Charlotte Hornets: A closer look at Dwight Howard’s poor play in the post

Dwight Howard‘s post-ups have done more harm than good for the Charlotte Hornets during his first season with the team.

Although Dwight Howard has never been a great scorer with his back to the basket, Steve Clifford has made a concerted effort to get his new big man plenty of post-up opportunities every game. Even when he’s not playing well or making shots from the post, the Charlotte Hornets continue to run plays through D12 which, at times, can slow down the offense and limit spacing.

Throughout his career, Howard has largely relied on his athleticism to score. Many teams have tried to help Dwight develop a reliable post game but it never stuck and while he is pretty good with his left hook, he isn’t nearly as skilled as Al Jefferson was in the post when he first arrived in Charlotte. Despite working with Hakeem Olajuwon on numerous occasions, even the Hall of Famer said in the past that he isn’t happy with how Howard has performed in the post. (BleacherReport.com)

The eight-time all-star is tied with Marc Gasol for the third most post-up possessions per game with 6.5 this season. That only trails Joel Embiid (10.4) and LaMarcus Aldridge (7.5). For comparison, Dwight is averaging more post-up opportunities than Blake Griffin, Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins, Hassan Whiteside, Karl-Anthony Towns and Kristaps Porzingis.

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Those 6.5 post-ups per game are almost double what Howard averaged last season (3.7) with the Atlanta Hawks. In his last two stops with Atlanta and the Houston Rockets, Dwight got upset with his lack of touches. Maybe fearing the same would happen with the Hornets, Steve Clifford has gone out of his way to make the big man a focal point of the offense.

Of players who average at least 3.0 post-up possessions per game this season, Howard ranks second to last in the NBA in points per possession. His 0.77 PPP ranks only ahead of Jusuf Nurkic (.70). Compare that number to Enes Kanter (1.10), Porzingis (1.06), KAT (1.02), Kevin Love (1.01), Embiid (0.99) and Aldridge (0.95). (NBA.com)

In post-up situations, Dwight has by far the highest turnover rate in the entire league at 27.5%. His score frequency is an abysmal 39.4% which is second to last in the NBA while he ranks in the 2.3 percentile among players who average at least 3.0 post-up possessions per game. (NBA.com)

By all accounts, he is not a good post-up player. It just isn’t his strength. Not to mention that having him post-up, stalls the team’s ball movement and limits the space that, namely, Kemba Walker has to create and attack the rim like his has in previous seasons.

He’s at his best when he creates deep post position and catches the ball in the paint:

When he catches the ball out of the paint and take multiple dribbles, that’s when the problems start:

In truth, the less responsibility Dwight has to score, the more he can impact the game with defense, rebounding and good screens. At this point in his career, the 31-year old isn’t going to somehow develop into a top-tier post scorer.

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The Charlotte Hornets would probably be better off if Howard doesn’t get as many post-up possessions per game. Of course, they need to give him at least a few to keep the big man happy and the defense honest but 6.5 is just far too many. Until he scores at a better rate or stops turning the ball over, I think using Dwight as a pick-and-roll big with Kemba and Nicolas Batum would give the team better results.