Dwight Howard Needs A Better Mentor

Lately everyone has been dissecting the skills of one Dwight Howard. Being that we are late into the NBA playoffs we have everyone and their momma analyzing every move or play that he makes. Everyone seems to have the same outlook on him and is able to see clearly that he is lacking a certain set of skills. When Dwight Howard is close to the basket, he is pretty much unstoppable. But if you can get him outside the key or far away from the basket, your chances of stopping him from scoring increase dramatically. Now Dwight Howard has been in the league for about five years now and you would think that with that much time he would get better or at least work on the skills that he lacks. I've been a huge fan of him since he was drafted number one overall in the 2004 NBA draft. As he entered the league at the young age of 18, I felt that there was something special about him and that he had a great chance of being an all-star. Obviously the Orlando Magic and I saw the same thing as they decided to draft him. Now they had a great idea of getting one of the greatest centers to ever play the game of basketball to teach and mentor him as he matured. This was a smart idea. Let Howard learn the game from someone who played the same position as him and had success. Where the Magic went wrong is with who they selected and hired to help this young boy. They decided to hire Patrick Ewing.

In a 1996 poll celebrating the 50Th anniversary of the NBA, Ewing was selected as one of the 50 Greatest Basketball Players of All Time and he was able to accomplish many milestones in both college basketball and the NBA. There is no question that he has a great resume but in my opinion he was always lacking something as a player. When it came down to crunch time, especially in the playoffs I did not see him as a go to player. Very few players can be considered a go to player which is basically a player that can be completely trusted that he will find a way at the end of a game and get the victory. I truly believe that with the right coach or mentor, he can be considered a clutch performer. His stats show that he has the potential to be so as Howard ranks in the top five of almost every NBA stat line.

Last year Howard was able to lead his team to the NBA Finals where they eventually lost the championship to the Los Angeles Lakers. The Orlando Magic entered this years playoffs as the number two team in the entire NBA and were a strong candidate to make it back to the Finals. They were able to breeze by the first two teams that faced but are now being fully tested by the Boston Celtics. As of tonight the Howard's Magic team is down three game to one in a best of seven series. The Celtics have done a great job of exposing Dwight's lack of skills away from the basket. Seeing this I have to ask "What the hell has Patrick Ewing done with this kid?" What is Ewing teaching him? The only thing that Dwight can do is dunk the ball which he already knew how to do when he was drafted. For a player who is currently being taught and mentored by what many consider one of the best shooting centers of all time Howard sucks at shooting the ball and everyone in the world can see this. After losing the championship last year, Howard said that he was more hungry to improve his skills and return back to the finals. Was he just talking out of his ass? Was he too busy to work on his game by making movies? I think the hunger to be a better player is there but I think he has the wrong person to teach him. I just don't see the passion to teach in Patrick Ewing. I believe that Howard should request to someone else to teach him how to be a complete big man in the NBA. I would suggest Hakeem Olajuwon, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Kevin Mchale, or even Bill Cartwright. All four of these former players were great shooting big men and all of them are champions. I believe that Howard can learn a lot more from someone that is an accomplished champion rather than from someone who always finished second.