It looks like Kobe Bryant will be ready for opening night.
Which, naturally, means Dwight Howard is going to will himself to be ready by “his” opening night as well.
No, the Houston Rockets will not be opening their 2015-16 calendar against the Los Angeles Lakers. They’ll be playing host to the Denver Nuggets next Wednesday, a game Howard will miss while serving a one-game suspension. But after that, when the Rockets welcome in the reigning champion Golden State Warriors, Howard, despite making only one preseason appearance as he deals with lingering back issues, plans to play.
From the Houston Chronicle‘s Jonathan Feigen:
After two weeks forced to watch the Rockets play and practice without him, Dwight Howard took the court on Wednesday.
He did not stay on the floor when the full practice began, but ran through a few on-court drills, took a little contact and declared himself close to returning to full participation in plenty of time to be ready for the regular season.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” Howard said. “Today I did a lot of stuff on the court, a lot of conditioning, a lot of stuff with a little contact.
“The main thing is making sure I’m in great shape, good enough shape to where I can come back and play as many minutes as I can.”
That will not include playing Friday in the Rockets’ final preseason game, in part because the Rockets are flying to San Antonio on the day of the game. Howard played only in the preseason opener, March 6 in Memphis. His back tightened the next day, with Howard missing every game and practice since.
“The most important thing is making sure my body is ready for the long haul,” Howard said. “We have a long season. My teammates need me to be healthy. I don’t think playing in a preseason game to prove to everybody that I can play is necessary. The most important thing is that I’m ready and in pretty good shape.”
Indeed, the long haul is the most important thing for any player. But it’s especially true of Howard. He missed more games last season than he did through his 10 years combined. He will turn 30 in December. He is not the Orlando Magic version of Howard, the guy who could play as many minutes as humanly possible without fear of paying the piper later on.
Houston, instead, has to be conscious of his health—his back, his knees, his shoulder, etc. Howard apparently played through injury during the Western Conference Finals, and the Rockets couldn’t put up much of a fight against the Warriors. The team’s defense was good enough without him last season, one of the best, per NBA.com, but Houston’s stinginess improved, both in scheme and statistically, when he played.
James Harden, Ty Lawson, Patrick Beverley and Trevor Ariza, among others, are more than fit to carry the Rockets during the regular season, whenever Howard needs a rest—and that includes to start the season. So if he’s not 100 percent, as seems possible right now, there’s no point in him rushing back.
The goal is to have him at 100 percent, or as close to as 100 percent as possible, when springtime basketball rolls around.
