Same Ole Josh Smith.....

[LastDon]

The Sixers game would have been easily won if Josh Smith would have stop settling for jumpshots and take the ball to the basket.

My observations from the game were that Josh Smith ballhandling hasn't improved any and that he is a fourth option at best because he is nothing more than a garbage man and spot up perimeter shooter. We are going to struggle early from the lost of Marvin because we have no other players who have the offensive repertoire to be a consistent offensive threat other than Joe.

I just don't understand the rationale behind trading a proven 6'8 post guy and drafting another 6'8 forward who has no offense and has showed very little defensively in Shelden.

BK and his 96 minutes of bullshit at the forward spot is ridiculous as we squandered another opportunity to get a point guard in Marcus Williams.

[Plastic Man]

i think he stopped being aggressive when he got in foul trouble.

[Guest Walter]

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The Sixers game would have been easily won if Josh Smith would have stop settling for jumpshots and take the ball to the basket.

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I won't argue that everyone of our players (save Childess) should drive more, but it's harder to do when you have absolutely no post option drawing the opposition's eyes away from you. We will get no cheap baskets with other team's players caught looking when the ball goes inside to ZaZa. Just won't happen. We will be forced to take bad shots or bad drives because the court won't open up for us without a post offense. Unless we run, and run, and run, and run some more, this team will struggle to score eficiently, consistently despite all it's perimeter scoring talent.

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I just don't understand the rationale behind trading a proven 6'8 post guy and drafting another 6'8 forward who has no offense and has showed very little defensively in Shelden.

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And doing so with a 5th overall pick and getting in return a 22nd or so overall pick. SW will never, ever be better than Al Harrington on his head. He's the inverse Harrington and honestly I believe we may miss post scoring this year as much as we missed post defense last year. Forget ZaZa's 7 FTs and 2 jump shots. Of the 3 (out of 4) shots I saw him make, 1 was within 5' and was a put back. That's no post offense. We are going to be in pain should this continue.

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BK and his 96 minutes of bullshit at the forward spot is ridiculous as we squandered another opportunity to get a point guard in Marcus Williams.

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People here will blame it on Pheonix as if there weren't 10 other teams to trade with that could reasonably acquire us Williams or Rondo. Roy was my man and as part of a 3 guard rotation with JJ and a smaller, quicker Pg we'd be set there and gotten a big in FAcy or trade (perhaps keeping Al also if the big were mostly defensive).

W

[y2kenta]

It's ONLY one game. Frustrating, but it was ONLY ONE GAME.

Rest assure some one will get on his @ss about playing stronger.

[Diesel]

Since Josh has come into the league..

Everybody has equated him as being the next Vince Carter... The Next Shawn Kemp.. or the Next Dominique.

Well, it should be evident that even though Smoove is a high flyer... Smoove doesn't have it in him to dunk on people. It takes a certain type of cockiness to dunk on people. Smoove doesn't have it. Smoove is not a beast. He's a regular guy with Beastly potential... But he's not a beast.

Beast is his buddy Dwight Howard!! Did you see any of that beat down last night... As I was flipping from Hawks to Orl to Beef on BET.. I was made to stand up a few times by some of the things that i saw Howard do... This being a contract year for Grant Hill means that they may just get 60 games out of him?!!!

[Guest Walter]

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Well, it should be evident that even though Smoove is a high flyer... Smoove doesn't have it in him to dunk on people. It takes a certain type of cockiness to dunk on people. Smoove doesn't have it. Smoove is not a beast. He's a regular guy with Beastly potential... But he's not a beast.

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You didn't see his follow dunk in the 1st half or the 1000s of dunks last year.

I mean, give me a freakin' break. WE don't have a legit post scoring option and couldn't draw a double team 2' from the basket, but one of our players is supposed to drive past his man, through a zone, despite the opposition ignoring our post players?

Complaining that JS isn't Dwight Howard is just a little ridiculous.

Be careful people. We've seen just how little Woodson could get out of Diaw. How little he knew how to use him. The same is true with most everyone of his players, particularly the nøn-traditional ones. People want to see Woodson as a great player developer (if only because he's lousy in all other aspects), but he isn't. He's just got talent on this team and unfortunately it takes many too long to see just how poorly or to what extent he misuses them.

W

[Final_quest]

Where is that thread from this summer on Howard? All these fools were saying that he wasn't that good. That all he could do was dunk and rebound. This guy is a monster, and for all the talk of passing on Paul this is the guy we should have pulled all the stops for.

[Plainview1981]

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Since Josh has come into the league..

Everybody has equated him as being the next Vince Carter... The Next Shawn Kemp.. or the Next Dominique.

Well, it should be evident that even though Smoove is a high flyer... Smoove doesn't have it in him to dunk on people. It takes a certain type of cockiness to dunk on people. Smoove doesn't have it. Smoove is not a beast. He's a regular guy with Beastly potential... But he's not a beast.

Beast is his buddy Dwight Howard!! Did you see any of that beat down last night... As I was flipping from Hawks to Orl to Beef on BET.. I was made to stand up a few times by some of the things that i saw Howard do... This being a contract year for Grant Hill means that they may just get 60 games out of him?!!!

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Yeah, Dwight Howard is a big tuck and Josh Smith is a broken down pinto. Orlando has alot of luck over the last 15 years.

[HawksFan87]

You people are ridiculous, one game and Josh sucks please. I see no one has made a post about Joe taking 25 shots and only making 9 of them. This is a total team effort, the team lost that game not just one player.

[Plainview1981]

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You people are ridiculous, one game and Josh sucks please. I see no one has made a post about Joe taking 25 shots and only making 9 of them. This is a total team effort, the team lost that game not just one player.

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He'll never be a go-to guy. He's a broke down version of Kirlenko.

[HawksFan87]

I did'nt know that you were an expert!! And plus your opinion does'nt matter to me.

[Plainview1981]

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I did'nt know that you were an expert!! And plus your opinion does'nt matter to me.

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I call it like I see it... No handles, below average rebounding, no defense, no post game.

That's the problem.... He blocks shots, but is a terrible defensive player overall... He can pass, but doesn't have the ball handling ability. His game is kind of hollow.

Second, my opinion matters enough for you to reply.

[AtLaS]

Funny he's nothing and never will be nothing but a poor man's Kirilenko, he's 20 years old give the guy a freakin break.

The funny thing is that when we drafted Josh, EVERYONE (including us) said it would be at least 2-3 years before he was even ready to contribute. Everyone knew he was very raw coming out, that's why he dropped to 17. He comes out has a pretty good rookie season, then a better 2nd season, and now after one bad game shooting he will NEVER get better? Players like him with raw skills need time to put their full game together, most of his points the last few seasons are jumpshots, put backs or fast breaks, and now y'all expect him to breakout and become the next big thing? It's not that easy. Remember that he's 20, giving up on him now for the rest of his career is just dumb..

Look how much better his jumpshot is since we drafted him (exception last night, of course), he's DEFINATELY improving. Plus players like him need a PG or at least someone to get them the ball when they are open, Speedy had 3 TO's and 0 assist, JJ had 4 assist. BTW I only remember one shot Josh took that I thought was bad, most of them were WIDE open, I can't blame him for taking those. Our whole team missed wide open jumpers all game long, it wasn't just him..

[Diesel]

Im not saying that Josh Smith does not dunk on people. I'm saying that he doesn't have it in him to be Vince Carter or Shawn Kemp. Those guys have/had the intention on getting to the rim. I just don't think Smoove has the confidence to do that on a consistent basis.

[LastDon]

I just don't think that he showed enough improvement to warrant us letting Al Harrington walk. In my opinion we basically have the same team with 4 forwards but Shelden isn't better than Al.

I would much rather have a team with the additions of Marcus Williams and Al Harrington than a team with Claxton and Shelden Williams.

[AHF]

I think Josh Smith has fantastic potential and has done a great job developing himself as a player over the last two years. I do think he needs to start exercising better shot selection and taking the ball to the hole a little more. If he settles for jump shots as his primary weapon he will never maximize his potential.

He is still very young, very raw and a very exciting prospect!

[HawksFan87]

The Whole team settled for jump shots not jsut Smoove which everyone forgot to mention, no one's talking about how horrible Joe played last night, and I dont call making 9 out of 25 shots having a great game. The entire team needs to learn how to drive to the basket more...

[AHF]

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The Whole team settled for jump shots not jsut Smoove which everyone forgot to mention, no one's talking about how horrible Joe played last night, and I dont call making 9 out of 25 shots having a great game. The entire team needs to learn how to drive to the basket more...

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First off, Joe was 9 for 23 which isn't great but isn't too terrible either. A 10 for 19 night puts him at a little over 45% on the season.

I also agree the entire team needs to avoid relying on jump shots.

However, many of the best guys at getting to the FT line are very athletic guards and forwards. Josh Smith is far more athletic than anyone else on the team. For that reason, I think he has more ability to become a contributor at the line than someone like Joe Johnson (who needs to get better at drawing fouls but doesn't have the ability to get a step on a defender and elevate).

[HawksFan87]

I agree with that post but it's only one game and I feel as though there is no need to panic .

[AHF]

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I agree with that post but it's only one game and I feel as though there is no need to panic .

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I totally agree. No need to panic at all.

I expect Josh Smith to be a young stud this season. My biggest worry coming into the season is that he will get too far away from taking the ball to the hole by focusing too much on jump shooting. I don't take this game as as much of an indicator as his summer league play and play at the end of last year. I just want to see him start to move the trend away from jump shots a little bit.