DENVER – People are starting to notice.
"
Dwight Howard is basically Kosta Koufos" was the message I got from one NBA insider midway through the
Lakers' loss Wednesday night in Denver, referring to the Nuggets' largely anonymous center
Not long after, someone else who works in league personnel offered: "If you dropped in from another planet and had no idea who the players were, you would never know that Dwight Howard was one of the best players."This is what Howard is allowing to happen: As more substandard games go by without noticeable rust dropping off, the image repair that was supposed to happen this season is twisting into reputation tarnishing.
If Howard is banking on disproving all that was said about him during his Orlando exit debacle by showing he is a winner as a Laker, he'd better be saving something super special for late in the season.
Howard's decisions to ramp up slowly and carefully this season, leaning on excuses from back surgery eight months ago and failing to get his conditioning back in gear, have brought him to this point – where those who really know the NBA know that he is not being great.
Ejected for fouling Denver's Kenneth Faried in the face, Howard whined afterward about being penalized by referees for being big and strong – one of O'Neal's favorite statements. Looking so slow on the second night of a back-to-back set before the ejection – to the point that
Mike D'Antoni said the Lakers didn't lose "a whole lot" in Howard's ejection – certainly was Shaq-like, too.
Howard blames weakened nerves in his left leg for his inconsistency, saying last week: "There are still days I feel really good, and there are days when I'm not so good. But it's all a process. I'm pretty sure at the end of the year I'll feel a lot better than I do now."
Steve Nash didn't name names the way D'Antoni did, but Nash had a point to make after the loss to Denver about that kind of mindset.
Everyone has days when they don't have their legs, Nash said, and those are the days when you'd really better "fight.""
And find other ways to get it done," Nash said.
Is it going to take all season for Howard to feel like his old self again – and if so, will his new self never bring consistent effort in making the little plays that help teams win?
Or does it run deeper than that ... and is the limited activity his response to not having an offense features him in the post, where he most wants the ball, and teammates' defensive failures next to him?
Or is Howard simply content with being a Laker and having the majority of the pressure falling on Bryant and Nash to save the season? And will Howard wait until he is "the man" and Bryant is retired before truly accepting the responsibility of playing like a superstar every night?
Dangerous conclusions are there to be jumped to when you let the people make Koufos comparisons and see you getting killed by Faried. What we know for certain is that there was plenty of symbolism on that flagrant-foul play and how hard Faried drove toward Howard, who was simply unready to respond in the right way.
"He was just mad," Faried said. "I was getting in his head, and he couldn't get the rebound. He wanted to, but I kept getting every rebound. It's not like I said anything or talked to him."
Faried said the Nuggets were also motivated by the Lakers' victory a month ago at Staples Center: "They were laughing and giggling, so we came out to prove a point."
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