Will Smith be better?

[Lascar78]

Where's Charles Barkley when you need him?

Charles can't even make a layup anymore, did you see that clip of him these past playoffs. He might be able to talk to him in a film room, but Charles isn't teaching anything on the court these days.

Glad to hear Smith's working out with Smitty, but just like the Hakeem workouts, it will be worthless unless he actually decides to go to that area of the court consistently. As long as he's catching the ball on the perimeter, lessons from Hakeem and Smitty wont do much good.

[EazyRoc]

Yeah we really saw the results of him spending the summer working with the Dream and Murphy in Houston!!!! People you can't teach skill. You bring skills with you when you come into the league and those skills are sharpened. Nothing will change just like when he worked with the dream. Name one change in his game that came out of that. Go ahead and name just one!!! Josh smith's game is 85 % athleticism 15% skill. We need to teach him how to use is athletic ability to the fullest because he will never be a smart player. He should be working with Kevin Willis or Tyrone Hill this summer not a guard.

Although he hardly ever uses it, Smith has developed a nice little hook shot. His problems are mental and I think the skills are coming along slowly but surely.

[Brotha2ThaNite]

Have anyone of you thought about Smitty was one of the best 3 PT SHOOTER???

OH CRAP! DID I JUST SAY THAT??? LOL

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Not me! I absolutely DO NOT want a guard teaching Smith how to play, even though I respect Smitty and think he had a terrific game I'd MUCH rather see Josh working with Dream or any other big man and teaching him to score in the post.

*Disclaimer - unless they are planning not keeping Marvin and moving Smith to the 3 in which case he needs to improve his outside game by leaps and bounds.

I'm glad that I wasn't the only one thinking this. While Smitty can definitely teach him the fundamentals of the post up game, I'd rather see Smoove being taught and guarded by someone bigger and much stronger than him. Someone that could really bang him around, possibly making him tougher in the post.

Smitty relied a lot on the fadeaway jumper, when he used to post smaller guards up. I personally don't want to see Smoove shooting fadeaways, when he can barely shoot when wide open.

Smitty would be a good teacher for Marvin and JJ, because both of those guys would see the smaller type guys guarding them, like Smitty did.

I'd much rather for Smith to work strictly with Dream, or maybe bring Kevin McHale down to ATL, as a "special assistant", to work with both Smoove and Horford.

Then again, we'll just have to take what we can get. At least Smitty has seen him play hundreds of times.

[bird_dirt]

Not me! I absolutely DO NOT want a guard teaching Smith how to play, even though I respect Smitty and think he had a terrific game I'd MUCH rather see Josh working with Dream or any other big man and teaching him to score in the post.

*Disclaimer - unless they are planning not keeping Marvin and moving Smith to the 3 in which case he needs to improve his outside game by leaps and bounds.

i was thinking the same thing.

the good news is, regardless of whatever smitty is trying to teach smoove, chances are it won't stick anyway. i couldn't see much of any difference after he worked out with murphy and hakeem.

the bad news, though, is that once summer's over, josh may think that having worked with smith (regardless of how much he doesn't learn) will give him more free reign to shoot from the outside.

it's too bad they can't just lock him in a gym with big after big, pounding fundamentals and skills into his skull, and refuse to let him out until he's proven he's learned something--even if it takes until after new year's. get the mailman to deliver a few knocks upside his head.

[thefloydian]

It's nice to see it's Steve Smith working with him. He actually watches Hawks games and he actually knows what Josh Smith's weaknesses are.

Yeah. I always got the impression that Steve thought Woody was an idiot.

[frosgrim]

I am not impressed with Smith working out with a guard either. If we want to go with former Heat and Hawks players, the guy Josh should be working with is Grant Long. Similar sized guys, but Long would mix it up under the basket and go after boards.

Josh should be working on rebounding and his defensive foortwork, not shooting.

From all I can tell, Josh Smith believes he's a SG in a PFs body. Until Smith learns that he should stick around the lane and make life hell for those he's guarding and being guarded by, he'll always be a "potential" player. Smith just needs to make the commitment to be a power forward and play a power game.

[TheDude]

smith needs to work on trying to be a beast of a PF....someone who cannot be stopped in the paint and someone who can hit midrange jumpers automatic...forget the 3 completely...i've said it before, garnett and duncan don't shoot 3s, neither should josh..

if he changes his mindset to focus strictly being a beast WITHIN the 3 point line, then he will be a force to be reckoned with.

[NineOhTheRino]

he sucked in Seven Pounds and Hancock.

[Anansi]

Yeah we really saw the results of him spending the summer working with the Dream and Murphy in Houston!!!! People you can't teach skill. You bring skills with you when you come into the league and those skills are sharpened. Nothing will change just like when he worked with the dream. Name one change in his game that came out of that. Go ahead and name just one!!! Josh smith's game is 85 % athleticism 15% skill. We need to teach him how to use is athletic ability to the fullest because he will never be a smart player. He should be working with Kevin Willis or Tyrone Hill this summer not a guard.

Maybe it's just me but when he acutally got down in the post he did seem improved down there. I seen a few moves (including a nice hook shot) that I've never seen from him. The problem isn't so much that his post game sucks, the problem is that he doesn't use his post game enough.

[jy23]

yeah i don't really think the problem is that he doesn't have an improved post game the problem is that he doesn't use it enough!!!!! He wants 2 be something that he's not! Josh should be somewhere watching film on how bad his jumper looks and seeing how open people leave him out there, THERE'S A REASON FOR THIS!!!!!!!!

[Traceman]

I am not impressed with Smith working out with a guard either. If we want to go with former Heat and Hawks players, the guy Josh should be working with is Grant Long. Similar sized guys, but Long would mix it up under the basket and go after boards.

Josh should be working on rebounding and his defensive foortwork, not shooting.

From all I can tell, Josh Smith believes he's a SG in a PFs body. Until Smith learns that he should stick around the lane and make life hell for those he's guarding and being guarded by, he'll always be a "potential" player. Smith just needs to make the commitment to be a power forward and play a power game.

I think you guys are FAR too worried about the fact that Smiity was a guard. The main thing is that Smitty was one of the more fundamentally sound players you will ever see. His post game was TERRIFIC and I'm sure he can teach Smoove how to play in the low post in addition to improving his fundamentals in other parts of his game (ballhandling, FT shooting, etc). Heck Pete Newell was arguably the greatest and most well known big man coach EVER and he was a 6'1" 180 lb guard as a player.

[gsuteke]

If you can find someone that will cut back on Smith's knucklehead play on the court I'm all for him working out with that guy over the Summer.

If Smitty can get Smoove to harness that talent he has and not play outside of himself on a consistent basis the Hawks will be able to compete with the Bostons, the Cavs, and the Magic.

As with Marvin talent is not something the Hawks are short on, they just have to be patient and develop what they have.

[itsslomotionbaby]

Yeah we really saw the results of him spending the summer working with the Dream and Murphy in Houston!!!! People you can't teach skill. You bring skills with you when you come into the league and those skills are sharpened. Nothing will change just like when he worked with the dream. Name one change in his game that came out of that. Go ahead and name just one!!! Josh smith's game is 85 % athleticism 15% skill. We need to teach him how to use is athletic ability to the fullest because he will never be a smart player. He should be working with Kevin Willis or Tyrone Hill this summer not a guard.

well i did see some spin moves from the right side of the basket and a jump hook on the leftside a few times. but he never made it a habbit of putting it in his game nightly.

[Joker]

Not me! I absolutely DO NOT want a guard teaching Smith how to play, even though I respect Smitty and think he had a terrific game I'd MUCH rather see Josh working with Dream or any other big man and teaching him to score in the post.

*Disclaimer - unless they are planning not keeping Marvin and moving Smith to the 3 in which case he needs to improve his outside game by leaps and bounds.

Steve had a great post up game that he worked hard for. Just because he's not Hakeem doesn't mean that Smitty isn't a good teacher. I wouldn't mind. Smith still need to know his role which is the most important thing.

[thefloydian]

I like it for the simple fact that Smitty knows what Josh's weaknesses are and he might actually be able to get through to him in ways Woodson is incapable of.

[DrReality]

I think the greatest impact working with Steve will have on Josh is with his mental approach to the game, which in my opinion is the most important area for Smith to work on.

AGreed. It's not about teaching him skills, it's about learning how to use the skills he has and involves the mental aspect of the game. Being more disciplined. Listening to Smitty as a commentator indicates he has a great grasp of the game and hopefully he has a relationship with SMoove that will allow him to hear what he has to say.