I've watched Smith play for probably the past 5-6 years. While his numbers may have dropped a bit, they aren't in a vacuum. And, they are dropping from almost league leading heights(defensive win shares, etc.) He isn't perfect...he does need some help from coaching and teammates, which he should get here. Atlanta and Detroit...how many players have flourished or gotten better in these dumps? It's the BAE....Jason Terry and Pap both will make twice that on our roster....what's not to like about this? Even if it's a flyer, it's a flyer on a talent who needs a change of scenery. Here, he will get that.
DD obviously has a right to be concerned. he has followed bball long enough to have an opinion. its a low cost high reward move. and it does have a chance to disrupt chemistry. personally though i cant help but say go for it and see what happens. if it does go through and it starts working i think it gives morey even more incentive to get dragic and truly try to win it this year and next.
Well quite simply what's not to like is that it makes our starting offense worse and adds a headcase to the locker room that has Dwight Howard's ear. If things go south, there could be quite a bit of damage done. Again I understand that he'll help our depth, and we can all hold out hope that after a decade in the league all it would take for him to learn how to play basketball is playing on the Rockets, but I don't think that's reasonable. When you use the read and react offense it's not that great to have one of your players have arguably the lowest BBIQ in the entire league.
it's not unreasonable to question Josh Smith's ability to produce for this team but the DD jinx probably means we will win the championship with him
Probably not. They wouldn't be able to wait for him & Rondo to 'wreck' & destroy Dallas. [or LAC, Sacramento & Memphis] Folks love the big name! If it was "Billy Adams" and folks saw him play, looked at the stats, they probably wouldn't want him. That guy sucks! Josh Smith, knowledgeable name, name that fans know, they want him.
He's an upgrade from black, Dorsey, and Garcia. He will be making less than a million more than Garcia was with the BAE. He may be a head case but this is a good locker room. He has a chance to win now. With a good staff he can get into good shape too. I don't see how this is bad for this team. Especially with Jones down for God knows how long.
As a Rockets fan he certainly has that right. That's besides the point though. His track record of being wrong is what is causing people to ridicule his concerns. Personally, I would love picking Smith up at $2M. $13M? HELL NO! $2M? You would have to be the biggest idiot in the world not to take that gamble.
you guys keep going on a merry-go-round on this debate. It just comes down to most people here think sign Smith with the BAE is a low-risk/high reward deal. A few vocal minority think it's a low-reward/high risk deal because Smith offers little value to the team to warrant the risk that he could irreparably damage the relationships and chemistry of the team. Once y'all understand this is where the disparity is you can either agree to disagree on the risk/reward evaluation, or focus your debate on either a) what upside Smith can really bring on the court (high-reward) or b) the likelihood of Smith causing dissension or the potential long term negative impact such discord could have. I for one think the reward is high enough simply from the fact we have the option to throw a bigger defensive body at the likes of Zbo, Griffen, LMA, etc. I also think the potential for Smith causing discord is minor, and even IF there were an issue, cutting him wouldn't cause long term impact. Howard is about rings at this stage of his career. If he placed his relationship with Smith over that he would have gone to another team to play with friends first, not a contender.
Two of those seasons are with Detroit, and the last season was with Atlanta, in which he was being discussed in trade rumors and knew he was on the way out. I'm thinking this may call for a tip jar bet. If we get Josh Smith, i'll wager $20 that Josh Smith posts postive defensive win shares with the Rockets. Do you accept?
Dwight is a grown man and has been a fantastic professional here so far. He's not going to lose it on the mere chance that his friend doesn't work out here. We just dumped his friend Daniels and he's fine. Winning trumps all.
Of course I don't accept, he ALWAYS posts positive defensive win shares. It's on offense where he's almost always been a determent to his team. Detroit is an awful team but their offensive rating went from 97 to 107 when Smith went to the bench, that's huge. Again, we can all hold out hope for a miracle to happen and for him to become a completely different player, but I don't think it's realistic.
Jeez, the "dips***tery" in this thread is unprecedented. Some of you act like Josh Smith owes you money. Put a player in the right situation and he'll flourish. Hell, for the passing, hustle, defense, and depth, we should welcome Smoove with open arms. Plus he gives us a lot of roster options. Yes, he can take ill-advised shots, but is there a shot that ANY player on this team doesn't like? Take it eeeeeeasy, all ye naysayers.
So as I was leaving the Rockets-Blazers game last night, I went to go see Calvin Murphy. He was talking to some dude who gave Calvin a piece of folded paper with a phone number and the words 'Josh Smith' on it.
