This past off season, the Atlanta Hawks practically begged anyone to take on Dwight Howard’s contract. When trading him to Charlotte, they threw in their 31st pick to sweeten the pot, and even took on Miles Plumlee’s abomination of a contract in return for offloading Howard. Reportedly, Hawks players “jubilantly cheered into their cell phones” upon hearing the news of Howard’s trade to the Hornets. This should come as no surprise; Howard has been known to be a detriment to his team tangibly speaking and has been lambasted as a locker room cancer more times than I can count. The writing was on the wall for Howard, with the former 3x DPOTY and 2011 MVP Candidate becoming a relic of the past and the modernization of basketball having blown him by.

Back to the basket centers are remnants of a prehistoric era. The modern NBA big needs to be versatile, they need to be able to switch out onto the perimeter defensively, and some shooting wouldn’t hurt. In today’s NBA, if a big can’t shoot, in order to see time on the court, they need to fill a niche — hustle, rebounding, rim-protection — in limited role player minutes. To put it tacitly, the traditional big man just can’t impact the game the way they used to anymore. Over the years, Dwight’s inability to accept this has been his downfall; constantly asking for unnecessary post touches and blown switches on defense have contributed to his unceremonious exits out of his past three teams. However, this season, Howard seems to have found his way — at least, as much as a dinosaur like himself can in this scary, new age of basketball.

Over the last 7 games, Howard is posting 19.2 points per game to go along with 12.2 rebounds and a little over a block per game, and these numbers include his anomalous game against the Heat in which he had to sit a majority of the game due to foul trouble. His season has been highlighted by a smattering of 20 point – 10 rebound games (7!), and Howard submitted a 25 point – 20 rebound game against Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns, in order to punctuate his season thus far with an exclamation point, almost as though to say, “Hey look at me, I’m playing good basketball again!”

Defensively speaking, Howard is still a solid rim protector. The Hornets’ best 5-Man line-up through 22 games, albeit in limited minutes, is an uber defensively minded Howard-Williams-MKG-Batum-MCW lineup, posting a net rating of 18.6. Offensively, the group is nothing particularly interesting, however defensively is where this group shines. The group is only allowing a stingy 84.6 points per 100 possessions, and the versatility of this group is a big part of it. Dwight Howard acts as a rim protector in the middle, a pseudo safety net for the wing defenders, whilst the rest of that line-up can switch everything defensively. Batum and Carter-Williams can switch onto anyone from the 1 through 3, Williams can switch onto forwards and centers, and Kidd-Gilchrist can switch onto just about anybody. So while the Hornets’ versatile forwards are pestering opposing offenses with their switching abilities, Howard can patrol the paint and act as a deterrent to driving guards and big men looking for post play.

On the other end of the floor, Howard has been showing improvements over his past three seasons. I’m not sure if you know this, but Dwight Howard is a big dude. The game is more and more moving towards small ball line-ups, meaning Howard is able to feast on smaller power forwards-turned-centers. Normally small ball line-ups would kill Howard defensively, with offenses constantly drawing Howard out to the three point line, however, Charlotte has the luxury of possessing quite a few forwards and guards who can switch everything, meaning they can, in a way, insulate Howard and minimize his defensive weakness. In the meantime, Howard has access to easy put backs, a healthy helping of deep post positioning on smaller centers, and just simply being able to out muscle others on the block.

But it’s not all been rainbows and sunshine in Charlotte. 4 years later and Dwight still has a problematic fixation on post-ups. Look Dwight — I get it; you want to be the next Shaq. It’s understandable, really, but I’m sorry, that’s just not your game. Dwight’s post touches has been a point of contention in nearly every stop he’s made along his career, simply for the fact that he demands that he gets them when he’s just quite simply not a good post up player. This year, Howard is averaging nearly double the amount of post up possessions per game when compared to his season in Atlanta, and at 6.5 per game he has the third most in the league behind only LaMarcus Aldridge (7.5) and Joel Embiid (10.4). For comparison, Dwight is averaging more post-up opportunities than Blake Griffin, Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins, Hassan Whiteside, Karl-Anthony Towns and Kristaps Porzingis.

Of players who average at least 3.0 post-up possessions per game this season, Howard ranks second to last in the NBA in points per possession, at 0.77 Points per Possession. For someone who is averaging the third most post-ups per game, you would hope he would at least score on these possessions at a better rate than his current abysmal rating. I would look for Steve Clifford to hopefully curtail the frequency of these possessions as the season goes on. However, Howard has made a killing this season catching the ball deep in the post and turning into the basket this season, like in this play here, however, once he starts dribbling and trying to use post-moves, that’s where the problem starts. Dwight’s game used to be predicated upon his athleticism and physical attribute, but injury has ripped him of his speed and explosiveness. However, he should utilize the one remaining aspect of his athleticism he has left — his physicality — and use it to carve out space on the block for an easy lay up far more often than he is currently.

Small ball may be slowly making centers like Howard obsolete, but for now Howard can retain his one advantage over opposing small ball centers; his size. Howard has been able to absolutely kill these small-ball centers like Kevin Love, as shown by his 20 and 14 game against him last Friday, because of his brutish strength and size. So a word to the wise; stop trying to post them up and just carve out some damn space under the basket Dwight!

The problem with Dwight is that he’s always yearned to be something he’s not and has always refused (weirdly enough) to play to his strengths. Even back in his Los Angeles days, Dwight complained he wasn’t the focal point of the offense, and that was when he played alongside Kobe Bryant. Howard couldn’t be the focal point of an offense back then during his prime, and he certainly cannot be that now, but he could be an excellent cog in a well oiled offensive system if he only allowed himself to be and bought into it.

Take DeAndre Jordan for example — a big man much akin to Dwight in that his strengths are protecting the hole and rebounding, but lacks shooting. Jordan knows what he is, and he thrives because of it. A steady diet of rolls to the basket, putbacks, and stuffed lobs keeps Jordan engaged offensively without the entire system revolving around him. Jordan doesn’t demand that he get possessions in the post because he knows that he’s not good at it; instead he thrives in his role by playing to his strengths. In today’s NBA, that’s what it takes to be a successful traditional big: playing to the strengths of your niche and being star in your role. Dwight could be like a super charged version of DeAndre Jordan, but only if he allows himself to be.

But I suppose that’s what makes all of this so captivating. We are witnessing a man fervently fight against the tides of time that are trying wrestle the relevance of his craft from his clutches. The ground upon which Howard based his game is being pulled out from under him, swept away by the quicksands of modernization. The Howard resurgence is not yet done — he is faced with a choice; adapt, or succumb to the annals of irrelevancy. Only time will tell if this solid start to the season is indicative of something greater for Dwight, or a mere footnote in the grand scheme of things.