Howard wants to 'shoot some 3s'

The Atlanta Hawks are off to a 7-2 start thanks in large part to their new man in the middle.

Dwight Howard has cured Atlanta's shot-blocking and rebounding deficiencies while also also anchoring a top-10 offense. It's early, but Howard has given the Hawks what they have sorely lacked.

Howard, however, wants to give even more - he might test his range out to the 3-point line.

"Actually it's something that we all work on every day in practice," Howard said on CBS Sports Radio on Monday. "You know what, it's going to happen."

"It's the beginning of the season. Right now, have to make sure that I do a really good job of trying to get every offensive rebound that I can, get every defensive rebound and just be competitive on the defensive end. And the offensive stuff will come. I do want to shoot some 3s, I think that it would just expand everything for myself and for this team. But right now this team needs me to dominate the paint."

The gregarious Howard might have been joking, but then again he did spend much of the offseason working on his jump shot.

Watch: Dwight Howard works on shooting from distance

For the record: Howard has five threes to his name against 54 career attempts - the Hawks would probably like to see both those numbers remain the same.