For y'all that don't remember. Josh Smith use to train with Hakeem & Calvin Murphy during the summer. I would say 6-7 years ago.
Smith-Dallas-Houston(with a little Rondo talk) Spoiler BS: Can't remember this situation happening before where they say, "Just go", "Just please leave". ZL: There have been times where teams banished guys away from the team, always with the goal of trading them. This is crazy. This lit up the holiday season. BS: We knew Stan and Josh were not a match made in heaven. This was a marriage made in hell. The crazy thing is Josh Smith will make more money than he would have had he done well with this contract. He has a chance to add financial value to his life based on his Detroit experience. ZL: I think that's true. He will get to make additional money, even if Detroit gets minor relief. It's incredible. People want to hate on Smith. I get it. Everyone gets it. Frustrating, takes horrible shots, athleticism appears to have declined but he's pretty good and that's in the right role: a)never at SF b) don't ask him to do too much c) take him out if he ever shoots outside of 10 feet. The west is so competitive. If you give Big Baby's or Leuer's minutes to him, that could make a difference. BS: I agree. Dallas & Houston are interesting. If he goes to Dallas and they plug him in the Wright role, he could be good at that if he wanted to. Houston, they love having bigs like him. They tried to sign him 2 years ago. They have a little bit of an inside track. The other team I was waiting on was Miami. They lost McRoberts. It would be a Riley/Spoelstra thing to redeem his career. Why do I feel like that is the best fit? ZL: They need bodies. He doesn't fit the way they play. He's a good passer & screener but doesn't quite fit. There is division among the power players whether or not to go after him. He'd be interesting there. They need bodies to stay alive in the East, not even that, but bodies to play. BS: I don't know if Smith playing 30+ minutes is a great fit for anyone. I always thought he was underrated because people got distracted by the bad shots and facial expressions. Hard for me to imagine he's done. He was being used incorrectly in Detroit. Small Forward, no point guards, worst coaching experience last year and the coach didn't want him this year. Hesitate to say he's done. ZL: He's definitely not done. Tom Haberstroh tweeted today he has like 8 dunks this year. Shooting at the rim has been bad but that's been a plague in Detroit. His athleticism indicators are going the wrong way. We underrate how hard it is to do what Wright did in Dallas. Smith can't do that. He can do some other things. The athleticism indicators are not good right now. Talking to a front office guy last week, those good athlete guys who don't learn how to shoot especially, like Gerald Wallace went from good NBA player to unplayable in the blink of an eye. BS: It's true. I thought Marion would be one of those guys--basically where Wallace is. He figured out how to reinvent himself. Vince was another guy who reinvented himself. I don't know if Smith cares enough to reinvent himself but if he is close with Howard and does have something to prove, he is only 29, feels like he's been around forever, Houston would be fascinating. On paper standpoint, it would be incredible if Dallas ended up with him. Summer of 2013, they carved out space for Deron and Dwight. All they have is Dirk. Kidd spurns them for the Knicks. In less than 18 months, they add Monta, Tyson, Rondo, Parsons and then Smith. If I told you all those names in July, you'd think I was insane, right? ZL: Yeah, they haven't given up much to get all those guys. With or without Smith, they have gotten talent at low cost. Smith would be interesting there. Without Wright, they're playing Villanueva and Dirk together. That won't sustain. They're trying Greg Smith, they're trying small ball. They hate Dirk at center. Jermaine O'Neal, he teased like he was going to tweet his decision. He hasn't said what he's gonna do. Everyone thinks Dallas but if not, they need another big body. BS: The Rondo trade, people wondering how he'd fit with Monta and was it worth it. In a vacuum, Rondo was worth it. Their PGs were terrible but they decimated their bench. There's Charlie V., and now you're thinking, maybe this is why this wasn't great for them. To lose Crowder and Wright, you can kinda feel it. There is pressure to add people. It's easy to get role guys in February but still an issue right now. ZL: They need another big body. Wright was underrated and really good. They're playing marginal rotational guys and guys out of position. They need another guy. Crowder, we'll see if he amounts to something in the NBA. Rondo has hurt their spacing. You've seen it in the first two games. It will take awhile to sort that out. Talent wise, no brainer to get a guy of Rondo's talent. I'm not a big Rondo guy, a bit overrated. He's world better than their other PGs. It will be interesting to see how it works out. BS: You wrote about the trade after and presented both sides. You saw both sides. It was fresh, it was new. It feels like you're leaning against it. Fair? ZL: Gun to my head if I was Dallas, I'd do it. They weren't going to win the West with the defense they were playing. He gives them a little size, length, tenacity, overrated as a defender but he's decent compared to the guy he's replacing. If they want to win a championship this year, this is helpful. People remember Rondo from 3 years ago against Miami and think that's who Dallas is getting. We haven't seen that player and the assumption is he'll just flip the switch. He's in a contract year, he should be contract year Rondo and he wasn't that good on either end of the floor. He's a weird, stylistic piece that halfway doesn't fit the way they've been playing offense. He's a weird piece, can't shoot, mucks up your spacing and you gotta mix him in there. Ultimately you bet on Carlisle but it's a risky deal. BS: Contract year Rondo, I feel like a huge part was he didn't want to get hurt. Always got the sense, you can tell when a guy cares if he gets hurt vs. doesn't. The way he was playing, it was if he wanted to get through the season without getting hurt, which is a terrible way for him to play. Part of what made him great, he was occasionally reckless. He would barrel into the lane. He wasn't doing that. Never took charges. Wasn't as bad as Kobe on D but definitely below average. Wasn't trying hard. ZL: Defense is funny. There's like a two year lag time when someone's defensive ability changes one way or the other and folks realize it. People think he's still an all-defense kind of player and he hasn't been for 2-3 years at least. BS: Back to Dallas, you can see it the last two games, some stuff he does is unique to him. The way he floats around, sneak behind guys, the way he helps, gambles & steals too much. He can guard bigger guys,... ZL: That's huge for Dallas. When you have so many little guys, you need some of those little guys to guard 2's. His rebounding too. On offense, they would like more offensive rebounds. If you watch Beverley rebound for the Rockets, if you can get 3-4 sneaky PG offensive rebounds and kick out for 3s, those are game changers. BS: Right. You talk about spacing, I agree that will take time. Rondo, and he had this skill too during the peak of KG, PP & RA, when he doesn't have the ball, people think he'll stand there and you can lay off, that's not what he does. He's sneaky. He moves around like a cat. He's always up to stuff when locked in. That's what Dallas is getting. In Boston he would give up the ball and stand there. They had to trade him. In practice, when you have your guy who is the best and "leader" and isn't going hard, that puts a coach who's trying to get through to young players in a bad spot. Dallas had the only good offer. Danny made them think they were bidding against someone. No other good offers right? ZL: Lakers would have offered Nash, Houston's pick, and a 2nd rounder. There aren't that many teams, he's an expiring contract, wants a max deal, FA to be and plays a loaded position. Start ranking the PGs. I'm not sure he's a top 10-12 point guard anymore. The ACL tear was horrible on every level for Boston and horrible for trade reasons. It wiped out the season when they would have gotten something for him. BS: ... Both of us heard maybe Dallas wasn't as unanimous with this trade. I've heard various things with Carlisle: he was against it, lukewarm on it, in on it but I tend to believe the lukewarm-not as into it version. If you're Carlisle, you knew what you had, probably weren't going to win the championship, now you bring Rondo in, Monta has a headcase history but has been great for Dallas. Now you have 2 of those guys, then you talk about Josh Smith. I'm losing whatever hair I have left. ZL: I've heard divided things. I don't know the exact truth. I will say this, the more I cover the NBA and talk to people, you can't underestimate the importance of training camp and the security of having a guy in camp to learn your system and teammates and the difficulty of incorporating a guy in the middle of the season. Teams don't like to do that. Throw in he's a unique player, I wouldn't be surprised if the coaching staff thought man, we're rolling, now we have to reinvent the wheel a little bit. BS: The other thing is familiarity. When you're playing with people you don't know, there's hesitation and it takes awhile. Dallas' best advantage the first 6 weeks was they knew how to play together and the sum of the parts wasn't as good as the actual whole. Now, it's parts again.
We are not developing talent anymore. If we want to develop talent over bringing in solid veterans, then we should tank like Philly. As for Smith, his defensive capabilities outweigh anything he does on offense. All the criticism he gets from you guys is on offense. What you fail to realize is his role in Houston won't be the same it was in Detroit, under SVG who doesn't have a clue how to run a efficient offense. Give Smith a reduced role on offense and use him primarily on defense. We can't lose in this situation
I want him to start at 4 especially if he's available without too much risk. He has looked dumb in Detroit because he wasn't set up for success. He will play the role he's asked to for this team. could one of the doubters please show how he's been a bad teammate off the floor?
I was a vocal critic of Morey's refusal to tank. Those years where the Rockets kept spinning their wheels with mid round picks was very frustrating, but how can you look at his record, especially everything after Harden, and not trust the guy? His track record has far more hits than misses, so for me it's simple. If Morey wants him, there are probably very good reasons, some of which might not even be public knowledge. The dude deserves our trust on this one, especially since the contract would be the equivalent of NBA peanuts, so let's just chill and see how it turns out.
Although I said the word cancer in my post, I don't know if that's the case or not. Read a few posts and the odd article which mentions 'disruptive'. I just don't get why Detroit have basically told him not to come back, but still pay him out. That makes no sense.
Josh Smith has average 1.3 three point attempts per game this season. I wouldn't call that jacking up a bunch of 3. The problem with Detroit is that their 3 best players can't shoot outside of 5 feet, and they made the smallest guy(Josh Smith) play the small forward position because he could dribble the ball. Think Asik, Dwight, and D-mo on the court at the same time, and putting D-mo at the 3 because he could dribble and hit a jumpshot once in a while.
I would have no problem J Smith shooting 2 threes a game I would have no problem J Smith missing 2 threes a game if he brings everything else
Best case he comes here and is the steal of year. Gives us defense , rebounding, God Size , scoring at rim, good post passing. Then hopefully TJ comes back , shows something. After that hopefully we trade either Dmo/Jones and Capela+Pelicans pick for Dragic. ANd our Starting five looks like Dragic , Harden, Ariza , Smith , Dwight. Championship. Worst Case he is really bad and after 3 weeks we cut him like nothing happend. and still have potential to make moves with the pelicans pick.
Josh Smith is about as much of an anti-Morey player as there can possibly be. That said, I'd claim him off waivers anyway. Low risk, unless he manages to be a team cancer.
He would replace Joey Dorsey's spot on the roster, and people still have a problem with signing him? For that reason alone I am in favor. One on one, he beats Dorsey 10 times out of 10. No brainier if it's only for 2mil.
No you wouldn't. The Pistons would wish you a very Merry Christmas. What you meant to say is you'd sign him to vet. minimum or the biannual exception once he clears waivers.
Claiming him off waivers is only a possibility for Philly. But once he clears waivers yeah we should definitely sign him.
Other than the fact that Morey tried to sign him, that would be true. In fact, Josh Smith is the prototypical Morey player
If that was true, you'd expect the Rockets to have more brain dead chuckers. I seriously doubt anyone would call Josh Smith the prototypical Morey player.
