If Brewer and Josh keep this up, I wouldn't fault Morey for looking elsewhere. Brewer gambles way too much, is too unreliable on offense when he's not running and just completely unfocused and hyper on defense where he loses his man. Josh is just a loser sometimes, he thinks he's James Harden and starts to chuck and just do not do anything on defense. Now I get the comparisons made from Jones to Josh: both athletic, can handle the ball, block shots, but questionable motor. D-Mo is the only PF I truly want back, for the rest, I don't care.
This. No knock on JSmoove, he is notorious to pull up games like this but he can contribute in other ways. There's a reason they tried to start JSmoove earlier when he joined the team then reverted back to him coming off the bench. It's quite obvious he doesnt play so well alongside Harden but he does play well with DH12 and Brewer. They started him in the Clippers series because TJ was non existant but i think he should come off the bench again in this series. For us to win this series, we need big games from JSmoove and Brewer just like how we won the Game 6 of the Clippers series. We really shouldnt expect Harden to score 38pts every game.
I don't blame Josh for looking to score early. It was pretty obvious that that was our offensive gameplan to start the game. Perhaps by establishing him in the post, they were looking to get some easy putbacks/rebounds for Dwight and get him rolling. I do blame him for forcing up some bad attempts and then failing to hustle back on defense. Actually, that blame goes a bit on Mchale. We all know Josh is terrible in transition D and if his post game was not working early, it may have been wiser to try something else.
This is where I miss Dmo, would give us the option to limit the minutes of Jones and Smith, whoever is playing worse that particular night. The thing I will highlight is the boxing out, there isn't enough of it from our bigs and wings. We will out rebound Golden State on the floor, not in the air. Fixing this up could lead to controlling more of these missed Warriors shot. Have to aim to keep there offense 1 and done.
Don't mind the miss as much as how much it affects the rest if his games. O comes and go. D should be consistent. He can be that, but like so many, he's not. You especially notice that from him because he is super talented on the D side. We've seen what kind of D player he is when fully engage.
Now I know a certain somebody will come on here and talk down on Smith the same way he talks down on Jones. Come out fella and keep it 100%. Smith was horrendous last night. Wild shot after wild shot, not boxing out, turning the ball over and etc. Mchale should have bench him just like he benched Pablo.
Even though we've only seen him in person for half a year, it's clear what role he needs to play on a contender. He can at times play like an all-star and make critical contributions, and there are games where he is absolute garbage. Players like that need to come off the bench. When they play well they play more, when they play poorly, they play less. Unfortunatey our only alternative at the 4 has been terrible most of the postseason, not so much last night though. Point being, I would love Smith back for the right price, he can be a big help, but he needs to have a defined role off the bench, and be aware that he's not Harden and has to stop gunning when he is playing poorly. I'm certainly not gonna forget his big performances like some of you seem to though.
Look. Smith obviously has the ability buried in there. But honestly ask yourself. How many games has he won you. How many games has he contributed heavily to your loss? If that ratio is 2 losses per win then is this someone we need going forward? Maybe we can invest in a shrink in the off season and find out what is in his head.
That must absolutely be done. Not for Smith only but for all the team. Don't Rockets already have a team psychologist? In sports the mental aspect is as much important as the physical. I wish NBA teams will start to make more progress in the psychological aspect of the game. Who knows. Maybe someone can reach out to Smith and help him with his inconsistency. He is an old vet (by years of NBA carreer). But for younger players in the start of their carreer it will help a ton for sure.
Brewer was pretty bad as well in Game 2. He has gotta stop gambling for steals. So does everyone. 95% of the time, they're not getting them and the Warriors are off to the races when it happens. Also, Brewer has to quit trying to drive through 3 defenders. He had one play last night where he did that and turned it over. Sometimes the lane to the hoop just isn't there. If you want a silver lining, Smith and Brewer played like crap and we lost at Golden State by 1. In the previous series, we were getting destroyed by the Clippers when those guys didn't show up. So we just need them to be decent and not great in order to win at home.
Except with a team like the Warriors, there's small to zero margin for error if you want to beat them. I understand letting Smith just play his game and get hot but seriously, going 20-30% from the field and taking 14-15 shots, that is killing us.
im tired of all this we wouldnt be here without smith imagine having a consistent shooter at PF and we wouldnt be down in this first place !!! same thing with prigs when he came, people got all excited "wow we have a guy who can control the ball run a offense" WTH !? dude is a NBA PG,... imagine one who can control the ball and still give you 10-14 off the bench.. and can take his man standards are toooooo low
Josh Smith is just Josh smith! If he has consistenly played good, we cann't bring him here. Donn't worry about him!
Not worried about Josh Smith. I'm more concerned about Brewer lack of defense while on the floor. I'm not sure what has his panties in a bunch but his balls need to bust those panties off.
Other than some good passing vs. the Mavs, I don't see that he's brought a whole lot to the table in these playoffs. If you can't hustle and leave it all out on the floor (which he clearly didn't last night), then I have no use for you. I can handle missed shots but I can't handle loafing. He claims its the "best situation I've been in my whole career"...how about showing how much you care on the court and not just in interviews.
I want to get upset, then I remembered Josh also went from bad to brilliant in the LAC series. Maybe he has one such turn-around in hm still.
Josh Smith and Corey Brewer are on our team EXACTLY because of these inconsistencies. If all of their games were like their best games, we would not have been able to pick them up this season for what we did. All McHale can do is try to get the best out of them most of the time, because you are going to have to live with games like these, where you have to limit how much they then hurt your team. The good news is that in a 7 game series, they will show up more than NOT. So I expect them to be big factors in the next two games to help us even this series out.
Well, for one, he truly believes he's the other playmaker on the team and is there to take the playmaking load off of James. He said exactly that in an interview. That's NOT ok. I call him Dr. Josh Jekyll and Mr. Josh Hyde. Under the right constrained circumstances, i.e. having the ideal lineup for him to play in out there and a healthy Dwight to feed, he's been pretty amazing at times. However, put him in a place with too much freedom to run the offense himself or don't give him any outlets, and you get the other guy who tries to do it all himself. I wish the Rockets coaching staff had plans for their players. Josh has the potential, if told to stick to it, to be a really good point-forward. His overwhelming strength is passing, when he's focused on it, but he gets sloppy with even that if he doesn't know what he's supposed to be doing on the court (see: last night). As with most of the Rockets, you just do not know who is going is to show on any particular night. Harden's been showing up brilliantly. Capela shows up. Ariza shows up, though his shot may not. Brewer's picked the worst time to crap the bed. Josh is either black or white. Terry can't knock down 6 threes a game, which is his job. Prigioni makes mistakes just as soon as you start to have faith in him. Jones is an unknown. Dwight is an unknown with the injury. I just don't know what causes all this, but it's a miracle we've lost so closely; however, that also means we should have won both games. I feel both generally proud of the team for how they've been playing, but also that I lost two solid nights of productivity watching them get so close and lose. Here's hoping they even the series at home, then take that momentum to two more wins in a row.
