Dwight Howard
(Simmons: #91, BBR: #47)
Dwight Howard is one of the most impressive young players in the NBA today. He is the only player in NBA history to be named Defensive Player of the Year 3 straight times, and his career rebounding average is #12 all time and #1 among all active players.
Howard has only two real weaknesses: he is a horrible free throw shooter, and he turns the ball over about 3 times per game. Other than that, he is one of the most incredible talents to ever take the court. He has missed only 7 games in his 7 seasons, has the 4th-highest field goal percentage of all time, and leads the league in blocks and rebounds almost every year.
Howard has constantly improved throughout his career, starting out as the youngest player to ever average a double-double for a season, as a rookie at age 19. That year he averaged only 10 rebounds per game, but he has not let his average dip below 12 since. In his first two seasons, Orlando missed the playoffs, but since then they have made five straight appearances in the postseason.
In his fifth season, he led Orlando all the way to a surprise appearance in the NBA Finals, putting up his usual impressive numbers all the way. Those numbers are listed below:
Howard (2009 playoffs) - 20.3 pts, 15.3 reb, 2.6 blk, .601 FG%
The next season his numbers dipped slightly, and as a result the Magic made it only to the Eastern Conference Finals, but Howard was unquestionably their leader in both campaigns. In fact, other than his rookie season, he's been the best player in Orlando, going clear back to when he was just 19 years old.
Howard's career rebounding average currently stands at 12.9 per game, tops among active players, and the best of any player in the past 30 years other than Dennis Rodman. With Shaq's recent retirement, Howard also became the active leader in field goal percentage, with a .578 career mark that ranks fourth all-time.If he is able to remain healthy and have a career into his mid-30's, it's quite likely we could be talking about him as one of the top 5 centers of all time.
Howard has only played a short time, but in the time he's had he's already surpassed what Williams did in his too-short career. The biggest difference came because Howard didn't take a full season off in his prime like Williams did. Both led teams to the NBA Finals, with Howard's team falling just short of the title. That small difference wasn't enough for me to call Williams a better player, and who knows how high Howard will rise in the end.
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