Actually if he shoots only catch and shoot threes he is in the mid 30's and if those catch and shoots are in the corner that number goes up. Just limit Josh to transition and off rebound shots plus corner threes and his %'s go way up. It's his mid range game that sucks. All you have to do is eliminate that and he is a steal at anything less than the max. And of course that's what Morey and they Rockets do. Eliminate the bad and focus on the good. With very little plays you simply say you have a greenlight to shoot these shots and these other shots only when you are wide open and never these shots. Everyone shoots better here because of that. Just shoot baby is our motto only don't shoot these shots.
Stats say josh smith is a very good shooter when his shots are assisted on kickouts, but very bad when he creates his own jumper.
Can I see these stats? Not saying I think you're wrong, but I am unfamiliar with this take on Smith. And do you happen to know how Millsap shoots when he's passed the ball as opposed to shooting off the dribble?
Exactly. With the game on the line, what is McHale going to do? He can't sit both Howard and Smith. If I'm an opposing coach, I am hacking the Hell out of both of them every time they come up the court. (Side note: I read that Hawk fans actually yell, "No!" when he pulls up for jumpers at home. Reminds me when we had MWP/Artest and he'd jack up three after three.) And yes, Brewer can be that perimeter defender at times. He's incredibly opportunistic and, according to an article featuring Synergy Sports stats, was "forcing his offensive counterparts to shoot a mediocre 35.5 percent from the field" last season. He, of course, isn't a starter but I wouldn't be opposed to going after Millsap if it meant we could land him, Brewer (who we're going after with Howard anyway) and then maybe Jarett Jack with the money freed up from the discount we'd get landing Millsap instead of Smith. I'm sure I'm in the minority but I think it's debatable. One last thing to consider; shouldn't it be concerning that the team Smith is leaving doesn't even want to attempt to re-sign him?
Imagine the smith/Howard pick and roll Lin/Harden and smith screen roll or pop One of the best roll finishers in the game. We'd actually have 2 with smith/Howard. Again he is great shooting both mid and 3 when his shots are being assisted. He won't have much opportunity to handle the ball. Harden, Lin,Howard would all be options before we resort to a smith iso, or pnr ballhandler game, but it still gives us a great 4th option. Smiths elite level defense at the 3/4
I don't think offense is where we need the biggest upgrade assuming we get D12. We have plenty of offensive options even w/o Howard. If you're going to compete in the top 4 teams of the NBA, you need a perimeter defensive guy to guard the likes of Lebron and KD. If that's the need I'll take Smith over Millsap and pound it into Smith's head he's not needed to be an offensive option by shoot stupid jumpers.
If somehow the Rockets can get Smith to agree to play all-out while he's on the court, stop shooting his broken jumper, and just focus on pick and rolls and backdoor cuts/alley-oops, I'm down. The dude has untapped potential and can be a perennial All-Star if he'll just listen to coaches. But the last thing I want to see is a prima donna disrupt the most exciting young team in the NBA. We'll already be bringing one monumental ego in with Howard, if we get him.
With the hack, one or two it doesn't matter, they just grab you when the ball is 90 feet away, and 1ppp is good in the last few mins of a game. As long as the Rockets don't fall for the Pops fake out, where he hacks you to see if you're stupid enough to pull the guy out and sink his confidence, they did that to Bogut and he'd suck the rest of the game. Notice how Mchale just left Asik in the game? unless they're a 25% ft shooter, that's how you do it.
It would be crazy if Parsons becomes the 4th option on offense behind Harden, Howard and Smith. That is a lot of fire power. I'm not so worried about Smith's FT% as Asik's is not much higher, and there would be a better fit on defense (in terms of position) even though I think Asik overall is the better defensive player. Can't imagine Howard having to guard the Lebron, Carmelo and other stretch 4s of the league, whereas Smith can guard both traditional and stretch 4s. I hope Smith can reduce his mid/long-range twos to a minimum. If he signs for ~$12M/yr, realistically we can trade Asik, one of TJ/DMo and give away Royce White by paying his salary, and still keep Lin. I doubt that's the direction we go, but that would be a very formidable starting 5. Lin, Harden, Parsons, Smith and Howard.
The rumor going through the boards, actually, is that the lineup you posted is exactly the starting five the Rockets are going after.
Why are you comparing their old salaries? I agree from basketball perspective, I would prefer Millsap as well. But in the end, I think the question is (A) who's more enticing for Dwight, since it's part of the Dwight bid, (B) who you could actually get. Asik-Smith sign and trade makes perfect sense for both sides. Millsap would be complicated. You can't really go to Dwight and say "Hey Dwight, sign with us and we'll get Millsap too" when you've no clue if that's going to happen.
I don't think you have to worry about that. McHale didn't pull Asik when the Thunder tried that in the playoffs.
Apologies on the old salary number. That said, I would assume (since the perception from many seems to be that Smith is far better than Millsap) Smith would demand more money than Millsap. I stated from the start of the thread that if Howard says, "I want Smith if I'm coming to Houston" and you can make that happen, then you do it. So we're on the same page. And who was the person that said Josh Smith is a good jump shooter? Here's some stats that should shut that theory down, based on last year's effort. Smith, according to the L.A. Times, "shot 2.4 three-pointers per game in 2012-13 despite being a 28.8 percent career shooter from deep. Roughly one-third of Smith's field-goal attempts in 2012-13 have come from 15 to 24 feet (250 out of 756), according to NBA.com, despite him only hitting 32 percent from that range." Yeah, his jumper is more broke than Allen Iverson at the end of the month.
Pricier is sexier, maybe? JSmoosh is much more expensive, plays shinier and less effective. A must get.
If all it took were $3 million more to land Smith you get him. His defensive flexability is very much needed here.
Whhhhaaaaattt.....Throwing in the towel so soon my friend!?Talking about putting all your eggs in one basket.....!! But I beg to differ......
It has to work on both ends of the floor. Smith is too expensive to be mainly just a defensive supplement. They do. All the time. Every game. I've followed the Hawks closely for many, many years. He's your classic example of a talented player that can't figure out how to play winning basketball. He's a Steve Francis. An example: despite being a career 28% 3 pt shooter he set a career-high in a shot attempts this year. Inexcusable. Yeah, you can blame coaching all you want, but teams intentionally sag off of Josh when he's eyeing up those 20-footers and he STILL takes them. He's not a good shooter; not a floor spacer. He's at his best in transition and attempting shots inside 10 feet of the basket. His FG% at the rim is absurdly high yet his shots at the rim only account for roughly 1/3 of his shot attempts. Not only that, but he takes plays off and makes so many boneheaded decisions. On one sequence he'll grab a rebound, dribble the length of the court and throw down a monster dunk. He'll follow that up with two long jumpers early into the shot clock with no Hawks underneath the basket, and a bad defensive possession where he commits an obvious foul and gets a technical for jawing with the refs. You just have to take the good and the bad with him. For a guy that people were talking about possibly receiving a max contract earlier this season, I want nothing to do with it.
