Josh already has 2 airballs :)

[BIgAl]

He doesnt have a pure 1 hand shot that's why the air balls he doesnt target just hoists it up

[Eddielives]

Didn't watch the game but looking at the highlights, it looked like Smith was taking it to the basket frequently. Why won't this sink in and become the norm for him. Does he not realize how good he can be if he just let's the game come to him and play to his strengths instead of the other way around? And can we all start demanding a restructuring of Joe's contract if he can't get his act together? I want to see signs at Phillips arena to start antagonizing Joe to play like he has a freaking purpose other than pure obligation. Just look at Joe's stat line. That's embarrassing. As much as I dish up my fair share of Josh Smith scrutiny, I can honestly say that I think he needs to hand over the title of team leader and supposed all-star player to Josh Smith even if it drives me to an early grave. Joe has mailed it in.

Edited February 16, 2012 by Eddielives

[MaceCase]

Didn't watch the game but looking at the highlights, it looked like Smith was taking it to the basket frequently. Why won't this sink in and become the norm for him. Does he not realize how good he can be if he just let's the game come to him and play to his strengths instead of the other way around? And can we all start demanding a restructuring of Joe's contract if he can't get his act together? I want to see signs at Phillips arena to start antagonizing Joe to play like he has a freaking purpose other than pure obligation. Just look at Joe's stat line. That's embarrassing. As much as I dish up my fair share of Josh Smith scrutiny, I can honestly say that I think he needs to hand over the title of team leader and supposed all-star player to Josh Smith even if it drives me to an early grave. Joe has mailed it in.

Joe only plays for All Star selections and oh, didn't you get the message from a few years ago? Joe doesn't care about the fans.

[Sothron]

It is sad when someone really gets self owned in a thread and won't man up and admit it. Josh didn't just look good last night his performance was literally one for the ages. Here's a post from realgm that shows how rare it is to put up the boxscore Josh did last night. And btw? Josh was hands down the only reason we won last night. Joe got gobbled up by Grant Hill on defense and didn't do hardly anything.

"30 points, 17 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals, 3 blocks

I wondered how many players could do that? I sorted out games where a player has had at least 17 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals, and 3 blocks.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... der_by=pts

Lebron, Hakeem, Charles Barkley, Vlade Divac are the only ones.

I also wondered who could do 30/17/7 assists and 4 steals. Kevin Garnett, Lebron, Antoine Walker

Finally, 30 points, 17 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 blocks. Hakeem, Shaq, Tim Duncan, Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Charles Barkley, David Robinson, Lebron, Karl Malone

Every single one of these guys were all stars. Walker played in three AS games. Divac played in one in an era of great centers. The rest of those guys not only were all stars, they are or will be Hall of Famers."

[hazer]

It is sad when someone really gets self owned in a thread and won't man up and admit it. Josh didn't just look good last night his performance was literally one for the ages. Here's a post from realgm that shows how rare it is to put up the boxscore Josh did last night. And btw? Josh was hands down the only reason we won last night. Joe got gobbled up by Grant Hill on defense and didn't do hardly anything.

"30 points, 17 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals, 3 blocks

I wondered how many players could do that? I sorted out games where a player has had at least 17 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals, and 3 blocks.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... der_by=pts

Lebron, Hakeem, Charles Barkley, Vlade Divac are the only ones.

I also wondered who could do 30/17/7 assists and 4 steals. Kevin Garnett, Lebron, Antoine Walker

Finally, 30 points, 17 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 blocks. Hakeem, Shaq, Tim Duncan, Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Charles Barkley, David Robinson, Lebron, Karl Malone

Every single one of these guys were all stars. Walker played in three AS games. Divac played in one in an era of great centers. The rest of those guys not only were all stars, they are or will be Hall of Famers."

Everything after the first paragraph needs to be e-mailed to David Stern. Anybody have his addy?

[Guest]

Josh needs to thank Willie Green for making up for Josh's gigantic boneheaded play at the end of the game. This thread would have easily changed if Willie wasn't there because it appears people only care about end results. Josh still took 11 shots outside the paint and led our team in turnovers and non-hustle plays. I really don't see how Josh has changed at all, he is still the frustrating and inconsistent enigma on our team.

Why make any threads about how Josh played? The pendulum will just swing the other way within a week, it is pretty pointless to me. Eventually everyone gets "punked" when they make a statement about Josh's play.

[HawksFan87]

Smoove's two airballs were more impressive than anything our allstar joe johnson did all night. :) but games like this one is why josh not being an allstar anger me. No one else on this team, and very few players in this leaue are capable of putting up these type of numbers.

[JackB1]

Josh needs to thank Willie Green for making up for Josh's gigantic boneheaded play at the end of the game. This thread would have easily changed if Willie wasn't there because it appears people only care about end results. Josh still took 11 shots outside the paint and led our team in turnovers and non-hustle plays. I really don't see how Josh has changed at all, he is still the frustrating and inconsistent enigma on our team.

Why make any threads about how Josh played? The pendulum will just swing the other way within a week, it is pretty pointless to me. Eventually everyone gets "punked" when they make a statement about Josh's play.

You are so right. That last play epitomizes Josh....he has a career night and then in the blink of an eye almost loses the game with one more dumb play. If Willy Green doesn't save that ball, it goes out of bounds and Phoenix has 2 seconds to get a last shot.

[JackB1]

Last night was the once every 25 games where Josh puts up big numbers. He will go back to being dumb Josh soon enough. You all know he was lucky to make those 3s last night and the fact is, Josh should NEVER take any 3s. His lifetime 3 % is horrible, but he doesn't care about that. If Josh ever gets a coach that doesn't tolerate his foolishness, Josh would be in the top 5 of the entire NBA. He is wasting his entire career because he thinks he is a point guard and is too lazy to stay down low all the time.

[Admin]

Josh needs to thank Willie Green for making up for Josh's gigantic boneheaded play at the end of the game. This thread would have easily changed if Willie wasn't there because it appears people only care about end results. Josh still took 11 shots outside the paint and led our team in turnovers and non-hustle plays. I really don't see how Josh has changed at all, he is still the frustrating and inconsistent enigma on our team.

Why make any threads about how Josh played? The pendulum will just swing the other way within a week, it is pretty pointless to me. Eventually everyone gets "punked" when they make a statement about Josh's play.

It was actually a pretty damned smart play, even if he did overthrow it a bit. I'd MUCH rather see him make that play and even have it go straight out of bounds at the other end* than to make a difficult pass under the Suns basket and see them steal it and lay it in ala DJ's favorite play from the 80's. The only bad thing that Josh did there was just overthrow it and he can't help being so yoked up .

* I am under the assumption that the Suns would have had the ball out of bounds from under the Hawks basket with 2 seconds left and needing to go full-court... although I do have something in the back of my mind that says if we didn't touch the ball that they would have gotten it under their own basket. Can anyone confirm that?

[HawksFan87]

Lol the same josh smith haters are at it again.. He won us this game, period..

[MaceCase]

It was actually a pretty damned smart play, even if he did overthrow it a bit. I'd MUCH rather see him make that play and even have it go straight out of bounds at the other end* than to make a difficult pass under the Suns basket and see them steal it and lay it in ala DJ's favorite play from the 80's. The only bad thing that Josh did there was just overthrow it and he can't help being so yoked up .

* I am under the assumption that the Suns would have had the ball out of bounds from under the Hawks basket with 2 seconds left and needing to go full-court... although I do have something in the back of my mind that says if we didn't touch the ball that they would have gotten it under their own basket. Can anyone confirm that?

Listen to that voice, it's probably Channing Frye's

[Admin]

Lol the same josh smith haters are at it again.. He won us this game, period..

The opposite of being a hater is nearly, although not quite, as bad. There are probably a handful of guys who just out and out "hate" Josh Smith and it's probably about the same number of people who no matter what "love" or "hug" Josh Smith but the majority of people are objective when it comes to him and the other players on the team and either love or hate them on a game by game basis.

Listen to that voice, it's probably Channing Frye's

Thanks for the correction and that's probably why I had that thought in my mind... but I still contend I'd rather Josh try and throw it down the court, albeit with less force, than to try and make a pass under the opposing teams basket with the chance for them to steal it.

[HawksFan87]

I was not referring to you dolfan. Other guys( who know who they are) always have something negative to say about josh no matter how great he plays. Are haters, no denying It.

[Admin]

I was not referring to you dolfan. Other guys( who know who they are) always have something negative to say about josh no matter how great he plays. Are haters, no denying It.

I know you weren't but I'm just saying that while they never say anything good about Josh, no matter how good he played, there are some fans who never say anything bad about Josh either, no matter how poorly he played. For me I'd rather see everyone here judge Josh and all of our players and coaching on a game by game basis and if they suck them call them out but if they're good then give them credit.

[ersimo2889]

Yeah, if Willie Green had not caught up to it, and nobody touched it, the Suns would have gotten the ball under their own basket down by 2 with I think 1.7 left, which would have been an absolute disaster. Smart play by Josh, though, since the Suns didn't have any timeouts left, but just strong-armed it a little.

[hazer]

You are so right. That last play epitomizes Josh....he has a career night and then in the blink of an eye almost loses the game with one more dumb play. If Willy Green doesn't save that ball, it goes out of bounds and Phoenix has 2 seconds to get a last shot.

If Josh doesn't go 30/17/7/4/3 we're down by double digits.

[AHF]

This is definitely an 'epic fail' thread. It is the equivalent of a thread talking about how last year's St. Louis Candinals were a bunch of losers after they started the season 2-6. You can get egg on your face when you make the call that early.

[Guest]

* I am under the assumption that the Suns would have had the ball out of bounds from under the Hawks basket with 2 seconds left and needing to go full-court... although I do have something in the back of my mind that says if we didn't touch the ball that they would have gotten it under their own basket. Can anyone confirm that?

If no one touches it, then it is the equivalent of a 5 second count. Suns would get the ball where the Hawks were inbounding. Hence, it was about the dumbest play you could have made.

*I see esimonds03 beat me to it, but I disagree with his analysis. It wasn't just a "strong arm" but an unnecessary risk. Take the low to no risk situation because the Suns have no time-outs, dump it to an open teammate, call a timeout, hell even lobbing it to the middle of the court would be better than giving the Suns a chance to inbound the ball under their own basket with 2 seconds left and down by two. If Willie isn't quick enough and attentive enough then we very well would have threads calling out Josh's boneheaded play.

Edited February 16, 2012 by hawksfanatic

[ersimo2889]

Right, I think we were saying the same thing. If no one is open to pass to under the basket, and for whatever reason you don't call a timeout (I think we did have one left), the best alternative is to get it as far down court as possible with someone touching it. I think that's what Josh was trying to do, but just got a little too excited.

On a similar note, we had a 9 point lead with 2 minutes left, and the Hawks still managed to make it exciting, and had themselves in a position to almost lose. This team REALLY needs to learn how to close games.