Dwight Howard’s offensive repertoire has expanded greatly over the past few years — the knock on him as a power only player is gone.
He has developed a Duncanesque midrange bank shot opponents have to respect — the season the Magic went to the finals in 2009 he shot 28 percent from 10 to 15 feet out; this past season he took that shot twice as often and hit 39.7 percent. He has a running hook and a few other moves he can fall back on rather than just bowl you over.
And Howard is going to try and increase that bag of tricks by working out with Hakeem Olajuwon again this summer, according to the Orlando Sentinel.In messages back and forth with some of his Twitter followers, Howard said he’s in Houston working with Olajuwon for the second consecutive summer.
Asked whether he’s working on his outside touch, Howard responded that he is working on becoming “more complete” as a player. When a follower asked what Howard meant, Howard answered: “shooting more” and “freethrows above 75.”All that would be good, and improving his free throw shooting would be a help at the end of games (he hit 59.6 percent last season). But the problem with the Magic has not been Howard, and if they are to advance it will be more about what GM Otis Smith can do than Howard.
