Dwight Howard trained with Hakeem Olajuwon last week.

The two big men not only worked on Howard’s post-game footwork and mid-range shooting game, they talked about Howard keeping a scorer’s mentality and ways for Howard to improve his free-throw shooting.

Olajuwon believes Howard could be a more effective offensive player if given more freedom and confidence.

“He just said I want you to do them in the game, and tell your coach you got a lot of skills and he needs to let you use all your skills,” Howard said Tuesday.