying right now Al is better than Dwight.
Al Jefferson is not and has never been better than Dwight! Jefferson was on a bad team where he was the number 1 option with Pierce out with injuries and still averaged less points than DH (while shooting 51% to Dwight’s 60), He was there only big that played big minutes and averaged less rebounds and less blocks. How is he better? He doesn’ have any intangibles that make him better. He isn’t more exprienced. He is also almost a year older than Dwight. Get real. Bottom line. He hasn’t proved to be very durable either. Who is better than Dwight that people are saying Dwight is better than? Only guy I can remotely think of is Chris Bosh, but I can’t say that anyone says dwight is better than him right now. Dwight is a better big man than he is, because Bosh can’t bang inside, but overall Bosh is light years ahead of DH.
Dwight is the Best Up and Coming Big in the league. 17ppg, 12rpg, 2 bpg 60 fg% and didn’t miss a start all year!
Al Jefferson doesn’t even compare when you look at their careers side by side. They came in the league the same year. Jefferson is better at appearing to be a great low post player, when he really is just good. 20 and 10 on a playoff team furture all-star good…no….more like 16 and 10 on a bad/injury riddled team where he was the number one option most of the year, while also never playing a full season due to a suspect ankle and conditioning, which shouldn’t be that big of a deal for a guy that plays below the rim anyway good…yup.
Russ and others just stop dissing just to do it. Actually try to substantiate it with some kind of facts. He is overrated because he is being called a freak athlete with tons of potential? really? Isn’t that what he is.
Dwight plays like a Big should play and many aren’t tough enough and in the condition to play. Every wants to be on the outside dribbling, but that’s not as valuable as a guy that is banging down low taking up space, swallowing rebounds and intimidating people driving to the hoop. Okay so Dwight is not Kareem Abdul-Jabar…You are a genius! Here I was all this time thinking, “man that Dwight is a dead ringer for Kareem”. That is a great assesment. Dwight isn’t skilled as the HOF centers of the past. Great. He does what he does consistently. We all know what he is and what he is going to do on the court.
I’ve been off for a while, but I’m back… Crap post like that won’t ride.
Let me introduce you all to Dwight Howard:
http://www.nba.com/playerfile/dwight_howard/game_by_game_stats.html
(please pay attention to not just the numbers, but how he gets them and how little he gets the ball)
August 24th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Celts Fan says:
kudabeen, I’m not taking anything away from Dwight Howard, I just think you need to be able to do something other than dunk. That’s all he can do. Big Al will fake you out of your shoes and go by you, or go up and under, or post you up and just turn and shoot, and he’s added a limited range J (10-15 feet) enough so that people have to respect it and buy up-fakes. How many layups did you see Dwight miss last night? I counted at least 3 or 4. I’m not saying he’s useless by any means, but come on man, right now, he’s a bigger Ben Wallace, which is still REALLY good, but (right now) he’s a secondary scorer, whereas Big Al can (and will) be a franchise player before long.
And if you read my post again, I openly said, “just an opinion that their games haven’t quite caught up to their hype just yet (though I fully expect that they will w/ both of them very, very soon.)” Dwight gets a lot of well-deserved pub cuz he’s a legit 7′0″ and can jump outta the gym, but because of that, people think that (RIGHT NOW, cuz like I said, I fully expect him to get there “very very soon”) he’s better than he is. He’s a defensive enforcer in the middle that’s a second or third option offensively. You made my argument for me when you said he only takes 10 shots a game. By the way, here are the stats for their 3 head to head games this year (Big Al was hurt on 11/13, and I know that helps your point.)
On 4/15, Big Al had 28 and 6 to Dwight’s 10 and 14
On 3/18, Big Al had 23, 13, and 1 to Dwight’s 12, 14, and 6
On 1/7, Big Al had 12, 7, and 2 to Dwight’s 18 and 12
(Big Al didn’t play in the 11/13 game)
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=270415019
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=270328002
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=270107019
August 24th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
MagicBluez says:
Orlando guy here…Dwight wasn’t encouraged to shoot by our previous brain trust of coaches. Good news….they finally hired a big man coach…some nobody named Patrick Ewing…so now we’ll see if Howard can develop a mid game. He needs it.