Former Houston Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon has said that Dwight Howard is missing opportunities for the team.

Howard signed a four-year free agent deal worth $88m (£54.6m) during the off-season, and has averaged 17.2 points per game so far this campaign.

However, Olajuwon, who mentored Howard over the summer, told reporters: "The truth is that I can't wait to get back to Houston to do more work with Dwight. I wish he was doing a better job.

"Dwight has always been athletic and aggressive and he still is. But when I watch him, what I see are opportunities that he is missing. When he gets the ball, he seems to be taking his time to decide what move to make, where he should go.

"I thought we were doing a good job with this when we were working together over the summer and at the start of training camp. But what I see now is that when Dwight gets in competition, he has a tendency to go back to all of his old habits. He's just doing all of the things that he did before. He needs a reminder."

The Rockets face the Dallas Mavericks later today.