The “Superman” Dwight Howard days have been gone longer than the era of MVP Derrick Rose. He doesn’t block six percent of opponents’ shots anymore like he did with the 2009-10 Orlando Magic. He isn’t the athletic freak who won the Slam Dunk Contest in 2008, averaging over three dunks per game during that season.

But for everything Dwight isn’t anymore, he’s still an exceptional defensive player.

The 2016-17 Charlotte Hornets were a team that tried everything at center. Cody Zeller started 58 times. Roy Hibbert started 13 times. Even Spencer Hawes got a start at the 5. All those changes were not good for continuity and structure on defense, and the team finished 14th with a 106.1 defensive rating.

This season, through the squad’s first four games, it sits third in the league, allowing 94.4 points per 100 possessions. Small sample size has some influence on that number, but so too does master rim-protector Dwight Howard.

With Howard on the court, the Hornets bear a 90.5 defensive rating, which would be second in the league. The basket is protected like Fort Knox with Dwight on the court, and opposing teams are struggling to put the ball in the basket at Spurs-ian levels. Plays like this deter players from driving to the hoop for the rest of a game:

Will Barton, one of the Denver Nuggets’ most aggressive offensive players, did not attempt another layup with Howard on the court for the remainder of the night.

Much of the problem in recent years, beyond his attitude, has been his decrease in speed and the corresponding trouble defending in space. But the Hornets seem to have found a way to help. In order to keep Dwight spry and agile, they’re keeping his time on the floor down; he’s currently playing the third-fewest minutes per game of his career (31.3). Having Zeller as a backup surely helps with this, and the energy uptick is allowing Howard to move and slide on D like he hasn’t for a while.

With Matthew Dellevadova driving right at him here, he comes out to stop the floater. Once Delly dishes the ball to Howard’s man, Greg Monroe, Howard slides over and forces a miss with strong work at the basket:

Sometimes with big men, their impact isn’t measured in the stat sheet because they cause things not to happen. The above clip is a perfect example.

Howard’s presence makes Delly decide not to shoot, which he might have done with a smaller player protecting the rim. He doesn’t force a miss on a floater, but instead prevents the floater altogether. This isn’t measured on the stat sheet, but it’s a positive play. And that’s just as important.

All this early work has him ranked 13th in the league in NBA Math’s defensive points saved metric, ahead of guys like LeBron James and DeMarcus Cousins while just four spots lower than defensive maestro Rudy Gobert. But his impact becomes even more clear when looking at the Hornets’ minutes without him. They own a defensive of rating of 101.5 in these situations—11 points per 100 possessions worse than when he plays. Howard has regained some of that game-changing defensive force he possessed in his Orlando days, and it’s helping Charlotte tremendously.

His work on the glass, though, never went away.

As of October 26th, Howard is first in the league in defensive rebound rate (41.4 percent) among players who have played in multiple games. Take this clip as an example. Howard anticipates Khris Middleton’s miss caroming off the rim into a specific location, and he gets into position to seal off any attempt at a putback from Thon Maker. He snags the board, and now the Hornets have possession:

Maybe it seems pointless to explain, but those plays make Howard impactful. While more possessions yield more offense, fewer possessions for the other team also leads to fewer points allowed. Keeping the ball in the Hornets’ hands on better than four of every 10 misses by the opposition is massive.

And his rebounding carries over to the offensive side of the ball, too—particularly beneficial since the Hornets have logged a 109.5 offensive rating with Howard on the floor. Maybe that’s a byproduct of him sharing the court with Kemba Walker for 122 of his 125 minutes, but Charlotte is still scoring at a far higher rate than the 83.3 points per 100 possessions they’ve earned without him.

Currently, he sits at No. 19 in offensive rebound rate among qualified players, grabbing 14.1 percent of Charlotte’s misses when he’s in the game. Quite often, that leads directly to points for himself:

On occasion, they also lead to opportunities for others.

Poor Dwight can’t get assists to save his life. But while neither of these shots fall, just look at the passes he’s making, especially off the rebound!

Opponents must know: The rim is Howard’s, night in and night out. Don’t go close to it, because it belongs to Dwight. If you do, beware of the monster hanging out who will stop you, force you to miss and take the ball away from you in some way.

The Hornets have learned, in a good way, that having him on your team—and in the game—is a good idea.

Can Howard maintain an on/off net rating increase of 36.7 for the whole season? Probably not (more specifically: no). But can he keep impacting the game in positive ways and function as one of the league’s premier rim-protectors? Absolutely. Howard seems to have found a groove in  Charlotte, a groove reminiscent of his days in Orlando. If this is a permanent fixture and not just a product of a small sample, the Hornets are going to be a tough out every night.

Follow Tony on Twitter @TEastNBA.

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Unless otherwise indicated, all stats are from NBA Math, Basketball Reference or NBA.com and are accurate heading into games on October 26.