Postive encouragement for Josh: Play like Dennis Rodman and you'll get respect

[hawks21]

Coach Larry Drew's plea to or admonishment of Josh Smith of his tendency to throw up 18 foot jumpers is something that is needed, but maybe the reason Josh Smith believes that shooting jumpers will bring glory and respect.

Dennis Rodman proved that the saying "know your role" can help you be a Hall of Famer or an All-Star.

Rodman made the All-Star team twice in 1990 and 1992, but his committment to defense helped his teams win championships and in the end he got nominated for the Hall of Fame.

Josh has to commit to doing the "dirty work" and that there is a payoff to doing that.

If Josh Smith changes his mindset and look at Dennis Rodman's playing career and be the best that he can be in regard to rebounding, blocking shots, deflections and disrupting the offense of the opposing team instead of HIS OWN TEAM, then the accolades will come his way.

[Joker]

You can't change to something you never were. He doesn't have a tough me v. the world bone in his body. He's blind to the haters and believes too much in himself. That's never going to happen. I just want him to play smarter on offense and get back into shape next year.

[sturt]

I'm mainly in your court on this one, 21. Josh needs to define his best games by how many bounds, blocks, deflections and steals he can muster, and take the points that naturally flow in the course of the game. HOWEVER... it's not the exactly the same as Rodman, who was not even barely a scoring option unless he was getting a putback or on the break... Josh can actually be a legit scorer, just not every night. I think there's nearly universal recognition, both here and in the Hawks locker room, that the key is that he's got to mature to the point that every night he produces the defense stats, and concurrently that he figures out every night after about one quarter whether he's on or whether he's not, and accordingly, is more prone or less prone to take shots through the course of the rest of the game based on that overt, mature, intelligent assessment.

Edited May 6, 2011 by sturt

[TheNorthCydeRises]

My old tagline used to say . . . "I want to see more Shawn Kemp, and less Rasheed Wallace, out of Josh Smith".

Well . . 4 years later . . Rasheed it is for Smith. And it's sad to see too.

My hope for him to terrorize the lane like Kemp used to do, has been almost extinguished with Drew's decision to play him at SF, and give him the "yellow light" to shoot jumpers. This freed up Josh to finally do what he always wanted to do . . jack jumpers ad nauseum. And while he started the season off great, his shooting has significantly declined since Christmas, and is almost at rock bottom in these playoffs, only making 17% of his jumpers outside of the lane.

So if he refuses ( or can't ) play like Kemp, I wish he'd at least play like the 2004 version of Shawn Marion . . a guy who was an energizer bunny that grabbed rebounds by the boatloads, and always cut to the hole to receive passes in the lane for layups and dunks. He shot the occasional outside shot and 3, but he mainly lived in the paint. Marion was also a terror on the boards and a force to be reckoned with on the defensive end via steals and blocks. Marion's skillset back then is probably the closest thing to what Josh is today. So if we can get him to play like Shawn, we'll be OK and win this series.

But I'd wish he'd play like this . .

if this was Josh, he would've taken a jumpshot on the 1st one and a baby hook on the next. But watch what Kemp does on both plays.

[Diesel]

Coach Larry Drew's plea to or admonishment of Josh Smith of his tendency to throw up 18 foot jumpers is something that is needed, but maybe the reason Josh Smith believes that shooting jumpers will bring glory and respect.

Dennis Rodman proved that the saying "know your role" can help you be a Hall of Famer or an All-Star.

Rodman made the All-Star team twice in 1990 and 1992, but his committment to defense helped his teams win championships and in the end he got nominated for the Hall of Fame.

Josh has to commit to doing the "dirty work" and that there is a payoff to doing that.

If Josh Smith changes his mindset and look at Dennis Rodman's playing career and be the best that he can be in regard to rebounding, blocking shots, deflections and disrupting the offense of the opposing team instead of HIS OWN TEAM, then the accolades will come his way.

Josh is a product of the NBA Live generation. I can just imagine that he plays NBA 2K11 with himself. He is able to make himself hit threes. His team always wins with him shooting threes. What Josh needs is for somebody to tell him that this is not a freaking GAME....

LD has to use the bench. If Josh wants glory and won't do it LD's way, the bench awaits.

[Diesel]

if this was Josh, he would've taken a jumpshot on the 1st one and a baby hook on the next. But watch what Kemp does on both plays.

Back then....

Every players dream was to dunk on somebody. Dunking on somebody changed the flow of the game. Kemp would have gotten suspended for taunting now.. but you can see it in his eyes that he was ready to go all the way. When I look into Horf and Smoove's eyes, they are thinking too much on the drive. They are not trying to flush it no matter what. And Like somebody else has said, Smoove doesn't have Rodman in him. He's got too much punk in him to be a guy who blocks shots, rebounds, and plays inside. Even if he scored 50 points 2 nights in a row by playing inside... on the 3 night, he would be back outside trying to prove that he can hit a jumper. I hate to say it, but we definitely can't consider him unmovable.

[GST]

I believe if he doesn't get his weight under control this off-season, he will continue to decline. Leaping ability and getting fat do not mix. If Josh's knees start acting up, he will be next to worthless.

[TRUEINTELLECTPLAYA]

I think he will be a different player next year because he will only have 2 years left on his contract and will start playing for his next contract. I don't think Josh really cares about anything other than himself at this point though and should be traded regardless