Dwight Howard will be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as part of an eight-person class. He is an eight-time All-Star, eight-time All-NBA selection and three-time Defensive Player of the Year. Howard accumulated five first-team All-NBA nods but was excluded from the league's 75th Anniversary Team, making him unique among modern peers with similar honors. His game featured major flaws: a 57% career free-throw rate, twice as many turnovers as assists, and low post-up efficiency (62nd of 65 players with at least 1,000 post-ups since 2013–14). His career followed an early peak and subsequent decline.
Though it's difficult to call a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee underrated, that label applies to the newest center in Springfield, Massachusetts. As of 2021, Howard was one of 26 players in NBA history with at least five first-team All-NBA nods. The other 25 were named to the league's 75th Anniversary Team that year. Howard was not.
But Howard's game had warts. In the same mold as other dominant centers such as Wilt Chamberlain and Shaquille O'Neal, he was a terrible free throw shooter (career 57%). He committed twice as many turnovers as assists. He was an inefficient scorer in the post, despite often demanding the ball down low: We don't have good tracking data from Howard's prime, but since 2013-14, he ranks 62nd out of 65 players with at least 1,000 post-ups in points per play, according to GeniusIQ.
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