Would Harden/Dwight/Smith be the best "Big 3" in the league?

Acquiring LaMarcus Aldridge makes more sense than acquiring Josh Smith. Aldridge has a higher basketball IQ, a great jump shot, and a decent post game. His offense would complement Dwight's defense nicely (if we get Dwight). Rumor has it that he wants out of Portland and a deal involving Asik might pry him away. Portland will not want to let him walk for nothing. Josh Smith is a freak athlete but his poor shot selection makes me want to pull my hair out. I know Dwight is probably pushing for Josh, but the smart move would be for Aldridge assuming he is available.

 

Harden will be better than Wade in the long regular season, but for ONE playoff series, I'm not sure about that.

Bosh >>>> Smith.

 

The thing with Josh is, he's not stupid.

He would know that if he came here to join these guys, he'd be the Bosh, he doesn't have delusions of grandeur like that, he's watched it happen in Miami.

He knows he has to be the guy that sacrifices his game to only do what he's best at, if he didn't realise that, he wouldn't even consider doing it, because there's no way that gets sugar coated.

The advantage that Josh has is that elite defense doesn't become redundant. scorers are barely additive, whereas great defense is multiplicative.

 

Well it's hard to say I think the big difference is we would rule the paint. But Miami has James. Hell good topic I'd like to see a finals with this match up and see who would win

 

I don't think it would be the best big three, but it will give us the potential to be a better team overall, just cause i think we already have these other little pieces that are better as a whole and younger than what they have.

So as a whole I think we would be a better and a deeper team.

 

It's hard to tell before seeing how Smoove would adjust his game. He'd need to accept that he's nowhere close to the 1st option offensively and get all his points off of fast breaks, offensive rebounds, and our perimeter guys driving and kicking to him for the layup/dunk/oop. His focus should be defense.

But still... It's hard to pick any group over a group led by Lebron...

Btw, are we sure Josh Smith is better than Parsons? I like smith, but idk. Parsons is the real deal!

 

I'm not a fan of having a big 3, and I'm especially not a fan of having Josh Smith as our 3rd Big. It's not that J-Smoove is a bad player, it's just that I think he's basically redundant with Dwight. When people talk about having a big 3 I always point to Miami and say look at their roster, their big 3 took less than the max and all they really have space for is one MLE, and then a bunch of rookie scale and vet minimums.

On our team, what that means is long term the team as constructed will gutted and at the very least Parsons will walk away for another team once his rookie scale expires. Maybe if Smith accepts a 12M range deal then you can make it work, but Harden, Dwight and Smith all making the max? How effective is Smith anyway? Atlanta had him, Joe Johnson and Al Hordord all in their primes and wasn't able to go anywhere.

 

I still think to win a championship in the next 5-8 years it will have to be over Durant and James in the WCF then the Finals.

I love Parsons to death, but i'm still not convince he can do a job on those 2. We seen better defenders trying to guard those 2 to no avail. Which to me, its the reason why Josh Smith will be a better "fit" compare to LMA and Love. I shudder at the thoughts of LMA/Love trying to stay in front of Durant/Lebron when OKC and the Heat play small ball.
Couple with the league trend of going small, Rox could still continue playing Smith at PF and the defense will not suffer with match up problem.

Yes, I do know and understand the complication of spacing issue, however its easier to find a PG that can shoot a 3p than getting a PF to take that 3p or long 2p.

Back to topic thou. Any Big 3 with LBJ is still the best, with Durant,Westbrick and Ibaka a close second.

 

Josh smith is a very good basketball player that gets a bad rap for having bad iq and thinking he's somthing he's not. All of those things are very overblown. I was on the say no to josh smith side about 2 years ago then I watched him in the playoffs in joe Johnson's last season with Atlanta. I came away very impressed with smiths game and basketball instincts. He's a very good passer out of the double team and knows how to roll to the basket to get open looks. He was clearly the best player on that hawks team IMO.

A big 3 of harden/Howard/smith would absolutely be at least the 2nd best big 3 in the NBA to the heat. The best part about our big 3 would be that we have the clear advantage over Miami and to an extent okc down low. Strong inside teams seem to be the ones that give those two teams the most problems. Seeing as there the two teams we would have to go through to win a chip I think this is very important.

Then you have james harden facilitating and making things happen up top and you have a very lethal trio. Hardens the type of player who can still get u 25 points a night while being the primary facilitator. We're very lucky in that regard because there's not very many in the league. For example if we had melo it wouldn't work
As well because whole he can score with the best of them he's not the passer/playmaker that harden is. Then you add parsons and that just icing on the cake. Parsons is the ultimate role player he can play with any superstar and still get his 16-17 a night with 6 and 6 he's just a very well rounded player and can shoot and finish on the break. He's a great compliment to players like dwight and smith who
Like to bang down low For dunks and easy looks. Parsons and harden can both drill spot up 3s this would make doubling almost impossible.

To me when you have the best center in the game on your team who's only 27 and the best shooting guard in the game who's only 24 your teams gonna be very very good. Then you put a Top 5 pf and IMO top 7 sf with those other two pieces and you have on paper the best team in basketball from a talent standpoint. Plus they all compliment and fit each other which is the amazing thing and that's mainly due to harden and parsons very versital games while also being very good shooters.

I get excited thinking about it and just want these guys locked in and ready to roll come opening night. It's a no brainer dwight. Lal and Dallas can sign a Max player for u in a few seasons. But IMO lebron and durant ain't leaving there teams. He's not gonna get a better player to team up with than harden. Might as well get it stared 2 yrs early at 27 than29.

 

I think that if we get both Dwight and Josh that we would definitely become instant contenders! Although I'm really starting to wonder if Rondo is now available! Cause if he is I'd rather have him than Josh Smith! I feel that a big three of Rondo, Howard, and Harden would be a real challenge to the Heat even! There two weakest spots are PG and C. Our PG would be better than there's, our SG would tear there's up, our C would tear there's up, Lebron over CP25 or course, and at PF I'll take our guy (D-Mo/Jones) over Udonis any day!

 

Sorry as much as I am for Dwight.
the combination of Dwight + Josh Smith, I don't think the rockets would be referred as a high IQ team anymore.

 

Josh smith is a much better player than chuck Hayes.

 

I voted yes on the assumption that the Rockets find a way to make them play to their highest potential.

Meaning, on offense the Harden/Howard pick and roll being used consistently. Depending on the match up it's a toss up between whether Harden's the 1st option on offense or Howard is. Drive and attack the basket, dish out to open guys. Post up and kick out 3's. Both will be extremely effective with those players.
I agree that we'll have to use Smith sparingly on offense and make him focus on defense. If he's around the rim let him use his explosiveness to attack the rim, but seriously limit his shooting from further than 9 feet. If teams are planning their offense to avoid Howard in the middle, then Smith, being a pretty decent wing/help defender, should be crucial.

 

Josh Smith may not be the perfect fit, but he has become criminally underrated on Clutchfans. Dwight and Josh Smith might be the 2 most game changing defenders in the entire NBA, and we would have them on the same damn team.

 

lol one big 3 has a combined 7 rings the other has 0 and never played a game together and we want to debate if they're the best??

 

Josh Smith is the Rudy Gay of Power Forwards.

 

Assuming we can get Smith and Howard to commit to playing basketball without whatever drama/baggage they may bring.

 

how the hell do we have shooting?

 

Even with "drama/baggage" they were both considered the top defenders in the league.