Quote of the year

[NineOhTheRino]

Every now and then he'll take a crazy shot, which I'm willing to live with for all the things he does do well.

[Admin]

Yep it's quite obvious that LD feels that way and it's how I feel as well. The only question is how often is "every now and then"?

[Sothron]

Josh took 11 long 2's in game one. That is literally 11 too many for him to take.

[hawkrule152]

Josh took 11 long 2's in game one. That is literally 11 too many for him to take.

Thats mayb 4 more long 2s that he should take. He has shown all season long he can knock them down. And everyone on this site will agree hes having the best year of his career ( and its the year where he has taken more jumpshots than any other year of his career).

[AHF]

Thats mayb 4 more long 2s that he should take. He has shown all season long he can knock them down. And everyone on this site will agree hes having the best year of his career ( and its the year where he has taken more jumpshots than any other year of his career).

Josh is shooting 34% on shots 10-15 feet from the basket this year and 37% on shots 16-23 feet (i.e., long 2's). Combined, he takes 7 of those long 2's per game.His TS% this season is less than 50% this season, having fallen from .540 last season with the increase in the number of long 2's. Josh is having a great year but it is in spite of these shots, not because of them.

[atlbraves93]

We are winning in spite of Josh's shots, no one can argue that. But every great player has something about his game that you just have to deal with. For example, people say Kobe needs to pass more, and I bet people get frustrated when he hogs the ball just like we get frustrated when Smoove takes ill-advised shots. But even when you account for the negative things in Kobe's game, he still does a lot more to help his team win than he does to make them lose - and I think the same is true for Josh (although he doesn't help as much as Kobe, but who does?). We have to overlook his frustrating tendencies because he does a heck of a lot more to help the Hawks win games than he does to make them lose games. And that seems to be what LD thinks.

Edited April 30, 2012 by atlbraves93

[niremetal]

We are winning in spite of Josh's shots, no one can argue that. But every great player has something about his game that you just have to deal with. For example, people say Kobe needs to pass more, and I bet people get frustrated when he hogs the ball just like we get frustrated when Smoove takes ill-advised shots. But even when you account for the negative things in Kobe's game, he still does a lot more to help his team win than he does to make them lose - and I think the same is true for Josh (although he doesn't help as much as Kobe, but who does?). We have to overlook his frustrating tendencies because he does a heck of a lot more to help the Hawks win games than he does to make them lose games. And that seems to be what LD thinks.

The problem is that Josh's part of his game that we "just have to deal with" unquestionably hurts the team. Kobe being a ballhog is a pretty damned good mindset for him to have 95% of the time because is arguably the hardest player to defend 1-on-1 in NBA history other than the MJs. He is one of the best ever at going solo, so him going solo isn't a bad strategy.Josh isn't Kobe. Josh is not one of the best jumpshooters of all time. He isn't even one of the best jumpshooters on his team. If he cut out that part of his game, he'd have made 5-straight All-NBA teams by now, and would have been a MVP candidate this year (think of it this way - 5 fewer jumpers probably would translate to ~1.5 more ORBs per game).So no, we shouldn't just have to live with it. It's an easily correctible flaw that he downright refuses to fix. This year, I prefer Josh-with-flaws to no Josh at all. But frankly, not by much. And really, the only reason we have to make that choice is that Josh is being a stubborn ass about that part of his game. So it's not even a choice we should have to make. Edited April 30, 2012 by niremetal

[AHF]

The problem is that Josh's part of his game that we "just have to deal with" unquestionably hurts the team. Kobe being a ballhog is a pretty damned good mindset for him to have 95% of the time because is arguably the hardest player to defend 1-on-1 in NBA history other than the MJs. He is one of the best ever at going solo, so him going solo isn't a bad strategy.Josh isn't Kobe. Josh is not one of the best jumpshooters of all time. He isn't even one of the best jumpshooters on his team. If he cut out that part of his game, he'd have made 5-straight All-NBA teams by now, and would have been a MVP candidate this year (think of it this way - 5 fewer jumpers probably would translate to ~1.5 more ORBs per game).So no, we shouldn't just have to live with it. It's an easily correctible flaw that he downright refuses to fix. This year, I prefer Josh-with-flaws to no Josh at all. But frankly, not by much. And really, the only reason we have to make that choice is that Josh is being a stubborn ass about that part of his game. So it's not even a choice we should have to make.

Just to be more unreasonable, I don't think Kobe is exempt from discussion as to whether he would be an even better player if he didn't try to play "hero ball" at the end of games and continued to involve his teammates. The numbers certainly show the Lakers are much worse performers in those situations than when they just run their regular offense and I think that is a totally legit criticism of Kobe. Having fixable flaws doesn't make a player worthless and people should not throw out the baby with the bath water with Josh. Being a great player doesn't mean the player doesn't have fixable flaws, however, and Josh's main issues are low hanging fruit with a potentially very significant positive impact on his performance (i.e., much more than mere nitpicking).----This is along the same lines of Josh needing to be praised for putting more emphasis this season on his rebounding. That was an area where he had room for improvement and his improvement in that area may have been the difference between us winning and losing against Boston this week. We should all continue to root for him to make these types of improvement to his game whether it is rebounding, shot selection, operating on the receiving end in transition opportunities, etc. Edited April 30, 2012 by AHF

[EazyRoc]

Josh knows he won't be athletic forever. Its my theory that he's trying to add it to his arsenal for longevity.

[AHF]

Josh knows he won't be athletic forever. Its my theory that he's trying to add it to his arsenal for longevity.

Sounds like a good reason to develop better footwork, pump fakes, and other moves that will both be an asset in the short-term and add to his arsenal for the long-term. A 35% efg% shot doesn't add much for long-term value.

[AHawks89]

Don't worry. I agree, but I already knew this. Everyone knows this and appreciates Josh's talent outside of (10 users) Hawksquawk. I think I'm going to make a sig that says JUST LIVE WITH IT.