Morey on Ish Smith: 32 beautiful passes and 1 ugly one

I think a lot of people are not realizing that no one is comparing Ish right now to Rondo right now!!!


Why is this difficult to understand?

 

Winning cures all ills. Ish is great if he can keep us winning. Doesn't matter what the stats say.

 

Even more impressive considering that 4 or 5 of those passes were more difficult than any Brooks or Lowry usually attempt.

 

Adelman says it's Battier and Martin:

http://www.nba.com/rockets/video/2010/11/07/110710minnwmv-1463828/index.html

 

Crap, I forgot about Martin, he is really good at it too.....

The one that I have been dissappointed in so far is Ish and Lee, they have lobbed it too him expecting Yao to go up and get it, only to have the defender jump around him to steal.

you can not lob it to Yao, got to fire it to his chest.

Or bounce it to his waste.

DD

 

So was Hakeem. He can learn how to shoot. AB cannot learn how to pass effectively. In RA's system, while your assists goes down due to other players being more involved, you still have to be smart about it or given a very simple role in the offense. AB is not a smart passer. AB is a very DUMB passer and therefore not viable in RA's system.

It is fine if Rockets want a scoring guard, but someone needs to handle the ball. All the teams that have won with a PG that scores usually have someone else handling PG duties, typically another guard. Problem is, neither Martin or Battier can do that, making a scoring guard like Brooks not a good fit. AB is best coming off the fence as a spark off the bench to scorch the 2nd stringers. Against 2nd stringers, AB's defensive liability will also be somewhat marginalized. It is not an issue of whether or not AB is better or not than Lowry or Ish, but whether or not he will better serve the team as a starter or spark off the bench, just like with Landry. With Martin and Scola in the lineup (all poor defenders) we don't need another one, especially a chucker. A defensive or stabilizing presence will be much more significant.

Obviously, being injured is not a good thing, especially for one of our scorers. However, not all injuries end badly and this can be considered a blessing in disguise. It allows us to take another look at a different Rockets offense and allows us to develop Ish as well, especially if we trade Lowry next year or AB decides to skip town. Anyone remember David Robinson's injury. Obviously not a good thing at the time, but look where the Spurs ended up. Of course I am not suggesting that the Rockets will tank away the season or end up with the 1st pick, just saying that injuries can end up helping the team more. I don't give a damn about AB as a player, but rather the team performance as a whole and as a whole, we suck defensively.

Again, an injury being a blessing in disguise is NOT the same thing as being happy about an injury. However, there has been cases where management or coaches are too stubborn, cowardly, or proud to change rotations. I am not saying that those reasons apply with our FO or with RA (RA is notorious for only sticking with certain players), but I really think this is one of those situations and being forced to play another PG with AB going down allows us to take a new look and give the other PG's a new opportunity.

 

He is arleady a pretty good passer.

DD

 

I guess it's because i keeping reading Rondo Rondo Rondo and remember someone saying ish was a 6 fot rondo, so the comparison seemed more direct than it has been....

even still, i'm not sure that's an accurate comparison, now or ever. Rondo athleticism and fluidity is something Ish can't learn and that's what helps him finish at the rim. Ish has more to improve on that Rondo did, so it's very unlikely he'll be better than him in any area or even match him...also i think Rondo has Aaron brooks hands..not sure about ish..

 

While I agree with the sentiment that Smith needs to learn to shoot FTs, drawing fouls is indeed a good thing for the Rocket's offense even if Ish doesn't convert himself. First, even 50% FT gets 1 ppp, which would be very good. Second, it would move the Rockets closer to the penalty (at which point we take Ish out and put Brooks in).

Not trying to be difficult, but I've seen this argument repeatedly and I couldn't keep letting it go....

 

His ability to probe the offense and keep his dribble alive is very impressive. His passing ability to everyone on the court is on time and the right place. We play calmer and everyone knows when they are going to get their shot, instead of watching AB do his thinkg.

 

Just Gr8... At least Morey knows how to text like a 12 yr old girl better than be an NBA GM.

 

It's twitter. There's a character limit per tweet.

 

I actually love that he uses Twitter -- he tends to send one tweet per game and to put an amazing amount of information into each tweet given the character limitations. This thread would be a good example of that....

 

Some interesting stuff about Smith from Draft Express:

May 16, 2010
Joseph Treutlein

One of the quickest players in college basketball, the thorn in Ishmael Smith’s side has always been his shooting ability, converting a very poor 49% from the free-throw line this past season, a number nearly unheard of for a point guard. He likewise shot poorly from the field, at 22% from the three-point line with just a 44% True Shooting percentage. Coming into pre-draft training, Smith was well aware that he needed to fix his shot to have a chance in the NBA, and he’s come here humbled and hard working, doing everything he can to improve.

Smith’s shot required a lot more tweaking than Aminu’s, unsurprising given his previous results. Coach Hopla had multiple points of emphasis for Smith, namely keeping his elbow in, setting a consistent release point, and most of all, putting in a lot of repetition with the new mechanics in order to start overriding muscle memory. Even after the three-hour session completed, Smith spent more time working one-on-one with Hopla, fine-tuning his mechanics from the free-throw line.

In drills, things looked good for Smith early on, with him hitting 15-for-20 spot-up jumpers from the 15 foot range at one point, but as fatigue set in later in the workout, the results weren’t as good, and he struggled to maintain consistency. Reading too much into these results just three days into the training probably won’t yield many useful insights, as it’s incredibly difficult to make so many changes in such a short period of time. The important thing to note is Smith is clearly putting in the work and understands what he needs to do to improve, even if it could be a very long process. A long-shot to be drafted at this stage, Smith should have chances at finding a way into the NBA this summer or down the road, and how he improves as a shooter will be critical in increasing those chances.

Top NBA Draft Prospects in the ACC (Part Three: #11-#15)
October 1, 2007

Standing 5’11 and weighing about 155 pounds, Ishmael Smith is undersized for a point guard, but he makes up for some of his physical shortcomings with his quickness, tight ball-handling, and excellent court vision. Smith had a strong freshman season for the Demon Deacons, starting at point, playing 30 minutes per game, and averaging six assists per game, but he also scored under nine points per game and committed 3.6 turnovers per, numbers he can certainly improve on.

Smith has a pass-first approach on the offensive end, and he does most of his damage by getting into the lane, where he loves making precision bounce passes through the defense to get a good portion of his assists. He draws defenders by penetrating all the way to the basket or hesitating midway through, making passes through the seams of the defense, on many occasions without looking. He reads the floor very well and makes quick decisions when he sees openings in the defense. Smith also does a good job controlling the tempo of the game and finding open shooters, through basic perimeter ball motion in his team’s half-court set.

http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Ishmael-Smith-1212/


The first quote shows that he was actively working on his shot prior to the draft and is willing to put in the work. The second is after his freshman year at Wake Forest, and it's interesting to me how he was doing much of what we like about him now back then, when he was 20 pounds lighter and a bit shorter. I think the guy has room to continue developing. Maybe we got lucky. Ismael certainly did.

 

Great find - thanks!

 

Good to see that Ish is committed to getting better.

 

I've always said Ast/To ratio is a much better indicator than assist number alone in terms of running the team . AB is one of the worst among NBA staring PGs at that, if not the worst.

 

It's exciting to finally see a point guard with passing ability in Houston, but let's not get carried away. If Smith puts in the work, he may one day develop into a good backup pg. But he doesn't have the strength/size/athleticism to finish at the rim in traffic and will never develop enough shooting ability to cover for that. Shooting is not something you can develop in a gym over the summer when you've already been doing it for years. There's natural ability involved.

 

This season before the injury he was over 2.5 to 1....an at 7apg, even having to sit a good portion of one game with foul trouble.

DD

 

I knew before I opened this thread that it would turn into DD damage control for Brooks.

The team is flat out better with Ish.