Horford vs Josh Smith

[coachx]

Peers

Dwight Howard top 5 defenders

LOL............picking an article written by one of Smoove's AAU and highschool homies does not help your cause.

We played together in high school and AAU so I taught him how to be a great defender (chuckle).

[Joker]

LOL............picking an article written by one of Smoove's AAU and highschool homies does not help your cause.

It's not like players give their opinions on other players all the time. This isn't baseball. Post game pressers is where you could find the most opinions on a player but papers rarely write what's said at a presser in the paper.

Edited May 27, 2010 by nbasuperstar40

[tremor]

I wouldn't trade any of them. I don't see us landing a better or even comparable player in such trade.

[niremetal]

LOL............picking an article written by one of Smoove's AAU and highschool homies does not help your cause.

Not to mention:

First, that players, especially star players, aren't necessarily the best judges of their fellow players' abilities (or else they wouldn't make such terrible GMs). You can say "but Dwight plays against Josh 4 times a year," but the reality is that players don't have the luxury of focusing on much besides their own specific on-court tasks while they are on the court. Just because you're a good player doesn't mean that you're a judge of other players. Dwight's opening statement of "to be a great defender you must be able to block shots" indicates that he has a skewed view of the measure of a good defender.

Secondly, that blurb says NOTHING about Josh's on-ball defense. Dwight seems preoccupied with blocks as a measure of defensive prowess, which isn't surprising because that's his specialty.

Lastly and relatedly, Josh pretty much never guards Dwight. Dwight thus has no basis from personal experience to judge Josh as an on-ball defender. Thus, it's tough to see what Dwight could base his opinion on with respect to Josh's on-ball D. The one argument he could make of "I play against him" isn't really true in Josh's case because Josh never guards him.

Edited May 27, 2010 by niremetal