Quick, name the top center in the NBA.
You probably said Yao Ming or Amare Stoudemire. Or, possibly, you wedged power forward Tim Duncan into center. Or perhaps the Denver in you got defensive — or went defensive — and said Marcus Camby.
The answer is Dwight Howard.
Arguably the most underappreciated player in the NBA, Howard entered the weekend with 23.1 points per game (11th in the league) and 14.4 rebounds (second). The guy gets a board during the national anthem. And he’s a pterodactyl shot blocker, tallying 2.5 per game (fifth). Two nights ago, he had a ho-hum 34 points, 17 rebounds and four blocks against Charlotte.
His team — the Orlando Magic, if you didn’t know — is 12-3, including 7-1 on the road. Moreover, they’re in the worst division in, maybe, pro sports.
Yes, he was an all-star last year and a Team USA member, as well. In basketball circles, he’s revered. But to the average glued-in sports fan with an ESPN tan, Howard is overlooked, probably because he’s as flashy as a minivan.
It’s funny that a decade and half ago, the Magic had the top young center in basketball, and the whole world knew Shaq’s name. Same team in 2007, same situation, and I bet you could ask a crowded sports bar about Dwight Howard, and at least one buffoon would say: first base, Philadelphia Phillies.
Even with their gaudy record, it’s hard to say that the Magic can usurp Cleveland, Boston and Detroit in the Eastern Conference. But with Howard and Rashard Lewis, they have an enviable frontcourt.
And Howard is just twenty-freaking-one. Yes, players get better faster these days. But even last season he averaged 17.6 points and 12.3 rebounds, compared to his 23.1 and 14.4.
I was in a locker room last season, gushing about Howard to an NBA player, proclaiming that Howard will win an MVP in the next three years. The guy looked at me like I had said “Juwan Howard.” But with the way Dwight Howard has evolved — and continues to do so — it’s a proclamation that’s hard to argue.
Putting in legwork. Remember Shaun Livingston? He was the star high school draftee who was coming into his own last season with the Clippers — until he dislocated his left knee and kneecap in February. Before the Clippers-Nuggets game Wednesday, coach Mike Dunleavy said Livingston should begin practicing with a ball in late January and could return to action in February or March.
“Everything has been on a steady rise for him,” Dunleavy said. “Everything has checked out with the doctors, the healing process has gone very well and now he’s into the strengthening process.”
Last season, at age 22, Livingston averaged 9.3 points and 5.1 assists.
Doubting Thomas’ effort. Chicago’s Tyrus Thomas, the fourth pick in the 2006 draft, can run like a deer. But against the Nuggets last week, he was running as fast as a Deere.
“We ask (Thomas) to sprint the floor,” Bulls coach Scott Skiles told Chicago media. “To my knowledge, in his career, he hasn’t done it one time — not one time. You guys, sit and watch the game tonight. If he gets in there, is he jogging or is he sprinting the floor?”
Skiles did apologize later in the week, saying, “I didn’t mean for that to come out the way it did. I wasn’t misquoted or anything. But I felt bad about it.”
Thomas was averaging 6.9 points and 5.0 rebounds heading into the weekend for the miseraBulls.
No debate. The chic pick for rookie of the year was Houston forward Luis Scola, and he recently scored 20 points in back-to-back games against San Antonio and Phoenix. But, for the season, the Argentine averages 6.3 points per game . Seattle rookie Kevin Durant averages 19.0.
Footnotes. How good can the Kings’ Kevin Martin become? Here are the Western Carolina product’s points per game in his four NBA seasons: 2.9, 10.8, 20.2 and now 25.6, fourth in the league entering this weekend. Does anyone honestly think Isiah Thomas can turn things around in New York? Entering the draft, the knock on Chicago’s Joakim Noah was he couldn’t shoot. Based on his shooting effort in Denver on Tuesday, it looks like that’s still the case. Best team name in the NBA Development League — the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. Worst team name? The Los Angeles D-Fenders. That’s D-plorable.
Spotlight on …
Andray Blatche, F, Wizards
After the Wizards lost to the Nuggets on Nov. 9, they went on a six-game win streak, despite losing their best player, Gilbert Arenas, for three months to knee surgery. Blatche, surprisingly, has been an influential spark. On Tuesday at Philadelphia, he scored a career-high 26 points, shooting 12-for-14 from the field. He also tallied a 12-point, 12-rebound game against Charlotte on Wednesday.
With center Brendan Haywood injured and Arenas’ injury forcing the Wizards to shift players around, Blatche has seen more time, a welcome addition to the rotation.
His feel-good rise from prep school to the NBA was interrupted Sept. 25, 2005, when Blatche survived being shot three months after Washington drafted him in the second round. He played in 29 games in 2005-06, averaging 2.2 points, and then averaged 3.7 last season. He entered this weekend with a 7.5 average in 20.0 minutes.
