NBA Top 50: Dwight Howard (No. 9)

FanHouse's Tom Ziller argues his ranking of the top 50 players in the NBA.

It's hard to name an NBA love affair so basic and beautiful as Dwight Howard + Dunk 4-EVA. Thirty percent of Dwight's FGAs last season came off ye old slam (he shot 93% on those, and less than 25% on jumpers). For comparison's sake, Amare Stoudemire took 18% of his FGAs with his hands on the rim, and Shaq sat around 22%. Even among the ranks of ideological shock-and-awe dunkers, Howard rates as the most devoted missionary of the slam.

The fantastic thing about this faith: the only way to stop Howard from dunking is to throw at least two bodies at him and hack hack hack. Very few bigs in this league can imagine stopping Dwight one-on-one; chances are that if you have a fellow like that, he isn't going to do much else well. So incredible are Dwight's power, agility and smarts -- the factors which allow him into the crease and off of the floor -- that he has become one of the few dunkers in modern memory who actually makes his teammates better.

We often think of the dunker as the beneficiary of his guard's talent. Take Amare, for example. How many times have folks attributed his mammoth production to Steve Nash's handiwork? Don't get it twisted: Nash is a vital influence, and Howard's so much better off with Jameer Nelson than, say, Jason Hart. But the common conscience acts as if Dwight owes his highlight reel and All-NBA stature to the guys who spread the floor, who feed the ball. But if Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu had Tony Battie in the post instead of Dwight, would those guys be open? Would they be free to nail shots with defenders scrambling all night?

I mean, Howard is the type of dunker a team actually builds around. The strategy employed by Stan Van Gundy and Otis Smith -- surround him with shooters -- worked beautifully last season, and should keep Orlando in the top half of the East until the shooters move on. A guy whose offensive repertoire basically replicates Darryl Dawkins' oeuvre has a top six offense built for him. It's a bit odd and stunning and glorious.

This is to say nothing of the top flight rebounding or shot-blocking Howard also offers. Basically, everything you could possibly want in the mythical big man, Howard has it ... save a decent free throw form or the ability not to dribble out of bounds on occasion. His progression has been nothing short of stunning: he gets MORE every year, it's not just one tactic or aspect. Everything becomes magnified. And he's 22 years old. Pretty soon, this dude's going to have his own gravitational pull.