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

10% shooting from behind the arc for Bud is sticking out so far this season. His shot has been off. And Bud's only hitting 80% of his free throws when Ish is at 75%. Say only because it's not a huge difference between the two.

More worried about his shooting that I am Ish's due to the reliance of Bud hitting his shots.

 

......or he can drive and mash. That is, do away with the space, keep collapsing the defense, and let Pierce run off the high screen pick while he is in the paint for the open 3 ball.

.....or he can drive and mash the defense down and take the little short jump shot.


Rondo has one basic problem with his shot. It's one of his greatest strengths, the incredible length of his arms. He needs more coaching on his form and some adjustments need to be made because of the length of his arms. He cocks way too far, and releases way too slow. He needs to smooth out his shot, make his touch on the basketball light, and learn to let it float off his first finger, without all that cocking of his arms.



Ish?????? That's another issue altogether. I don't know if he'll ever be much from the floor........although he should seek out little Avery to get a feel for what Avery did to improve his midrange jumper to acceptable. If Ish could get that midrange jumper going smoothly, he could really be something.

 

There are no perfect basketball players. You have to weigh the good with the bad and make your best judgment. With all things considered, I'll take better defense, ball movement, bball IQ, and play-making ability over shooting and FG%. Additionally, while Ish is not a very good shooter at this point, he does have a history of making big-time shots. Basketball is a team sport, and, thus far, the team runs more smoothly with Ish at the helm.

I said last summer that a back-court of Martin and Brooks is unsatisfactory with regard to defense. I'm sticking with that assessment.

Time will tell if Ish is the solution. He's looking good thus far. I don't necessarily want to part with Brooks, I just don't want him playing with Martin. Like others, I would like to see him in a Jason Terry type of role.

 

Honestly, not concerned at all about Bud. The guy is in a slump and since it's all we can go by this season, it looks bad but those shots will fall. The guy is just to good of a shooter to remain in this slump. I, however, would like him to start driving to the hoop a bit more and capitalize on his leaping ablity.

The piece I posted was more of an illustration how teams will treat Ish, especially, during crunch time. If he wants to succeed in this league he NEEDS to learn how to make the mid-range shot like Avery eventually did. I like his game but can't say his jumpshot doesn't concern me.

 

I guess this is the most sensible post in this thread.

 

BTW, not to compare to Rondo, again, as usual, but, as it happens, NBA.com has a story on Rondo's jumper as well today:

http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2010/11/09/rondo-with-the-game-on-the-line/?ls=iref:nbahpt1