Dwight Howard Misses A Lot of Free Throws, Which Does Not Bother Dwight Howard Very Much

by Evan Dunlap on Jan 4, 2009 11:50 PM EST in Commentary

Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard and head coach Stan Van Gundy appear to differ in their opinion of Howard's career-long struggle to make free throws. Counting his 11-of-18 performance on free throws in yesterday's loss to the Toronto Raptors, Howard is shooting a career-worst .569 from the line this season. Ryan McNeill of Hoops Addict caught up with Howard and Van Gundy after yesterday's game. Here's Dwight:

Howard, however, wasn't too worried about his free throws. When asked in the locker room if he's frustrated or will beat himself up mentally over missed free throws he quickly responded, "No, I'm going to miss free throws. I'm not worried about it as long as I go back on the defensive end and make a play. I'm not 100 per cent from the line, so I know I'm going to miss some, but I've just got to have confidence when I step up there that I'll make them. I know Stan (Van Gundy) gets on me a lot, but I'm going to miss some and I'm going to make some."

Contrast this take with Stan's:

When asked directly about Howard's woes from the "charity" stripe, Van Gundy didn't hide his disgust when he responded, "It's not good enough, but that's about what he shoots. Sixty per cent at the free throw line makes it tough (to win). We've got a tremendous advantage down there because they couldn't guard him at all but they get to the fourth quarter and they just foul and it's just one out of two every time. Then we're coming down to the other end and it's two-for-two which is a big difference."

I hesitate to call Dwight out for doing bad--even with the poor free-throw shooting, he's having the best individual season of his career and is quite obviously Orlando's most important player--but it seems to me he should care more about missing free throws. Sure, he does a lot of things great. But consider this: if Dwight just shot 67.1% at the line--that's his career-high, from 2004/2005, his first professional season--he would have scored 47 more points this season, adding 1.5 points to his per-game scoring average. That's not an insignificant total. It's not like we're asking him to be Ray Allen or Reggie Miller at the stripe. Just two-thirds will do, man. Two-thirds! Does that sound nit-picky to you? Or am I being reasonable in asking a professional basketball player to make two-thirds of his foul shots?

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It's reasonable

It’s unreasonable to get worse every year, I don’t understand why he consistantly improves at everything except foul shooting.

by magic fanatic on Jan 5, 2009 1:05 AM EST reply actions

If he works on them and still misses

them thats one thing. Even Shaq worked tremendously hard on improving his Free Throw %. However, the attitude that it’s not a big deal is ridiculous. Even the 7 ones he missed, could have helped us quite a bit.

I’m kind of like you. I am hesitant to criticize him because he IS the franchise. Lord knows if we loose him…… However, that attitude just doesn’t cut it. His and Van Gundy’s relationship always concerns me, and Dwight not buying into something Stan want’s doesn’t help.

I tend to side with the coaches, but I also realize that if it was between Dwight and Stan…..we would alllll choose Dwight.

by MNeilson on Jan 5, 2009 10:24 AM EST reply actions

Yeah, his attitude was a bit concerning.

I don’t care if you suck. You gave the example of Shaq working his tail off to improve, but with no luck. At least he tried .. if Dwight at least tried to repeat his rookie performance at the charity stripe, both he and the Magic would be better off as a result.

Senior Writer for DePaul's Scout.com website

by erivera7 on Jan 5, 2009 3:33 PM EST up reply actions

So basically we are screw..

with Howard attitude, toward free throw.
I just cann’t call it like that, cause he provide much more to this team.
The thing is, that HE NEEDS to realize that FT are escential and a BIG diff between winning a championship or not.

I will see the Dolphins win a SUPER BOWL before i die(21 years and counting)

by Aleta on Jan 5, 2009 1:52 PM EST reply actions