Players to Watch For in Atlanta’s Southeast Division

Dwight Howard- Atlanta Hawks

If you have breathed a single breath since July, you will know that Dwight Howard has come home to Atlanta. Putting Houston and Harden in the rear-view mirror, Dwight Howard has cut short his stay in the Western Conference and has joined Mike Budenholzer’s Atlanta Hawks, who are touted as the likely division champs.

Howard is a player to watch for two reasons. First, he is trying to spark life back into his career after several disappointing years. Twelve years ago, Howard was the first overall pick in the NBA Draft and he then spent eight years in Orlando transforming the Orlando Magic into a true contender. D12 established himself as the NBA’s premier center and scooped up awards like ice cream. To date, he has won three Defensive Player of the Year awards, five All-NBA First Team awards, eight All-Star berths, five rebounding champion awards and two for blocks; the majority of those coming in his eight years creating magic in Orlando.

Soon, Howard had enough and he was traded before the 2012-13 season to the Los Angeles Lakers. What followed was a disaster. Kobe and Dwight, with their completely hugely different personalities and characteristics, were a terrible match and that doomed the partnership. Howard lasted just a year in the famous purple and gold before jumping ship to join the Houston Rockets, where he clashed with his shooting guard yet again in James Harden. Harden and Howard were the faces of a Houston franchise ready to contend but, behind the scenes, there was complete discord and distaste. Dwight felt disrespected by his teammate and both seemingly pushed for the other to be traded.

“If you want to get back to the top, you gotta go back to your roots,” Dwight was told and so now, Dwight Howard’s tale has brought him back to his hometown of Atlanta looking for redemption. His reputation is in tatters and his game totally disrespected. This season will be a vendetta for Howard; a chance to prove he is still a superstar and that Harden and Kobe and all of his doubters were wrong.

What makes his task harder is the second reason as to why he is a player to watch; he is replacing franchise cornerstone Al Horford. Since being drafted in 2007, Al “Boss” Horford has been the Atlanta Hawks’ key player. Often underrated, Horford saw the Hawks achieve some of their best ever feats, including a sixty-win season. Horford was beloved but ultimately, he took his game to Boston to join the Celtics this off-season.

Howard offers a completely different style, replacing Horford’s mid-range shooting and intelligence with athleticism, monstrous rebounding, and limited offensive range, although he is working on it. Atlanta achieved so much with Horford that, even if the Dominican center was never a superstar, Howard has to step into the shadow of one.

Dennis Schroder, finally given the reins to an offense, might be another Hawk worth watching. But, Howard and his quest to re-establish himself as elite and replace Al Horford has a lot of pressure and big goals. That being said, he is more than capable of doing it.

Next: The Duo In Miami