Howard's development pushes Mavs

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Howard's development pushes Mavs

By JEFF CAPLAN
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

The All-Star weekend parties were heating up the Houston night, but Josh Howard was elsewhere.

The kid from Winston-Salem, N.C., was home.

He stayed with his grandma who helped raise him. And he visited his old college coach, who tamed Howard’s youthful brazen attitude, setting free his high-wire game.

“He knew we were struggling a little bit and he thought he could lift up the intensity level at practice,” Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser said. “He practiced with us for two days. No one does that. No one.”

As the Mavericks have discovered through three seasons, their spindly 6-foot-7, 210-pound swingman with the head band is anything but ordinary.

If Dirk Nowitzki is the Mavs’ MVP heading into today’s Game 1 at San Antonio, the selfless, hyper-energetic Howard is the X-factor.

A bouncy, long-armed defender, he often guards the opponent’s best player — he’ll see plenty of Spurs spark plug Manu Ginobili in this series. A versatile scorer, Howard is a threat off the dribble, evidenced by his career-high 267 free-throw attempts this season. And he can pop from the 3-point line, where he has become much more discriminating, hitting a career-best 42.9 percent.

A sneaky, swooping rebounder, Howard grabbed more offensive boards than the 7-foot Nowitzki in 22 fewer games.

“Josh Howard is just scary, and he’s getting better and better,” Mavs guard Adrian Griffin said. “He’s just a phenomenal athlete with skills. He can shoot, he can penetrate, he can defend, he can rebound; he starts the break and runs the point.”

An espresso shot of fundamentals and flash, Howard is evolving into one of the league’s more dynamic young players. Yet, as the 29th overall pick, he’s not recognized alongside more predictable third-year sensations, such as LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade.

A big series could change that. When Howard is at his versatile best the Mavs have proved to be invincible. Including the first-round sweep of Memphis, Dallas is 12-0 when he gets a double-double and 18-0 when he scores 20 points or more.

If not for missing 23 games to injury, Howard likely would have produced career-best numbers across the board. He still averaged a career-high 15.6 points and, despite playing 17 fewer games, he improved his passing with a career-best 111 assists.

Now in his third postseason, and second as a starter, it’s unfathomable to think of the sprightly No. 5 in any other uniform. Yet, it’s absolutely confounding that he’s here at all.

“It was a blessing,” Howard said.

A falling star?

Howard believes his good fortune just might have started in a most unusual way as a 4-month-old infant.

“I was born real bowlegged,” Howard said. “They had to break my legs. I’ve got pictures and everything, from the thigh down to maybe my shins. I’m still kind of bowlegged a little bit. Maybe it helped. It got me walking straight.”

He walked straight into his hometown school, Wake Forest, and emerged a legend: first unanimous selection for ACC Player of the Year since North Carolina State’s David Thompson in 1975; one of five players in the history of the ACC to record 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 200 assists, 200 steals and 100 blocked shots; led the Deacons to their first 2003 ACC regular-season title in more than 40 years, a feat not even Tim Duncan can claim.

“I said he should be taken in the top five picks,” said Marty Blake, the NBA’s director of scouting services. “Twenty-eight teams didn’t listen to me.”

Howard watched the draft at his grandma’s house with friends and coach Prosser.

“We felt strongly that he would go 14th, 15th, something like that,” Prosser said. “Teams kept picking someone else and we kept getting more and more frustrated.”

How could Howard, a pedigreed college star and four-year graduate, sink while teams snatched up Marcus Banks (13th), Reece Gaines (15th), Zarko Cabarkapa (17th) and Aleksandar Pavlovic (19th)?

“I still don’t know to this day,” Howard said. “I’ve seen good things said, I’ve heard bad things said. I’ve heard I did everything good and not just one thing. A lot of those guys in my class aren’t even playing.”

Howard had worked out for seven teams. The Mavs weren’t one of them. As the draft frustratingly unfolded, Howard stepped outside.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Howard said. “I had just walked into the house when they said, ‘The 29th pick is ... ’ ”

The consensus All-American had fallen right into the Mavs’ lap.

“Sometimes,” said Donnie Nelson, Mavs president of basketball operations, “you just get lucky.”

Always working

Constant work — an ethic drummed into him, Howard said, by Prosser — and not luck has defined Howard’s development. Drafted by Don Nelson for his defense, he is now a dangerous cover himself.

“He’s doing the same things he’s been doing in college,” teammate and friend Marquis Daniels said. “He’s just brought it to a different level.”

Defenders who choose to play off Howard to protect against dribble penetration risk having him drain a 3-pointer, where he’s improved dramatically, up from 30 percent his first two seasons.

“There was a time where he maybe would look for it too much,” coach Avery Johnson said. “I think now he’s mixing it up and he’s really concentrating on shooting his in-between shot, and if it’s not there at least he has that capability [to make 3s].

“His judgment has been good and because his judgment has been good, more of them fall.”

A ridiculous value for the Mavs, Howard made $873,880 this season, a fraction less than project center DJ Mbenga and $4.5 million less than his good buddy Daniels.

Howard’s contract runs through the 2006-07 season, after which he will be in line for a significant raise.

“Whatever happens will happen,” Howard said. “I’m not pushing the issue.”

Surely, the Mavs will.