Is there still a place for Dwight Howard in the NBA?

Dwight Howard’s career continues to operate in a steep decline, but does that mean he can’t be of use to a single NBA team?

The once great career of Dwight Howard has taken another tumble down the NBA mountain. After a trade sent him from the Washington Wizards to the Memphis Grizzlies, The Athletic’s Omari Sankofa II reported the team doesn’t intend to keep the former eight-time All-Star around. Memphis would like to acquire compensation, but Howard’s market is such that a buyout is likely.

Howard is coming off a forgotten 2018-19 campaign with the Wizards, having played in just nine games before a spinal surgery knocked him out for good in November. He managed to average 12.8 points and 9.2 rebounds a game in the nation’s capital, but Thomas Bryant‘s breakout campaign and a subsequent three-year contract made him expendable.

It’s been downright shocking to watch a guy once neck-and-neck with LeBron James fall to where he is at this point in time, where his next team will be his fifth —  technically seventh — in as many seasons. Dwight’s time in the spotlight may have passed him by, but does that mean the future Hall-of-Famer’s time in the NBA is nearing its endpoint?

At his best, Howard was an unstoppable force rolling to the rim, a rebounding machine who functioned as one of the game’s best interior defenders. The NBA may have moved on from the post-centric offense he so desperately coveted during his prime, but that skill-set, even aged a number of years, is still very relevant in 2019.

To act as if he’s fallen off a cliff production-wise is laughable. His athleticism has diminished to the point where he can’t bat every ball into the stands, but what he brings to the table, he still manages to do at an extremely high level.

During Howard’s last full season as a member of the Charlotte Hornets, he averaged 16.6 points and 12.5 rebounds in a hair over 30 minutes per game. Those numbers were matched by just two other big men, both of whom — Karl-Anthony Towns and DeMarcus Cousins — were voted into that season’s All-Star Game.

For Dwight in the latter stage of his career, one issue has always seemed to be his inability to accept a reduced role, ranking third in post-up touches while in Charlotte. Only a select few have managed to taste the highs of superstardom and make that transition gracefully. Howard still seems to view himself as the man who took the Orlando Magic to the Finals. Having not made the All-Star Game since 2014, that’s clearly no longer the case.

In a recent interview with The Athletic’s Shams Charania, he was very blunt in expressing a dead ego along with a desire to win above all else. It was a nice sentiment, but plenty of athletes have said as much, only for their future actions to speak volumes in the opposite direction.

The counting numbers admittedly don’t seem to be the issue with Dwight. Prior to his one-year stint in Washington, he never averaged less than a double-double, yet bounced around to three different teams in three years.

From what the internet provides, he simply doesn’t draw much fanfare around locker rooms. His once lovable goofball mentality was playful when he was younger, chalked up to the immaturity that comes with the absence of college.

As Howard aged, his nonchalant nature got on more and more nerves to the point where certain members of the Atlanta Hawks cheered upon discovering he had been dealt. It’s a problem no team can have reassurance on before taking that leap of faith, although the right environment has helped revitalized careers more sunken than his (San Antonio Spurs?).

Howard’s given no indication — even during his worst days — that he can’t provide the same rim-running and rebounding on par with current starting centers. Maybe his words won’t ring hollow this time around. Even if they do, his game is still at a point where just one talent-starved team has to be enticed enough to take that same risk as others before them.