I have been waiting to make this a new thread since the preseason, but I wanted to give fans a chance to see him with some real minutes. He gives the Rockets a solid inside defensive presence. Howard seemed to have as much or more trouble getting position against Smith as against Asik. You can't just ask Asik to block shots, play position defense, stay out of foul trouble, AND get rebounds. Having the second inside defender is critical. You also need someone who will intimidate so as to reduce the cheap shots on your key players. Smith is not dirty like guys like Mahorn, Rodman, or Artest (forget the MWP moniker), but he sure is alot more menacing than our other PF options. On top of Smith's defense and hustle, he has great hands, makes catches, never looks or acts intimidated or rushed, can get decent post position, and passes and hands off decently from the post. I say this is worth more even than Patterson's outside game. I like PPat alot (and our other rookies, Morris, DMot, and Jones), but Smith brings far more to the table at the moment. And, he is only 21.
Either him or Asik need a jumper then. You need to have the floor properly spaced when you have Parsons/Harden/Lin.
If he starts at four, who is going to back up Asik? I think Aldridge is still injured. PPat? No thanks. It is one game. Let him improve.
He is incredibly valuable as a backup 5, so I would keep him in when Asik goes out and slide him to 5. Of course, when he needs rest, Asik stays or comes in and we play one of our other 4's.
Asik and Smith together is not a good combination. Harden and Lin rely too much on penetration to the basket, they can't have two bigs clogging the paint like that. So if you want more minutes for Smith, it will have to come at the expense of minutes for Omer.
Smith's FT's show that he has a decent touch. We haven't seen him take any 15-18 footers yet, but I feel like the potential is there, especially given his age. I realize this is not Morey's favorite shot, but guys like Karl Malone did just fine at that range.
Agreed, but I think this might change the nature of their penetrations, not necessarily their effectiveness. Instead of going all the way to the bucket, they might pull up more for midranges, and Smith could make tough interior catches in traffic. Plus, both could offensive rebound like crazy even if the original shot % goes down slightly.
No, Patterson is a much better fit with the starting lineup. He actually spaces the floor. And I'm not saying Patterson > Smith btw
Completely disagree. You need a guy who can step out and hit the open jumper and occasional 3 pointer. Smith is a physical inside scorer.
I'm pretty sure another thread is already discussing this. I thing G Smith has been playing good all year, but I agree with other posters this has knee-jerk written all over it.
LOL Smith and Asik at the same time? Seriously? For our offense you need to spread the floor, which is why Patterson has been shooting more 3s this year.
Patterson spaces the floor. Sampson talked about playing Harden more with the bench, so maybe you'll see more lineups like tonight.
Backup center is a good position for him, building a good team isn't necessarily just stacking all of your players into the starting lineup, but putting together lineups with proper role-players and spacing. With Asik and Smith there really isn't much spacing for offense, and neither of the two bigs really have a jump shot so I don't think it would make much sense at the moment. So would you rather have Smith play 30 minutes with avg/below average results or around 25 minutes with good results?
Not at all to start or during majority of the time.. But what if Asik and Smith played 5/4 with the rest of the back ups for certain periods?
He is a center. That's all there is to it. He was impressive tonight but let's not count that he'll put these kinda numbers up night-in, night-out to displace Asik as starter, yet. He definitely impressed me tonight, though. I think he's more valuable than Patrick, now.