Photo by Horia Varlan on Flickr
There are moments — crucial end-of-close-game moments — when Stan Van Gundy has to sit his best player, Dwight Howard. Or they can’t trust giving him the ball.
Because Howard will get fouled, and he shot only 59.6 percent from the free throw line last year (which is pretty much right at his career average of 59.8 percent). It’s a liability.
So Howard is working with free throw guru Ed Palubinskas this summer to change his game,reports the Orlando Sentinel. Palubinskas, an Australian national and Olympian, hit 87.5 percent of his free throws while at LSU and has become a coach to many big names.
via Pro Basketball Talk: Dwight Howard has hired free throw shooting guruÂ
It’s still summer, so Dwight Howard is back to hiring various basketball geniuses to help work on his game. Last year he was improving his post game with Hakeem Olajuwon, and this year he’s looking to work on his proverbial “I made 1 out of 2, right?” free throw problem. It’s a problem that’s hindered him in the past, and one that’s led to countless “Dwight Howard isn’t clutch because he can’t be a go-to-guy in the fourth quarter, ok?” arguments from fans. More power to Howard, I say. He should have plenty of time to improve during the endless Lockout Rabbit Hole we’ve all been slowly transported into, against our will.
Personally, I’ve never had a problem with Howard’s free throw struggles. Shooting free throws from the mountainous height of 10Â seven feet isn’t the easiest thing to do, and no star’s game is ever complete in the eyes of the basketball world. It’s undeniable that Howard’s free throws struggles have seriously hurt him during the 4th quarter (and every quarter), but it’s interesting to see how stars working on their games can both shift perception and reality. LeBron James has an inadequate post game. Dirk Nowitzki isn’t an elite rebounder. Chris Paul is injury-prone. Kevin Durant can’t create his own shot easily. Dwyane Wade is aging quickly. Kobe Bryant should focus on higher-percentage shots.
These perceptions aren’t necessarily entirely wrong, but they become negative stigmas individually attached to the stars of the NBA. By trying to iron out on the negative stigmas attached to his game, Howard stands to shift fan perception along with his actual skill. It worked for his post game last season (at least to some extent), but this kind of a technical problem might be more difficult to differentiate from its original course.
How stars are viewed is always changing in the NBA. The way the typical NBA fan views the Kobe Bryant of today is considerably different than how they would have talked about 2007 Kobe Bryant, and his legacy. Even more so, 2011 LeBron is perceived vastly different than 2010 LeBron. A seemingly slight action in the grand scheme of a career can shift the perceived quality of a player. Dwight Howard trying to improve his free-throw shooting means very little to fans right now, but if he achieves success, as a “newfound” player with the ability to make free throws and muster up a considerable post game, perception can begin to shift. But perceptions don’t shift easily. Before this season’s playoffs, the casual fan would have told you that Dirk Nowtizki isn’t “clutch” because of what happened in the 2006 Finals, despite evidence that’s pointed to the contrary throughout his career.
Dwight Howard might not be able to significantly improve his free-throw shooting or his overall game, but at least he’s setting himself up for the chance to make a change of some kind. He’ll probably toil away in Orlando next season (an asterisk should probably be placed on “next season” these days), dealing with the constant fallout that will come with any sign he may leave Orlando or any failure by the team. He may be better as a player, but his team will likely be underwhelming, and that’ll take precedence over any changes in his game. Some fans will appreciate the changes if they’re combined with noticeable effort, but the focus of the media will remain on a possibly fracturing team and the future of Howard. Eventually, however, Howard will find himself on a team with the chance to be great, whether that’s a mysteriously revitalized Magic team, the Lakers, the Mavericks, or some other franchise. When that success comes to, so will general recognition of the player Howard has evolved into and will continue to evolve into and become.
If things work out favorably for him in the future, fans will begin to notice. What they may not realize, however, is that the changes in Howard’s game will have been gradually occurring for a long time. General perception doesn’t always shift along with actuality.
