Of course it's ALWAYS Smoove

[Atlantaholic]

I've always been a fan of Smith. I even defended him at the beginning of the year when he started taking outside shots with reckless abandon. I figured he was just expanding his game, and that he would be able to show some restraint when his outside game was not working. But after the Orlando series where he was routinely walking up and down the court and now this season where he consistently takes the worst shot possible at the worst possible time, again, and, again, and again, He's lost me. The dude has regressed from last season, and at age 25 he should be starting to enter his prime instead of dealing with the same issues he dealt with when he was 20. The guy may or may not be a smart man, but he has no basketball IQ, no sense of the flow of the game, and no sense about what a good or bad decision is with the ball. These are problems that should be solved with experience but the guy has not been able to improve any of these things a single iota since he joined the league, which is hard to believe and truly frustrating. The guy should be a Pau Gasole (or even better) type of talent, but his attitude and mindset set his ceiling considerably lower. With the flawed roster that we have it just makes no sense to hang on to a guy who is not quite an All Star and who plays the same position as a soon to be perennial All Star when we could be trying trading him for help in other areas where we are truly lacking.

Edited February 11, 2011 by Atlantaholic

[Wretch]

^^^^^^^^^^

I call bullsh*t. Blaming the other 4 guys is something Josh himself would do, How come this "structure"

doesn't seem to bother Horford? Is it the other guys making him shoot 3's with 15 sec's on the clock? Is

it the other guys forcing him to dribble the ball up the court while Bibby is 5 feet away with his arms open?

Is it the other guys forcing Josh to quit playing Defense when he's not in the mood?

There is no doubt Smoove has issues. Nobody disputes that. Nobody is saying that it's Joe, Horf, Bibby or anyone else MAKING him take long jumpers. That is stupid. It is obviously Smoove that thinks he's an off the dribble, pull up and shoot, long range scorer. All of that is a problem and all of that is on him.

Nobody is trying to stop him. Joe doesn't open his mouth. Horf doesn't have control. LD isn't benching him. And nobody has stepped up to be the #2 guy.

What the f#ck do you all expect the guy to do?

It's like expecting a child not to stick his hand in the cookie jar. You want the cookies? Make sure the kid doesn't have access to them. You don't want Josh taking long jumpers? Take away his freedom do to so. Let him know that he's not one of the top 3 options, limit his touches, and if he doesn't like it bench him or trade him. Let him know that if he wants shots, he better get them at the rim and with 10-15 seconds on the clock, it better be Joe, Horford, Crawford, or even MARVIN shooting from long range. Joe needs to open his godd@mned mouth like Kobe, LeBron, or Garnett does and tell him who the ball belongs to. Horford needs to open his mouth and establish himself as the captain - and tell Smoove that shot belongs to HIM.

Even better...GET A GUY IN HERE THAT WILL TAKE OVER THE TEAM AND PUT PEOPLE IN THEIR PLACE. This is not Josh Smith's team. Not by a long shot (heh...long shot...pun). Until Smoove sees that, he is going to continue doing what he's doing. Is it on him to change the fact that this team has no vocal leader? Is it on him that there isn't a superstar on this team to make him give up the ball? Is it on Smoove that LD lets him do this?

No. And he's not going to change.

So we either trade him (and watch him make a difference on a contender) or we DEAL with it. Asking him to stop is like telling the kid to keep his hand out of the jar. You gotta whoop some *ss or lock 'em down.

[JackB1]

The guy was a dominant post player the past two years shooting over half of his attempts in the paint and making them at a 65% clip. His career year, when every pundit and analyst were praising him and calling him an All Star snub he was scoring efficiently and continuously in the post with 64% of his offense coming in the paint. This year he completely flipped the script and turned that number upside down. Now only 40% of his offense comes in the post yet he is shooting at a career worst percentage there. What happened? It's not an improvement if you forget how to do one thing you were good at so you can do another. You don't become a better hitter by forgetting how to hit singles and protect the plate by striking out more to hit with power instead. You don't become a better CB in football by becoming a better ball hawk while forgetting entirely how to tackle. You become a better player when you add new wrinkles to an already existent game not as a complete replacement.

This is the most frustrating thing about him, he was on the launching pad to stardom with everyone out there noticing yet he chose to forget what got him to that point and decided to become some finesse player afraid of contact. As is, he has zero chance of repeating any of the awards he received last season and wasn't even a blip on the All Star discussion. That's on him, that's all on him. No amount of blame can be attributed to anyone else but Josh to make that drastic of a decision, not Joe, not Marvin, not Zaza and not Drew. Since his fans, of course, want to defend his decision to shoot more and are always quick to point out someone else and throw blame that direction, here's the list of guys on the team he hits Jumpers better than:

Zaza

Damien

Mo

And a Joe Johnson with an elbow injury/surgery.

Don't let that 3point % fool you unless you are all firm believers that Bruce Bowen was a great shooter. Perhaps if Josh is going to shoot he might as well just camp behind the line and make Brian Cook proud seeing as his entire game inside of there has deteriorated .

^^^^^^^

this guy gets it. nice post!

[DJlaysitup]

I've always been a fan of Smith. I even defended him at the beginning of the year when he started taking outside shots with reckless abandon. I figured he was just expanding his game, and that he would be able to show some restraint when his outside game was not working. But after the Orlando series where he was routinely walking up and down the court and now this season where he consistently takes the worst shot possible at the worst possible time, again, and, again, and again, He's lost me...

Good points holic...and I totally agree about the attitude thing sometimes.

But the whole thing revolves around our lack of an effective/creating PG in my opinion. You put Steve Nash on this team and sit back and be amazed at how much smarter the rest of the team gets.

I think a Craw for Nash type trade would be great. Would it get us to the NBA finals? I dunno...probably not...but it would be the best thing for our young guys...yes.

( we sure as h#ll wouldn't set any new playoff blowout records).

They could at least play real basketball for a couple years while our ownership tries to get a successor to Nash. Once they do it for that couple years they will remember how it's supposed to work.

Even if our ownership can't get a solid PG in those two years our guys will always have the memories of how it was in (2nd part of) 2011, 2012, 2013.

Edited February 11, 2011 by DJlaysitup