Howard is inducted into the Hall of Fame: Forgotten by the 75 list, but his five-year peak is a historical level

Translator's note: The original text was published in TheAthletic, and the data in the text were as of the time of publication (September 5th local time). The dates and times involved are all local time. The views in the article have nothing to do with the translator and the platform.

In 2021, when the NBA announced its roster of 75 historical stars, there were two obvious remains that were particularly eye-catching.

One of the obvious remains is Nikola Jokic, and over time, his defeat seemed increasingly ridiculous.

The other is Dwight Howard, who is still underestimated even if he is about to be inducted into the Ney Smith Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday. Although it is always challenging to compare players across the ages, Howard's career resume - being selected for the NBA All-Team for five consecutive times, winning the Defensive Player of the Year three times, and ranking in the top five in the MVP selection four times - is outstanding even by the standards of that 75-bit roster.

This week, Cameron Anthony, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame together with Howard. But what is surprising is that Anthony was selected into the 75 roster without any suspense, and he is unable to compare with Howard in terms of hard honors such as the number of first-teams of the All-Squad (0 times), the top five MVPs (1 time), and the experience of the NBA Finals (0 times). I'm not saying this to belittle melons. If you look at the 75 list, you will be shocked to find that many of the selected candidates' resumes cannot be compared with Howard. In fact, as of 2021, all other players who won the first team of the All-A-League were selected for that roster.

For those who are more convinced of the "Champion Theory" discussion, think about this: Howard was once the well-deserved best player and only superstar in an NBA Finals team. When we look at that roster, we find that there are very few players who can do this. Read through the 75 roster again and notice how many great players are not meeting the standards in this item.

If you use the criteria of "Has he ever been recognized as the best in the league, or even the top two players in the league?", you will find that in the second half of the 75th roster, many players also do not meet it.

Somehow, Howard's five-year dominant performance from the 2006-07 season to the 2010-11 season has been ignored. Part of this is that people remember the second half of his career more deeply than the first half, when back problems undermined his extraordinary athletic ability, and some other stupid behaviors hindered his career trajectory. Part of this is that his peak years were spent in Orlando, a small-season market, and his performance on the biggest stage in the 2009 Finals vs. The Lakers were disappointing. Part of the reason is that he is not the player who holds the ball most of the time, has no shooting range, and the technical combination at the low post is also quite elementary, mainly composed of small hooks.

The many negative statements surrounding the second half of his career have led some people to more or less forget how outstanding his first half of his career was.

Howard is not just playing the role of a ruler in an ordinary team that has managed to enter the finals through the weak Eastern Conference. His peak period coincided with the only strong teams in the East in the past thirty years.

In particular, in his 2009 Magic, he had to defeat the defending champion Celtics who had won 62 wins just to enter the division finals - including winning Game 7 away. (Yes, Kevin Garnett was injured, but the Magic's entire starting backcourt was also injured). Then, the Magic eliminated the Cavaliers led by LeBron James, who won 66 wins. In addition to the Celtics, from 2007 to 2018, Howard's Magic was the only Eastern Conference team to keep James outside the NBA Finals goal. Howard was able to defeat the Cavaliers in that round of the series. He destroyed the Cavaliers' inside, averaging 25.8 points and 13.0 rebounds in the series, and in Game 6 of the win, he scored 40 points and 14 rebounds in dominant statistics.

This is not just Howard's data contribution, he has created all kinds of chaos on the outside by relying solely on the threat of hitting the basket. The Magic also wisely took advantage of this, equiping him with four 3-point shooters – which led the game at the time – and led the league in three-point shooting percentage (three-point shooting to total shots) for four consecutive seasons. This team quietly changed the game.

Ironically, while Howard himself is hopeless in three-pointers, his presence is the only reason to create so many three-pointers. He basically acts like a towing beam, attracting defenders who are determined to stop him from dunking easily, creating countless open three-pointers for players like Rashad Lewis and Courtney Lee.

When other great insiders in the late 90s and early 2000s created three-pointers by passing in low posts, Howard created those opportunities without even touching the ball. The reason why his power towards the basket created a three-pointer opportunity is because he has gravity comparable to the Suns.

6-foot-10 inches (about 2.08 meters), Howard bounces beyond everyone, and he can end all attacks, most of which are dunks with both feet. More importantly, he has quick steps and amazing feel. Looking back only on the 2009 playoff clip, some straight passes he received in the crowd were incredible. Many big players may hit the face directly when they receive such passes.

At the same time, Howard at his peak was one of the greatest defenders in game history. He was an elite rim protector who could run all over the field during offense and defense conversions, and could also defend his position when defending the outside. Although like almost all the big guys of that era, he mainly used the Shen Lu defense.

Although the lineup of defenders around Howard is not as top-notch, the Magic in 2009 ranked first in the league in defensive efficiency. They were ranked first again in 2010 and third in 2011, and Howard was selected as the Defensive Player of the Year in all three seasons. These three votes were also overwhelming, with Howard receiving more than 85% of the votes each time.

Let's review the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals. Synergy's data shows that in the fourth game, the Cavaliers targeted Howard 27 times in the pick-and-roll. But after this style of play did not work, they drastically reduced this attempt in the last two games.

It should be noted that the ball holder here is LeBron James at his peak. He hit the big man in the back with the ball, which is one of the highest level threats on the defensive end, which either attracts defenders or causes the big man to defend him to become a highlight background board.

However, unless, you have your peak at the basket, Howard is waiting.

In this case, you can handle this match without sending extra hands, and the Cavs' character player will lose the offensive opportunity.

This does not mean that magic completely prevented him. James averaged 38.5 points per game in that series. But he needs to take all the moves to do this, because the Magic doesn't require as much defense against him as most opponents do.

Howard was so powerful in the Magic that even though the rest of his career was quite "mediocre", he could still be named one of the great players at the historical level. However, the second half of his career was not “mediocre”—though many people may be seeing this—but it did not reach his first five seasons. (Howard was selected for the All-Star in both the Lakers and the Rockets, leading the league rebounding list when he played for the first time and winning a championship as a defensive expert on his second time.)

As many fans know, I have a formula called "GOAT Points" that aims to measure the strength of my career. Howard ranks 35th in history, and this ranking is surprisingly high for a player who is excluded from the 75th roster in history. (In 2021, all other players who should have entered the top 50 GOAT points were selected, except Tracy McGrady. Do we need to investigate whether there is a potential bias against players who switched to the Rockets from the Magic?)

Perhaps we were spoiled by the durability of James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant in the league's two decades of dominance, but a five-year peak like Howard is at the historical level. Even all-time players like Garnett, Chris Paul, Dirk Nowitzki and Moses Malone have only had four best teams in their entire career.

Looking back at the top ranks of the top 30 players in NBA history, almost no one has a five-year peak that can be compared with Howard.

When we celebrate Howard's career this weekend, we should not worry about the possibilities in the second half of his career, but rather think about how underestimated the first half of his career is still today. His dominant performance in the Magic for those five years was strangely overlooked in the chronicles of the Alliance's history.