Hakeem Olajuwon thinks Dwight Howard is ready to have an MVP-type year. Speaking with NBA.com's Fran Blinebury, the Hall of Famer said the Houston Rockets center is finally fully healthy and should be better than last season:
“I could see last year when I worked with him in camp that there were some things that he could not do. Or they were things that he did not think he could do. The difference now is that he is fit and those doubts are gone. This is the player who can go back to being the best center in the league and the kind of player that can lead his team to a championship. I think he should be dominant at both ends of the floor.”
…“I played at a time when were so many players that could win the MVP each year — Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone. It meant you weren’t going to win the MVP every year. But you had to play like an MVP and have your name in the conversation. I believe that’s where Dwight is now. He is healthy. He is physically fit. He is strong. He wants to win.
“It is about attitude. He should have a season that makes everyone vote for him as MVP. If that happens, they should be contenders for the championship. I believe that. Now they have to believe it.”
Olajuwon isn't exactly an unbiased observer, given his relationship with the Rockets and the many hours he's spent working with Howard. He also, unsurprisingly, championed the importance of centers. It's notable, though, that Olajuwon thinks Howard is on a different level than he was during his first year in Houston.
Howard was great last season. He averaged 18.3 points, 12.2 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game, shooting 59 percent from the field. In the playoffs against the Portland Trail Blazers, he raised his game and appeared just about unstoppable on the block. He didn't make the All-Defensive team, though, and while he improved over the course of the season, he never looked quite as good as he did at his peak in Orlando.
At the beginning of training camp, Howard told Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski that he'd talked to Olajuwon about being more consistent and approaching regular-season games the way he'd handled postseason ones. He sees the Rockets as title contenders, and it's obvious to everyone that there will be more on his shoulders. With Chandler Parsons, Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik out of the picture, Houston has less overall talent than it did at the beginning of the summer. The hope is that Howard and James Harden up their games so that won't matter.
After the 2012-2013 Los Angeles Lakers debacle and his back trouble, some have probably forgotten just how much of a force Howard was a few years ago. He finished second in MVP voting behind LeBron James in 2011, and there was a reasaonble argument that he should have won it due to being the most irreplaceable player. Back then he was the NBA's most impactful defender, its scariest threat off of the pick-and-roll and a magnet for double teams in the post. When Olajuwon says Howard can be "dominant at both ends of the floor," that's where your mind should go. Will he ever play at that level again? We'll find out.
