neither can hit a long range jumper meaning if they both played, there would be zero lanes for harden, lin douglas bc the bigs will sag down low, also there would be no open shots for parsons or delphino .. our offense would stink
Here's an idea, how about we don't follow mchales logic and start him at power forward which is his real position. We would have a huge team that can run & rebound & defend. Smith is certainly a more efficient scorer than patterson as well as a much better rebounder and low post defender. C:7ft 270 PF:6'10 260 SF:6'9 235 Sg:6'5 225 Pg:6'3 205
I see the Landry comparison in the sense of their style of play around the rim on offense. Smith's body type is much different, though. He's bigger and stronger; both taller, and more muscular. Landry was also able to hit the open J to a certain range. Smith has shown no signs of that, although his FT% suggests he may be able to develop it. Smith's size and strength gives him a distinct advantage in upside over what Landry has. He can become a defensive force. He can become a rebounding machine. He'll have to work hard to get there, but it's possible.
Pf's aren't supposed to hit long jumpers. Harden will get his no matter what. If smith's man helps then smith will get a dunk from harden or lin from the pass. Plus smith will score in the post or pass out for open looks. They'll be better rebounding and low post defense and scoring. Putting smith in there is not gonna stop harden or open looks, one player is not gonna cause the demise of the team especially someone as efficient as smith.
I agree with you Smith has more upside than Landry, he defends better, rebounds better and has a better post up game.
It's obvious he "can" shoot, just from looking at his FT form. But he's obviously not a fully developed shooter. And taking him away from the basket ruins the best part of his game. Why would the Rockets make a player play to his weakness rather than to his strength?
Greg Smith's jump hook is automatic and he's a great finisher around the rim. Love that. He's been the biggest surprise of the season IMO.
I'd like to see the occasional lineup of Asik/Smith/Chandler/Harden/Lin - or the same lineup with Douglas in instead of Chandler.
If Smith can develop a reliable 12-15 ft jumper, by all means start him at the PF position. Until then I feel like he needs to stay as our back up C/6th man. Asik is putting a lot of effort getting those boards and defending the rim and deserves to rest! Big men cannot run all day (He is a true center and not one of those PF/C combos). I like the way things are right now, Smith is still young, let's let his game develop.
No way. Neither Asik or Smith are great low post scorers. This is not a grind it out team. This is a team that needs to push the ball in transition, and get shots early in the offense. You want to go big and grind out wins then you need at least one dominant low post scorer. Smith and Asik are not that.
Greg Smith's per 48 efficiency numbers are off the charts. First among all centers (the Kyle O'Quinn 5 MPG wonder looks suspect): http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fantasy/nba/playerstats/13/6/eff/1-3 This doesn't mean he puts up better numbers than Varejao when played 48 minutes, by the way. It often just means he needs to get more minutes.
Smith is (in comparison to Asik) a great low post scorer. If he can consistently score with the same moves as well as develop more post moves/jumpshot, then Smith could be dangerous
I don't care who starts, there are enough minutes for both of them to play. Plus, you can play Smith at power forward also. I'll let McHale figure out when each guy should be on the floor, that's his job and he knows more about basketball than anyone here at Clutchfans.
I wonder if Smith can develop into a starter but he does not do enough of the little things yet but I love the kid as a player. Smith, DMo, PPar, Morris etc.... all fail to block out the opposition which leads to 2nd chance oppertunities for the other team. It happened way too many times last night against the 76ers when ever Asik was defending the shooter or when he was not in the game at all. It's very frustrating watching all those guys just standing around watching the ball instead of boxing out or attacking the rim.
6-10 260 is NOT too small for a center. Smith has several deficiencies as a young player. Getting pushed around is not one of them. Finishing over people a few inches taller than him is also not a weakness.
Ummm.. define Great please. To have a team built like that, your low post scoring MUST BE the focal point of the offense. Think Yao/Rockets, Shaq/Lakers. I love Smiths potential to be a very good low post scorer one day but he's still very raw. Currently in the NBA there are only a handful of low post scorers capable of being the focal point of an offense on a winning team. Zach Randolph is a great low post scorer. Pau Gasol was/is. Dwight Howard has the athletic abilility, but still has raw very skills in the post. Still it is affective. So, are you ready to say that Greg Smith is on that level now??? You are free to your opinions here, but if Im the coach of the Rockets, Im not about to change my entire offensive scheme for Greg Smith and Omer Asik to be the focal points of my offense. Especially when you have arguably the most dynamic backcourt duo in the entire NBA! That would be like having a team that had Dwight Howard and Paul Gasol on the same team and the team hiring Mike D'Antoni to install a run and gun up and down offensive system..... oh wait... Yeah... smart move Lakers.