Dear Josh Smith

[gsuteke]

There's a reason the other team leaves you open on the perimeter (which is where you shouldn't be in the 1st place).

Pretty please with sugar on top.

Pass the ball.

[Plastic Man]

There's a reason the other team leaves you open on the perimeter (which is where you shouldn't be in the 1st place).

Pretty please with sugar on top.

Pass the ball.

...or stay inside and get nasty

[LOL_Hawks]

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. If Smoove is shooting 3's, I feel like strangling him. If Smoove is playing like normal (i.e. what he did in Game 1 and for MOST of this game), I feel like hugging the man.

These playoffs are too much, man. Too much drama.

[Diesel]

There's a reason the other team leaves you open on the perimeter (which is where you shouldn't be in the 1st place).

Pretty please with sugar on top.

Pass the ball.

Do you mind if I sign under your name?

[thecampster]

There's a reason the other team leaves you open on the perimeter (which is where you shouldn't be in the 1st place).

Pretty please with sugar on top.

Pass the ball.

LOL you are so full of it. Without Josh's play in the first 18 minutes we lose this game. Got to agree the 3 pointers didn't look good but please get some credibility. 4 blocked shots for the game. His hustle in the first 18 minutes led the Hawks to their lead.

Hawks plus/minus for the game organized by first to last.

Zaza Pachulia (+20)....huge ups for Zaza.

Josh Smith (+20).....

Mo Evans (+16)....

Mike Bibby (+11)... huge turnaround from the first 3 games

Joe Johnson (+11)

Flip Murray....(+5)

Al Horford...(-8)...This is where your venom should be getting spewed.

Mario West...(-10) This was in only 5 minutes

Solomon Jones...(-15) This was in only 3 minutes.

[Colin]

Josh made some stupid decisions regarding shot selection, including that three pointer, which confused the s*** out of me, literally.

BUT, he convinced Woody, and myself with the rest of his play that he should be in the game.

[kamillion]

LOL you are so full of it. Without Josh's play in the first 18 minutes we lose this game. Got to agree the 3 pointers didn't look good but please get some credibility. 4 blocked shots for the game. His hustle in the first 18 minutes led the Hawks to their lead.

Hawks plus/minus for the game organized by first to last.

Zaza Pachulia (+20)....huge ups for Zaza.

Josh Smith (+20).....

Mo Evans (+16)....

Mike Bibby (+11)... huge turnaround from the first 3 games

Joe Johnson (+11)

Flip Murray....(+5)

Al Horford...(-8)...This is where your venom should be getting spewed.

Mario West...(-10) This was in only 5 minutes

Solomon Jones...(-15) This was in only 3 minutes.

i don't think he's saying Josh Smith played bad last night- he had a really nice game. it'd just be even better if some of those jumpers were taken to the rim. after the 2nd jumper Woody told him "to the rim"... next play down, he went to the rim, and was able to dump it off to I believe Al (?) for an easy 2.

better things happen off of his drives...................... 1000x better.

[DrReality]

When the announcers make blatant comments like they have, you know it's bad. Holeman on the radio has been riding his arse for a long time and without being politically correct.

[tomac]

Two of the threes that Josh took last night were because of the shot clock. Joe simply held the ball t oo long. One was wide open (he should have taken it), and one was a bone-headed decision. The bottom line is this; Josh Smith and Zaza Pachulia won the game for the Hawks last night. Anybody who watched the game should know this. He made better decisions with the ball than Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby. When we took him out of the game is when Miami made their run. It amazes me (as a relative newbie) that folks would pick on this guy at this point when he's one of only a few guys on this team who seems to play with a sense of urgency in the playoffs.

Let's talk about how Joe Johnson didn't show any heart. Lets talk about the horrible officiating for most of the game. Lets give Josh a break.

[Dsinner]

that three pointer, which confused the s*** out of me, literally.

His shot actually made you go take a sh*t? Ewwe

[Colin]

His shot actually made you go take a sh*t? Ewwe

Exactly.

I went to take a dump at the end of the quarter because of that three.

[thecampster]

Exactly.

I went to take a dump at the end of the quarter because of that three.

:lol6:

gotta laugh. that was funny, But seriously. Why single a guy out for shooting outside when it's obvious (based on what happened after they took him out in the second) that he was willing the Hawks at that point.

I'm so disgusted with JJ right now I could scream and yet we're picking on Josh.

For the playoffs out of 16 teams, Josh is leading the hawks in scoring at 16.5 ppg and is 25th in the league. He is 7th overall in blocks and leads the hawks. He is 11th overall in rebounding. (Zaza is 8th due to last night). He is 13th in steals and 45th in assists. he is currently 24th in efficiency rating and that leads the Hawks.

JJ, our star who makes 40% more a year, is 41st in scoring (based on 16 teams that makes him a third option. based on 16 teams meaning 80 starters in the league that means over half of the other starters i the playoffs are outscoring him.), he has no blocks, is 68th in rebounding, 89th in steals (yes all starters plus 9 bench players are out doing him here and that includes the pistons), 38th in assists. and 102nd in efficiency rating.

How about a little heat on Joe Johnson instead? Josh is 1st on the Hawks in 4 of the 6 categories mentioned and is 2nd in the other. JJ is only better in assists by .3 per game. This is not what I expect out of a number one option, superstar type.

Edited April 28, 2009 by thecampster

[crimedog]

:lol6:

gotta laugh. that was funny, But seriously. Why single a guy out for shooting outside when it's obvious (based on what happened after they took him out in the second) that he was willing the Hawks at that point.

I'm so disgusted with JJ right now I could scream and yet we're picking on Josh.

For the playoffs out of 16 teams, Josh is leading the hawks in scoring at 16.5 ppg and is 25th in the league. He is 7th overall in blocks and leads the hawks. He is 11th overall in rebounding. (Zaza is 8th due to last night). He is 13th in steals and 45th in assists. he is currently 24th in efficiency rating and that leads the Hawks.

JJ, our star who makes 40% more a year, is 41st in scoring (based on 16 teams that makes him a third option), has no blocks, is 68th in rebounding, 89th in steals, 38th in assists. and 102nd in efficiency rating.

How about a little heat on Joe Johnson instead? Josh is 1st on the Hawks in 4 of the 6 categories mentioned and is 2nd in the other. JJ is only better in assists by .3 per game. This is not what I expect out of a number one option, superstar type.

JJ and Al are exempt from criticism, you didn't get the memo?

[Colin]

:lol6:

gotta laugh. that was funny, But seriously. Why single a guy out for shooting outside when it's obvious (based on what happened after they took him out in the second) that he was willing the Hawks at that point.

I'm so disgusted with JJ right now I could scream and yet we're picking on Josh.

For the playoffs out of 16 teams, Josh is leading the hawks in scoring at 16.5 ppg and is 25th in the league. He is 7th overall in blocks and leads the hawks. He is 11th overall in rebounding. (Zaza is 8th due to last night). He is 13th in steals and 45th in assists. he is currently 24th in efficiency rating and that leads the Hawks.

JJ, our star who makes 40% more a year, is 41st in scoring (based on 16 teams that makes him a third option), has no blocks, is 68th in rebounding, 89th in steals, 38th in assists. and 102nd in efficiency rating.

How about a little heat on Joe Johnson instead? Josh is 1st on the Hawks in 4 of the 6 categories mentioned and is 2nd in the other. JJ is only better in assists by .3 per game. This is not what I expect out of a number one option, superstar type.

I agree. I don't pick on Josh, never have. Like I said, he made up for his stupid shots last night.

Joe on the other hand isn't doing much to help the team. He even had another play last night where he just plain threw it out of bounds... Again.

He needs to come with a sense of urgency in game 5.

[mrhonline]

Criticize JJ instead? Umm, have you been reading the board the last few days?

As I said on RealGM, I'm basically done with Josh Smith. After 5 years, I don't see him suddenly learning how to play the game the right way. He's not worth the $12M/year the Hawks will be paying him over the next four seasons.

[crimedog]

Criticize JJ instead? Umm, have you been reading the board the last few days?

As I said on RealGM, I'm basically done with Josh Smith. After 5 years, I don't see him suddenly learning how to play the game the right way. He's not worth the $12M/year the Hawks will be paying him over the next four seasons.

Al was without a doubt the worst player on the floor last night for either team with the possible exception of Beas. We don't have threads calling him out for letting a broken down JO abuse him the past 3 games, why not?

[TanAdam]

Al was without a doubt the worst player on the floor last night for either team with the possible exception of Beas. We don't have threads calling him out for letting a broken down JO abuse him the past 3 games, why not?

While Al didn't play well, he certainly we victimized by some terrible foul calls and didn't even get to see the floor much. I would bet that Zaza starts to get a lot more minutes if Al continues to struggle on defense against that bum ONeal

[crimedog]

While Al didn't play well, he certainly we victimized by some terrible foul calls and didn't even get to see the floor much. I would bet that Zaza starts to get a lot more minutes if Al continues to struggle on defense against that bum ONeal

He was victimized by JO more than terrible foul calls. He's had a pretty weak series, but big deal. We're 2-2 and going home, lets give the guys some credit for winning and instead of continually criticizing the only player on our team who has been better in the playoffs than the regular season, lets get behind the team. We can talk about how much better we'd be with Joel Anthony on our team after Josh is done being the best player on the team in the playoffs.

You're right though, the refs were godawful. Not in the way you'd expect with Wade on the floor, they were just about as choppy as you can get.

[exodus]

Smith was 4-14 from the field. Almost all of his misses were jumpers. He keeps jacking them up even though everyone knows he can't make them.

Al is just lame. He is getting abused by a washed up JO on both ends. He has no offensive game at all and is making JO look like he made the All-Star team this year. Even on the rare occassion that Horford actually faked a guy off his feet he chose to pass out to the perimeter instead of drive.

[bronnt]

Two of the threes that Josh took last night were because of the shot clock. Joe simply held the ball t oo long. One was wide open (he should have taken it), and one was a bone-headed decision. The bottom line is this; Josh Smith and Zaza Pachulia won the game for the Hawks last night. Anybody who watched the game should know this. He made better decisions with the ball than Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby. When we took him out of the game is when Miami made their run. It amazes me (as a relative newbie) that folks would pick on this guy at this point when he's one of only a few guys on this team who seems to play with a sense of urgency in the playoffs.

Let's talk about how Joe Johnson didn't show any heart. Lets talk about the horrible officiating for most of the game. Lets give Josh a break.

It's not just the threes, it's pretty much any jumpshot he takes outside of 10 feet, and there are too many.

That first three he attempted, when he caught the ball in the corner, had plenty of time, stepped back behind the line, and launched an ugly shot, really made me slap my forehead. The worst moment of the game for me was when he launched his made 3 and knew it was good leaving his hand. I was seriously like "Oh, crap, Josh Smith's feeling it. Nothing kills a rally more than Josh Smith feeling his jumper."

Sure enough, the next possession, he was hanging around the perimeter begging for the ball the entire possession. Miami left him open, and he ended up throwing an airball from the left corner.

It's frustrating because you see things like that rebound in the fourth where he just outfought Haslem for the ball and dished it back to a cutting Flip Murray for an easy basket. He had some great wherewithal to recognize and get the ball to his man as he's falling out of bounds, but he doesn't display that kind of basketball smarts in any consistent fashion.