My new nickname for Josh

[AHF]

Just look at the shot chart from last night's game. It is not opinion, it is fact.. 1-9 from 19+ feet out. Statistically, he is one of the worst shooters in the league from this range. His previous coach made him stop shooting from that range.

Why does this keep getting perpetuated? Josh was allowed to shoot more and more long jumpers year after year under Woody.

In 2009-10 (the year people claim Josh eliminated the long jumper), Woodson got Smith to stop shooting 3's. Josh did not stop taking the low % long jumpers, however. He actually increased the number of long 2's he took by 20% year over year. Any decrease is good but let's not pretend like Josh reformed under Woodson and relapsed under Drew.

Woodson enabled the jumpers for 6 years and allowed him to trade off eliminated the 3's for more increased long 2's for one season which did result in a positive net reduction in long jumpers but which did not remotely cause him to stop shooting them altogether or anything even close.

[MaceCase]

I think the confusion is over the ratio of jumpers to inside shots during that year. That 9-10 season featured Josh eliminating the three and taking a career high 6.7 shots at the rim, a number he's not been in the ballpark of since. Looking at the stats, his 3 long2 attempts per game were not out of line with his average number of attempts over the previous seasons under Woody but he most definitely increased that number under Drew (while simultaneously reacquanting himself with the 3). I'd say I'd give Woody credit for that, he didn't make Josh eliminate the long 2 but keeping him off the 3 point line limited his total jumpers overall. It was Josh's career best raw FG% and TS% season before 10-11 where Josh had a two-pronged outlier of being both an average 3point shooter and decent FT shooter at the same time.

[maljanNBAfan]

What position do you guys think best suits Smith within the context of Atlanta's current roster? I wrote about the idea here: http://soaringdownsouth.com/2012/11/14/josh-smiths-positional-battle/

[AHF]

I think the confusion is over the ratio of jumpers to inside shots during that year. That 9-10 season featured Josh eliminating the three and taking a career high 6.7 shots at the rim, a number he's not been in the ballpark of since. Looking at the stats, his 3 long2 attempts per game were not out of line with his average number of attempts over the previous seasons under Woody but he most definitely increased that number under Drew (while simultaneously reacquanting himself with the 3). I'd say I'd give Woody credit for that, he didn't make Josh eliminate the long 2 but keeping him off the 3 point line limited his total jumpers overall. It was Josh's career best raw FG% and TS% season before 10-11 where Josh had a two-pronged outlier of being both an average 3point shooter and decent FT shooter at the same time.

Credit where credit is due.

It was too little, too late for Woodson. He had 6 years to work on Smith's shot selection and his role in the offense and that was the high point - muted success. He established a terrible track record for Josh's development as a jump shooter and then managed to mitigate the damage of that jump shooting his last season. I am not going to sing his praises for that when he publicly defended Josh shooting 3's into Josh's 5th year under Woody.

Was it good to finally take steps to mitigate the long jumpers in 2009-10? Of course! But it amounts to too little, too late.

Is it a huge failing of Drew's that he didn't continue that? Absolutely. Drew enabling Josh to go off the deep end with 3pters is Drew's biggest failing. But Josh hasn't done anything under Drew that he didn't do with Woody. Josh 2011 154 3pta / Josh 2007 152 3pta -- Josh 2012 110 3pta / Josh 2006 109 3pta. As a % of total attempts, Josh's worst 3pt season was with Woody.

[NineOhTheRino]

I like "Mr. Buckets", "Josh Buckets", or "Smoove Buckets"any nickname worth a damn has to include the word buckets

Edited November 14, 2012 by NineOhTheRino

[YP2K]

I like "Mr. Buckets", "Josh Buckets", or "Smoove Buckets" any nickname worth a damn has to include the word buckets

Josh "Play Through Me To Win, I Can Get You Buckets... Smoove"

[maljanNBAfan]

You are blinded by your hatred of Josh Smith... Josh wasn't even in the game for the first half of the 4th quarter. We blew a good lead without him. And those "cold-blooded baskets by Horf" were set up by Josh Smith assists. So, how do they prove we should play through Horford when those baskets were not setup by playing through him? A big part of winning that game was Josh Smith's defense and assists during the 2nd half of the 4th quarter.

I agree, and feel like the positives that Josh Smith brings to the court are being taken for granted. They'll be missed when he's gone. Here's something I wrote about which position best suits him within Atlanta's current roster structure: http://soaringdownsouth.com/2012/11/14/josh-smiths-positional-battle/

[GST]

Osh, because Osh has no j.Kudos to whoever came up with that one a while back.