Aldridge scoring against Hawks

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Ex, the bottom line is that Smoove has to make these guys play defense on the other end. He just can't be a jumpshooter, because they're giving him enough room to take the shot.

And as for Diesel, here's a scenario for you.

In the game:

PG - Claxton

G - JJ

F - Smoove

F - Horford

C - Shelden

And whatever team we are playing, just went zone. How do you attack this zone, with this lineup on the floor?

[exodus]

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Ex, the bottom line is that Smoove has to make these guys play defense on the other end. He just can't be a jumpshooter, because they're giving him enough room to take the shot.

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I agree he needs to attack the basket more. But for him to be an effective scorer at either position he at least has to become an average mid range shooter to pull bigger players away from the basket.

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And as for Diesel, here's a scenario for you.

In the game:

PG - Claxton

G - JJ

F - Smoove

F - Horford

C - Shelden

And whatever team we are playing, just went zone. How do you attack this zone, with this lineup on the floor?

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With that lineup you are screwed against a zone because there is only one shooter. They can just pack it in.

In theory you can drive but that is easier in theory than reality. Smith and Speedy are both turnover prone.

If Smith plays the 3 Acie has to be on the floor as well. You can't have Speedy at the point and Smith at the 3, simple as that.

[Diesel]

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And as for Diesel, here's a scenario for you.

In the game:

PG - Claxton

G - JJ

F - Smoove

F - Horford

C - Zaza

And whatever team we are playing, just went zone. How do you attack this zone, with this lineup on the floor?

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First scenerio recommendation: Penetrate with Claxton, Dish off to either Horford or Zaza down low... or pitch out to JJ for the three. If the defense doesn't collapse, Speedy continues on to layup.

Speedy this this very same thing with UNO before he came.

Second Scenerio Recommendation: IF it's not a matchup zone, Pick and Pop between JJ and Speedy where JJ sets the pick and steps out for the three. (Revisit Hawks ~95 with Mookie and Steve Smith).

Third Case: I haven't seen him all that he can do other than Summer league but repost offense with Horford. If he doesn't know how to play repost, he has to be taught.

[Diesel]

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But playing him at SF, is the absolute WRONG thing to do as far as the Hawks go . . . unless you don't want him to be an offensive threat whatsoever.

This kid cannot shoot. When you can't shoot, you must take the ball to the hole. He can't take SF's off the dribble, if he's starting 20 feet from the basket. He CAN take PF's and C's off the dribble, if he's starting 16 feet from the basket. He proved that time and time again last March and April.

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You and I both know that this would be Eutopia for the PF position... Play down low, take Pfs and Cs off the dribble...

Yet, that's not what Smoove does. Now if we were to really be honest about Smoove right now... Him being Sf is simply a name change for offense and on defense, when we're not in the zone, him matching up with the Sf on the baseline. I would implement a Junk defense and play Jsmoove and Maye JJ (Triangle and 2) as rovers. JJ's one on one defense is not so good and he could increase his steals if he could rover and put a hand in the lane... and Smoove would benefit from being able to play loose and backside blocks.

But right now, we're Tim Thomasing JSmoove. Thomas was the same way, people said "hey you're pretty good, but you're 6'10", you should be more like McDyess because we have a guy named Big Dog who is our Sf... So they played Thomas off the bench as their BU PF until he worked on his shot well enough to BU Sf primarily.

All those years and a big contract later, they found out that if they had just kept him a Sf, he may have progressed the right way... The players desire has to be a strong indication of where you need to develop him is the Tim Thomas lesson.

[thesheedera]

It appears to me that whether you call him a PF or a SF, Josh Smith pretty much plays as and where he pleases on the floor.

I don't think the coaching staff (for better or worse) is restricting Smith in any way at all. He plays a ton of minutes, doesn't back anyone up, and clearly has the freedom to play on the perimeter.

[Diesel]

It's no doubt that Smoove is our most necessary player. We don't win with Smoove off the floor. Right now, we have some minute logjams because of our bad drafting. Some people will say just trade JChillz. Well, JChillz is probably our 3rd most needed player. You can't totally bench Marvin because who knows, the rugrats might go off the air and Marvin find his aggression! So what can you do?? I say that you play all three at the Sf and whoever steps up over the season, they get more minutes. It's king of the mountain when you have a log jam. It's not about increasing confidence at this point, we drafted 3 Sfs over 2 years. 2 were lottery picks... We can't continue changing their classification and calling them whatever we need... especially when they lack the needed skillset and desire!

[AtLaS]

I really think against a center like Aldridge, that Solomon could succeed. Aldridge isn't a physical offensive player at ALL, he's soft, and mostly a turnaround jumpshooter.

Solomon should be given a chance against him if Aldridge goes off when we play them in the season.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

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But playing him at SF, is the absolute WRONG thing to do as far as the Hawks go . . . unless you don't want him to be an offensive threat whatsoever.

This kid cannot shoot. When you can't shoot, you must take the ball to the hole. He can't take SF's off the dribble, if he's starting 20 feet from the basket. He CAN take PF's and C's off the dribble, if he's starting 16 feet from the basket. He proved that time and time again last March and April.

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You and I both know that this would be Eutopia for the PF position... Play down low, take Pfs and Cs off the dribble...

Yet, that's not what Smoove does. Now if we were to really be honest about Smoove right now... Him being Sf is simply a name change for offense and on defense, when we're not in the zone, him matching up with the Sf on the baseline. I would implement a Junk defense and play Jsmoove and Maye JJ (Triangle and 2) as rovers. JJ's one on one defense is not so good and he could increase his steals if he could rover and put a hand in the lane... and Smoove would benefit from being able to play loose and backside blocks.

But right now, we're Tim Thomasing JSmoove. Thomas was the same way, people said "hey you're pretty good, but you're 6'10", you should be more like McDyess because we have a guy named Big Dog who is our Sf... So they played Thomas off the bench as their BU PF until he worked on his shot well enough to BU Sf primarily.

All those years and a big contract later, they found out that if they had just kept him a Sf, he may have progressed the right way... The players desire has to be a strong indication of where you need to develop him is the Tim Thomas lesson.

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Or it could be the "late" Eddie Griffin lesson. Like Smoove, he was a pretty good shot blocker. They were also both around the same size. But Eddie just couldn't stay away from the perimeter.

Go to nba.com/hotzones, and look up Eddie Griffin's shot chart from the 2005 season. It'll look eerily similar to what Josh Smith's looked last year. Now granted, Smoove has 100X the desire to be great, than Griffin had, and at least Smoove is trying to change his game somewhat. But Griffin almost flat out refused to change up his offensive game. That led to him having his playing time reduced.

When a guy can't shoot, you cannot continue to let him play where he wants. He either has to adjust his game, or he's going to be out of the league because his shot selection is killing you on offense.

Smoove's meal ticket in this league, is to pattern his game after Shawn Marion's. And he has the athletic ability to do just that. His road to greatness lies as being an athletic PF, and not an athletic SF. If he shot the 3-ball as well as Marion can, then OK, play him at SF during certain stints of a game. But he can't. He's not even close to Marion as a 3-point shooter.

Whenever Shawn comes home ( not to his birthplace in Chicago, but where he grew up at as a kid in Clarksville, TN ), the one thing you always notice about him, is how rail skinny the guy really is. Yes, he is muscular in the arms, but the rest of his body pretty much looks like a stick figure. But he knows how to use his body to play the athletic/physical game that he plays.

It'll be much easier to teach Smoove how to physically use his body on offense and defense, than to teach him how to become a good shooter.

When you play with Smoove on a video game, there's no way you can win with him taking a lot of mid-range jumpers or 3-pointers. But you can win, if you attack the rim with Smoove, and have him playing around the basket.

I think Smoove, who probably plays a lot of NBA Live, truly believed what Steve Kerr said about him, when you play with the Hawks in that game.

( paraphrasing )

"I think the key for Josh Smith as he progresses throughout his NBA career, is the ability to develop an outside perimeter game. We all know he can jump and dunk . . but if he ever develops an outside jumpshot, HE'LL BE UNSTOPPABLE!!"

- Steve Kerr . . . NBA LIVE 07

I think when Smoove heard this on a video game, he was like . . HELL YEAH !! So he goes to Houston, and while trying to develop a post game with Hakeem, he also tries to improve his shot with Calvin. Not knocking the kid for doing that. It's great that he did that. But I'd much rather see him work with Hakeem.

If he keeps trying to be that "small foward", we're going to have an Andrei Kirilenko situation on our hands here in ATL very soon. I've said that before, and I'll keep saying it, as long as this kid continues to take shots he can't make.

[Diesel]

If Smoove had a three point shot, he would be dangerous..

However, the reality of the situation is that he's no closer to having a post game than he is a 3 pt shot and a Post game requires desire and skillset. Smoove doesn't have either. However, he can easily go to the gym and work on his mechanics and shoot 500 shots a day. The road to Sf is much easier than the road to Pf. Especially if he doesn't want to play in the post.