Josh Smith

[thecampster]

Smoove is the series MVP, after we win game 6.

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-39-1...----So-Bad.html

Alright read this article. It gets out everything you guys talk about. That said, it also brings to mind the concept of "Dang" that kid is learning and what happens when he puts it all together.

[DrReality]

He needs remedial help or special ed when it comes to BB IQ.

[mrhonline]

I'm going to quote the entire article, so people who love Smith can see why the rest of us are so frustrated on a regular basis. He wastes possessions, which are like gold in the NBA:

The most commonly used characteristic to describe the Atlanta Hawks is athletic. It used to be young, but the gritty seven-game series last April against Boston put that to rest. When people portray athleticism as the Hawks' great attribute, they're really talking about Josh Smith, the team's power forward.

For Hawks fans, harnessing the freakishness of Josh Smith has become something of a holy grail. When Smith's vast potential is finally sculpted into a refined player, that's the moment the Hawks will become a legitimate NBA contender. On certain nights, Smith flashes glimpses of that finished product, and it looks fantastic. When he's patient and engaged, Smith leverages his explosiveness as a tool against slower defenders -- a group that basically includes the other 29 guys who play the power forward position.

Josh Smith

Smith is obviously aware of his gifts, which is why it's so frustrating to watch him settle for quick, step-back jumpers a good deal of the time. He's a 65% shooter from close range -- an exclusive group of only 21 players -- but only 32% on two-point jumpers, and below 30% from beyond the arc.

Smith entered Wednesday night's Game Five shooting 5-17 from beyond 15 feet, and 20-39 closer in. He also worked himself 21 free throw attempts in the series' first four games, the majority of which were the result of strong moves to the basket.

The Inside Trax feature on the Game Four broadcast captured Mike Woodson imploring Smith to take the ball to the hole. Smith has the reputation of being one the league's least coachable players. His battles with Woodson this season continued, something that might be excusable as a recent high school draftee, but as a fifth-year pro in the first year of a big contract, that quality undermines his growth.

On Wednesday night, Smith's full range is on display -- the astonishing speed/power combination, the unpredictability, and the callowness. He finishes with 20 points on 20 possessions, 6-16 from the field, 7-9 from the line, eight rebounds, four assists, two blocks, and two steals. The results are true to form. The shot selection isn't perfect, but we've seen worse:

From Outside (5 possessions, 3 points)

Smith is a lefty, and his outside stroke has improved somewhat over the past five years, but the slingshot could still use some tightening. Smith is guarded early by Udonis Haslem, a smart team defender who does good work in the post, but someone Smith should be able to take off the dribble in isolation with a quick burst. Michael Beasley also takes a turn against Smith. On a few occasions, Smith settles for unnecessary stuff from the outside. A sampling:

* [1st Quarter, 8:49] The ball goes into Smith at the top of the key against Haslem, who plays off him about five feet. Smith winds up and pulls the trigger right away. There's :11 on the shot clock when he fires, and the shot is long.

* [1st Quarter, 7:35; 4th Quarter, 7:33] Twice Smith is left wide open beyond the arc. The first instance, he's the screener off a high pick-and-roll with Joe Johnson. The defense traps Johnson, and Smith is alone on the right side a step behind the line. He misses. In the fourth quarter with the Hawks leading by 16, he's left by himself again, this time along the right sideline when his man, Beasley, rotates over onto a rolling Zaza Pachulia. Bibby sees Smith, kicks the ball over to him, and Smith converts his only outside shot of the night.

* [2nd Quarter, 10:05] Beasley fronts Smith at the mid-right post, preventing the entry pass from Johnson. The Hawks go to their next option, a pick from Solomon Jones for Johnson. Once this action is initiated, Smith floats out to perimeter. Beasley cheats off Smith, so Johnson hits him with a pass. Beasley has to recover, and run out on Smith, who now has a perfect opportunity to breeze past Beasley, whose momentum is taking him in the opposite direction. Smith destabilizes Beasley even more with a little upfake, but fumbles his dribble as he gets into his left-handed drive. There's still :06 on the shot clock. Rather than gather and reappraise, Smith launches a shot that's way, way short -- a lousy possession.

* [3rd Quarter, 8:15] Side screen-roll on the right side with Johnson. The defense traps, and Johnson gets the pass over to Smith, who is all alone. Airball.

You can live with the open three-pointers, and even the attempt on the airball, but Smith hasn't mastered his jump shot from distance enough to justify a contested or early shot, particularly when you consider what he can do as a slasher. Yet these attempts still account for a good portion of his shot distribution -- a little less so tonight. It's no coincidence that Smith's best inside/outside distribution came in Atlanta's impressive Game One win.

Off the Dribble (10 possessions, 11 points)

Get Smith in isolation and he's a very difficult cover. His handle still isn't flawless [we see that above when he tries to move past Beasley on a drive], but this should be Smith's default mode of attack. Once Smith gets past his man, there's not a lot the help can do to keep him from the rim.

* [1st Quarter, 10:39] The ball is delivered to Smith out on the right wing. He faces up against Haslam, offers a little upfake, then puts the ball on the floor with his right and tries to drive baseline. This is odd because [a] this isn't Smith's strong hand and the baseline, as David Thorpe says, acts as a defender. Sure enough, Haslam cuts off Smith, who reverses course and goes middle with his left. Smith can't get any space and though he has Johnson open on the perimeter for a kickout, he opts to throw up an off-balanced lefty hook from about seven feet that's no good.

* [1st Quarter, 5:57] One of my favorite sequences of the night. When Smith teams up with Johnson on a high screen-roll, many teams choose to trap Johnson, which leaves Smith momentarily free until the rotation comes. Often, Smith will drift out to 20 feet and pass up better open space closer to the box. Not here. He immediately dashes to a spot inside the paint. Johnson feeds Smith there. When the ball comes, Smith is decisive and quick, he takes a dribble with his left, turns middle, pivots with his right, fakes Jermaine O'Neal, and promptly draws the foul. He drains both free throws. For Smith, understanding where he should be on the floor to maximize his skills will go a long way to improving that shot selection. Simply put, Smith can't heave up a 20-footer if he's getting the ball at 12 feet. He needs to find his way to those spots.

* [2nd Quarter, 9:03; 3rd Quarter, 9:06; 3rd Quarter, 7:48] On the first two moves, Smith once again demonstrates decisiveness, beginning his move to the basket the instant he collects the pass. The first comes on the left side against Beasley, the second on the right side against Haslem. He executes both with left-handed drives and finishes. The third in the series is a transcendent burst of speed that comes less than a minute after his 20-foot airball. Smith gets the ball against James Jones on the right side. Jones is no dummy -- he plays Smith to go middle with his left hand, and does so to an extreme. Smith fakes to his left, then brings the ball across his body, puts down a hard right-handed dribble and explodes to rim with incredible power, throwing down a ferocious slam.

Even when Smith doesn't finish, his drives place enough pressure on the defense that good things often materialize for Atlanta. On one such play -- and he was arguably fouled by Haslem on a no-call -- Smith misses at the rim, but the Miami bigs are out of position, which allows Zaza Pachulia to collect the miss and go back up for an easy put in [3rd Quarter, 4:35]. Smith won't be credited for the points, but his explosion to the basket sets things in motion for Atlanta. The sooner and more thoroughly Smith understands this, the quicker Atlanta can establish itself as a power in the East.

In Transition (2 possessions, 2 points, 1 spectacularly awful missed breakaway dunk)

Smith is long and cat-like, and can fill a passing lane as well as any big man in the league. This gives him breakaway opportunities, where he wows the crowd -- usually for better, tonight for worse.

* [2nd Quarter, 4:56] Smith gets his fingertips on an entry pass into Haslem, which ignites the Atlanta break. Bibby grabs the loose ball. Smith fills the lane to his left. Bibby passes it off to Smith, who flies through the air for a massive slam attempt, but is fouled by Beasley. Smith drains both free throws.

* [4th Quarter, 4:16] This is the kind of play where you half-expect the the play-by-play transcription of the game to offer a wiseass description of what transpired, as in: "Josh Smith misses an abominable attempt at a circus dunk that the less charitable might characterize as a metaphor for his young career." Well ahead of the field, Smith approaches the paint with a right handed dribble, brings the ball underneath his left leg as he elevates, switches hands to his left, then rims the dunk, sending the ball springing into the air out to Joe Johnson. This will undoubtedly be immortalized on YouTube, and go down as a cult classic of aerial misadventure.

You'd like to believe Smith wouldn't try something like this in a closer game -- the Hawks are up 20 with just over four minutes to play -- but do we know for sure? The fact that we don't seems to be part of the dilemma with Josh Smith. Will Smith melt down in big moments as he did in Game Seven against the Celtics last year? We just don't know, though he'll be put to the test in the coming days.

The Rest -- 1 Post-Up, 2 Basket Cuts (3 possessions, 4 points)

Smith posts up once, but his footwork is frenetic and he doesn't get off a good shot [3rd Quarter, 11:44]. He gets an easy bucket on a broken play when he collects a shovel pass from Johnson and finishes at the unguarded rim with a slam [1st Quarter, 10:29]. The nicest of the remainders comes when he takes full advantage of what's happening away from him on the ball side:

* [2nd Quarter, 3:20] Smith is set up on the weak side perimeter. As Mike Bibby penetrates into the paint, Haslem moves down off Smith to collapse on Bibby. This leaves Smith unaccounted for, so he does the smart thing -- makes a hard cut to the basket. Bibby finds him for a pretty alley-oop. Smith almost pulls a Harrington.

Dikembe Mutombo used to tell Aaron Brooks to "do what you do best." It seems like a platitude until you consider it in the Josh Smith context. Smith is a player who does a lot of things well. He's established himself as a master of the help side, who is never out of a defensive possession. He's also deadly in transition. Off the dribble, when decisive but in control [Wooden: Be quick, but don't hurry], he's a high-percentage player. But Smith's stubbornness hurts him, and stunts like the botched Orlando Wooldridge styling give off the impression that he's not a serious or trustworthy player in crucial spots. Despite the concerns, his energy is infectious. If he can moderate his shot selection and transform the creativity in his game into productivity, he could potentially be a top ten talent -- potential the operative word.

[crimedog]

I'm going to quote the entire article, so people who love Smith can see why the rest of us are so frustrated on a regular basis. He wastes possessions, which are like gold in the NBA:

Read the article. Don't disagree with anything in it. On the other hand, he has definitely been our best player this series. Unless you still want to say its Al Horford...

My point is, while we're in this series and can't do anything about the fact that he's doing this... Lets focus on some positives. Its just a pain in the *ss to come on here after our wins, in which he was a huge part, and read about all the things he did wrong. We didn't break-down every missed shot Joe had while he was shooting 35% with more TOs than assists in the previous 4 games. We didn't break down every possession in which Al got schooled by JO. We didn't break down every possession Flip took the shot with an open man in the previous 4 games even though he was shooting sub-30%. So why do we have to break down literally everything he does wrong even though, with all his inconsistencies, he's been our most consistent player in this series (which, obviously says something about our team's ability to be consistent... another story altogether).

Edited April 30, 2009 by crimedog

[JackB1]

To the original poster.....

You JUST NOW figured out Josh doesn't have much in the "smarts department" ???

About the attempted dunk....I have a much bigger problem with Josh's overall refusal to play

to his strengths and stop taking jump shots. I would just like to see him play one full game,

where EVERY possesion, he is down near the paint and not strolling around the 3 point line.

Just try it ONCE Josh and see what the results are.

He still has that "pick up" basketball mentality and probably always will. How many more articles

do we have to read about Josh that have the words "If he ever.........." IF is just that...IF!

[Atlantaholic]

Read the article. Don't disagree with anything in it. On the other hand, he has definitely been our best player this series. Unless you still want to say its Al Horford...

My point is, while we're in this series and can't do anything about the fact that he's doing this... Lets focus on some positives. Its just a pain in the *ss to come on here after our wins, in which he was a huge part, and read about all the things he did wrong. We didn't break-down every missed shot Joe had while he was shooting 35% with more TOs than assists in the previous 4 games. We didn't break down every possession in which Al got schooled by JO. We didn't break down every possession Flip took the shot with an open man in the previous 4 games even though he was shooting sub-30%. So why do we have to break down literally everything he does wrong even though, with all his inconsistencies, he's been our most consistent player in this series (which, obviously says something about our team's ability to be consistent... another story altogether).

The reason is because of how long everyone has been waiting for Josh to come around, and how big people's expectations of Josh are. He was getting slack his first few years but people have grown impatient... It's understandable, but definitely unfair.

[crimedog]

The reason is because of how long everyone has been waiting for Josh to come around, and how big people's expectations of Josh are. He was getting slack his first few years but people have grown impatient... It's understandable, but definitely unfair.

There was a reason that he slipped to the 17th pick. Hell, the man who drafted him didn't even think he'd be as good as he is now or he wouldn't have picked a bench player in the lottery instead of him. There was/is no reason to think he'll be on the Lebron/KG level unless you were a little too impressed by him over the past couple of years.

[HawkItus]

You folks don't or never played hoops huh? Half of you are probably mad because you can't and never could even attempt a dunk like that. This board I swear. Actually, the main people I hear getting so upset fit a pretty tight mold.

[benhillboy]

Josh is, always has, and always will be Russian Roulette. We just have to live with it and hope there are considerably more 20-10-4-3-3/ win nights than 14-5-2-2-1/ loss ones. It helps me a lot in terms of keeping my sanity by simply turning away from the screen about 5 seconds (or however long it takes for that bomb to drop) when Josh bends his knees and throws up a sinner's prayer. All in all, though, Josh is a hometown boy, and there is nothing like him electrifying Phillips Arena. As a true Atlantan, like many others on here I'm sure, who gives a flying f**k who approves of Josh trying to celebrate a win. Barkley the Drunk, Kenny the Chump, some of the duds at ESPN, or anyone else. Looking at the media coverage (or lack thereof), it's us against the world, and I wouldn't have it any other way. These are the same morons who would vote the worst defensive PG in the game back-to-back MVP.

[smithrules]

Yeah ...maybe he will get punked on Friday and 50% on this board will be happy because then they can say..."told you he shouldn't have tried that dunk at the end of the game!" Let me tell you guys something. I liked the attempt. I liked the fact that he tried to bring something different for the fans. So what if the Heat didn't like it. The hell with them. We were in our house. He didn't taunt them. He didn't come out in the media and say the series was over. (Remember Larry Bird) He didn't make a choke sign (Remember Reggie Miller). He attempted a dunk. He didn't even make it! I'm glad Dwayne Wade came out and said he was offended. To me it looks like a desperation ploy by him and the Heat to get some motivation going into game 6. They probably take game 6 but it won't be because of the dunk attempt even though the SLANTED media will try to spin it that way. While we are at it, who cares what they think too?? The Hawks should just come out and play hard Friday and win or lose...we will still be alive after Friday and Game 7 is in Atlanta which is what we played for all year anyway. BTW....The Heat crowd is not the same as the Cameron Crazies.

I agree 100 % you don't let your opponent up off the ground, you go for the kill. Sometimes i wonder if people ever played basketball. There is an aggressiveness you need to win at any competition! You have to not be afraid to hurt someones feelings. You want to defeat them mentally, demoralize them, rub the defeat in their face. If i was the hawks i would be like "at least we aren't a dirty team!" The heat took alot of cheap shots and we still won. The heat coach is pretty clueless besides saying wade go one on one! He makes woody look smart!!