I feel like Smith quickly being benched was a part of Morey's metagame all along. He publicly called D-Mo a confidence player and said he was our second best offensive option himself. Certainly he knew this before trading for Josh Smith and part of it was to add talent but he knew Smith would not be better than D-Mo and starting him over Smith after Smith reportedly 'demanded' to start is a big vote of confidence that D-Mo would see.
It is really a curious case. I am not disagreeing with Morey's statement that Smith is an elite defender. But Detroit has not only scored more points but also allowed much fewer points after the trade.
"Honestly, I don't think Josh Smith is much of a chance" is a going to be a great quote to take out of context.
Josh: get the ball to d beard and dmo. Not dwelt. And never take more shots than those 3 again :grin:
but the team is energized because players understand their roles. The ball is moving faster. Seems like negativity was bogging the team down - Josh was the scapegoat, fair or not, and after he was removed they went back to playing basketball instead of half assing it. makes it unfair to attribute to the player removed as much as the clearer definition of roles for a more practical minute allocation by talent.
I know someone mentioned this up there, but here's the blurb from Charlie V.'s blog, which was super interesting: From both the BR article and from Charlie V's quotes, it seems that Smith is labeled as a malcontent and "cancer" only because his style of basketball is inefficient. The media sometimes mislabels inefficient players as bad teammates and people. I think Smith is quickly turning into our Boris Diaw--flawed, but super useful in the right setting.
They played him at the 3 where he couldn't freelance and help from the weak side as often. Plus Drummond and Monroe are pretty bad interior defenders, no matter what numbers say for Drummond.
It's not that simple. The myth that Josh was played at SF most of the time somehow gets spread. 1. Smith played more as a PF than as a SF. The most used lineup was Jennings-Caldwell-Pope-Singler-Smith-Drummond. Smith played 43% of game time as PF and only 10% as SF according to 82games: http://www.82games.com/1415/14DET10.HTM 2. The lineup with him playing SF (and Monroe playing PF) actually allowed fewer points than when Smith was playing PF. 3. The whole team's DRtg was 109.8 with Smith on court and 104.1 with him off court. This in itself does not prove that he's a bad defender for these numbers have to be put into context. But they sure do not match the "elite" defender picture just looking at them. This is a more plausible explanation. His presence seemed to have a big negative mental impact to the team. Only they know why.
credit to kevin mchale. his honesty is fresh. he just wants to win. saying our team has its pecking order in place, and everyone respects it....I tip my hat to Mchale's leadership.
Reading about Jennings' usage rating going up along with the success of the team once Smith left, could it be possible he stays as a bench player for us (for the rest of the season)? Perhaps he recognized that the team is successful when the ball is in the hands of Jennings/Harden, so his impact would best be felt if he could come off the bench and not have to change his game too dramatically. Remember, Smith himself asked to come off the bench. Maybe he saw the writing on the wall and wanted to avoid ruining team chemistry, success and his own reputation around the league.
The bottom line is that for $2 million the Rockets gambled that they were getting something closer to Atlanta Josh Smith than Detroit Josh Smith. I think the answer has yet to be determined. But again, for $2 million? All day, every day.
