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For the consensus best player at his position, Dwight Howard sure hears a ton of criticism, not all of it unwarranted. He doesn’t take the game seriously enough. He needlessly blocks shots out-of-bounds instead of tipping them to teammates. He can’t make free throws and is thus a liability to his team in fourth quarters. His lack of back-to-basket moves limits him offensively.

I aim to address that last criticism of Howard’s, which has become a talking point for fans, analysts, and journalists throughout Howard’s eight-year career. Howard is by no means the game’s most polished back-to-basket center, but he’s not the glorified Tyson Chandler some folks make him out to be either.

To call Howard’s post game “clunky” is to be charitable to the six-time All-Star. Though he possesses excellent speed and quickness for a man his size, Howard is nothing if not deliberate on the block as he reads defenses.

A few years ago, Howard only had a jump hook in his arsenal; he’d pound his way to the goal, elevate, and toss the ball near the rim. He could do this move with either hand on either block, but it was his only weapon. A savvy defender could exploit his lack of versatility, as well as his famously top-heavy frame, by lowering his center of gravity to leverage Howard further from the basket, giving help defenders more time to dig down for a steal and making Howard’s eventual shot attempt a lower-percentage proposition.

Howard is still methodical, and even boring, when he operates in the post. What’s changed is the variety of moves at his disposal. Howard’s learned to counter the leveraging maneuver with quick spins to the baseline. He has a drop step that he can use on either block to shed defenders. He’s added a rolling hook, albeit one that’s much more effective going left-to-right with his right hand, as well. Regardless of the move he uses to set up his shots near the rim, he’s able to arc his shot more consistently in the past with fewer line-drive misfires.

Put simply, Dwight Howard is not utterly hopeless in the post as some folks in and around the game might have you believe. He’s neither refined nor spectacular in this part of his game, but he’s effective.

Evan Dunlap is the founder and managing editor of Orlando Pinstriped Post.

Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

Dwight Howard is a phenomenal basketball player and it’s a real shame his final game in a Magic jersey was not legendary, not impressive, and not even on par with what he is capable of.

Orlando will remember Dwight in several different ways. On the one hand, he was the lovable center, ever-devoted to the city of Orlando. On the other hand, he was a scoundrel, an indecisive child who got his coach fired and then left. Even another voice, the reasonable voice, is bidding Dwight good luck in Los Angeles and claiming it’s probably a better fit for him.

The one thing you won’t hear anyone remember him for in Orlando is what actually happened on the floor. That’s what’s so crazy about Dwight’s last game in an Orlando Magic uniform on the road against the Philadelphia 76ers. It doesn’t matter in the least what happened in that game. It doesn’t matter that he was playing with a jacked up back, doesn’t matter that he shot 28.6 percent from the field, doesn’t matter that he somehow shot 12-for-18 from the free-throw line, and doesn’t matter that he recorded a big ol’ double-double (20 points and 22 rebounds).

Still, though, there’s tons of intrigue in this game.

The ESPN broadcast crew on April 7 did everything in their power to uphold Dwight’s status as a superstar. Even in his early struggles, they pointed out the things he was doing right. How often do we need to hear that a screen is not something we’ll read about in the stat sheet? The truth is Dwight did a lot of things right in the game. He also did a lot of things wrong, a lot of things lazy, and a lot of things that make an optimist like me say, “thank God we don’t have to endure that style of play any longer.”

Playing time
Dwight played 44 minutes in this game. That’s seriously ridiculous. The guy played more than 44 minutes in only four other games during the regular season (out of the 54 games he played in last season). So, if you’re the sadistic type, rest in the fact that at least Van Gundy got his money’s worth out of Dwight in their last dance together.

Dwight’s game against the Sixers reminds me of that scene in “Miracle” when Herb Brooks made the USA hockey team run wind sprints (“Herbies”) over and over after tying Norway in an exhibition game.

“Again…”

“Again…”

“Again…”

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It’s hard enough to believe there is an award called the Rich and Helen Devos Community Enrichment award. Given the turmoil Dwight Howard put Magic fans through in both wanting the beloved Stan Van Gundy fired and then getting traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, it’s hard to remember the Dwight Howard who was once a shoo-in to win the award.

But think back to the start of the 2011-2012 lockout-shortened season and remember the goofy, fun-loving, and dominant player, fresh off a career year in 2011 which culminated in him taking home the distinction of Defensive Player of the Year for a league-record third consecutive season.

One thing was clear. The Orlando Magic was Dwight’s team and nobody had any problem with that. He was the future, not the problem. He was the hero, not the thorn in the side of a city. He not only won Community Enrichment awards and Defensive Player of the Year awards but he probably deserved more individual accolades, particularly the MVP.

Then things took a turn for the worse. The Magic became average. The lack of new blood and perpetual lethargy from veteran players wore out the franchise. Orlando was going nowhere as a team. You know the rest of this story. One quick (yet seemingly drawn out) downward spiral later and Dwight is the enemy, posted up in his ivory tower in Los Angeles.

But let’s not make the mistake of forgetting the Dwight Howard that was almost universally praised at the end of the 2010-2011 season.

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Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

If you were to compare the current incarnation of Dwight Howard to any other player in NBA history, at least from a narrative-based perspective, the closest parallel would probably be post-Decision LeBron James. Like LeBron, Dwight was drafted straight out of high school, developed into a dominant superhuman, took his team to the Finals, couldn’t replicate that success, and ultimately, departed on the wings of a PR catastrophe to a hated superteam in a glitzier market.

LeBron, however, made the Finals in 2007 with a team heavily featuring the likes of Eric Snow and Drew Gooden; his subsequent failures in the years after that came with far superior teams. Dwight’s Finals team — the 2009 Magic –- may not have been good enough to win it all, but they were a fascinating and successful combination of players and personalities made possible only by the fella in the middle and his friend on the sidelines.

Four-out, one-in
The plan was as simple as it was brilliant.

Even three years ago, when the complaints about his post game were based in fact more than ignorance, Dwight Howard was the sort of interior presence that weighed an entire court in his direction. Strong and agile, capable of elevating from any given spot and arriving with the ball at the rim, the premise was simple –- get Dwight either near the rim or rolling to it and you immediately solicit a response from all five defenders. It was within this defensive scramble that Orlando’s offense thrived and it was this constant set of circumstances that their personnel was set to exploit.

The team’s starting lineup was a perfect reflection of that philosophy.

Jameer Nelson and Hedo Turkoglu could run the pick-and-roll with Dwight and were well-versed at either finding him diving towards the rim or pulling up themselves for a jumper on the perimeter within the space that his movement created.

Rashard Lewis, the prototypical stretch four, would spot up off the ball, ready to benefit from the chaos by releasing a wide-open three.

Courtney Lee –- as were Mickael Pietrus and J.J. Redick when they came off the bench –- was an athletic swingman with a good outside shot who would fill the seams created by the constant ball movement without complaining about his role.

If the offense was a Dwight-centric system, full of pieces that could react and respond to what his sheer presence created, the defense was even more dependent on his performance –- and the results were even better.

Dwight commanded the paint, and though many of his teammates were limited defenders outside of it, the direction of Stan Van Gundy would send them flying out to the three-point line, preventing opponents from making shots worth one point more, while knowing that Dwight is behind them to cover for their eager close-outs. Howard played his part to perfection –- in 2009, he led the league in blocks and rebounds per game and was second in total rebound percentage and block percentage. And to top it all off, the Orlando Magic ranked first in Defensive Rating during the regular season. All those statistics allowed Dwight Howard to take home his first Defensive Player of the Year award.

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Photo by Fernando Medina/Orlando Magic

I must admit that I do not know a lot about Jacque Vaughn, Stan Van Gundy’s recently appointed successor as head coach of the Magic. This works both in his favor and against him when evaluating the decision.

On the one hand, he has no real track record of success, and therefore his aptitude as an NBA head coach is hard to set in stone. On the other hand, however, there are no obvious red flags or any real arguments against him other than a lack of experience. And for a team that is (probably) soon to plunge into the depths of a rebuild, a coach with a clean slate makes sense.

Vaughn possesses the one quality that seems forever at the top of many teams’ lists when hiring coaches or front-office executives: tenure in the San Antonio Spurs organization. It’s easy to see why this résumé point is appealing: the Spurs seem to be forever a factory of contention, both in player evaluation and draft acumen, and Gregg Popovich’s ability to turn seemingly any scrub into a valuable on-court contributor.

In his introductory press conference last week, Vaughn spoke glowingly of his time studying under Popovich, and for a novice coach, it’s hard to do better as a mentor. However, praising the hire by saying, “He’ll be fine, he comes from the Spurs’ system” is just as lazy and reductive as slamming it because of his lack of experience. He will have to make his own name as a coach now that he’s been given the reins of his own team.

It will be hard to truly evaluate how good the fit is until we have a clearer picture of what the team’s roster will look like come training camp. This, of course, means addressing the elephant in the room.

Vaughn took a few barely-concealed shots at Dwight Howard during his press conference, being careful to include in his list of traits he looks for out of his players is that they want to play in Orlando. This would seem to suggest that, should Howard begin the 2012-13 season in a Magic uniform, Vaughn’s patience for his now-infamous diva act will be low.

The good news for Vaughn, however, is that he’ll be given a pretty wide berth when it comes to criticism from the media. If the Magic struggle out of the gate with Howard in the fold, it will be hard to blame Vaughn for doing what he can with a superstar desperately wanting out. His real tenure as the Magic’s coach won’t begin until Howard is traded and he’s given a new, fresh roster.

Vaughn’s hire is a risk because of his lack of experience, but the Magic are a team that can afford to take this kind of gamble. They’re in the midst of a long, drawn-out battle with their most iconic player in two decades that has sunk them from perennial contender to also-ran, but also liberated them from any kind of expectations.

I think Vaughn will be good — he has the right people (Popovich and Bruce Bowen) singing his praises, and he’s already won the respect of Magic players including Glen Davis.

When taking a risk on an unknown, an ex-player with a high basketball IQ is a good direction to go in. It’s frustrating that he won’t be able to begin his tenure in earnest until Howard’s situation is sorted out, but for now, the Magic seem to be in good hands.