Go to basketball-reference and go to Josh Smith's page and scroll down to the "Shooting" section. It gives a breakdown for what percentage of shots are taken from where. Example... 0-3 feet, 3-10 feet, 10-16 feet, 16-3pt line, 3-pointers. It will give the percentages for each. (28% of shots come from 0-3 feet, 19% come from 3-10 feet, etc). Percentage of shots Josh Smith has taken from different distances with Pistons vs. Rockets: 0-3 feet went up from 29% to 34% 3-10 feet went down from 32% to 29% 10-16 feet went up from 3% to 5% 16 feet to less than 3 went down from 26% to 11% 3-pointers went up from 9% to 19%
Lord, I'm thoroughly convinced now that working with Dream has little to no value. Sometimes great players don't make great coaches (cough*McHale* cough).
I think Josh will benefit more than Dwight working w/ Dream. Dwight doesn't have the drive to be great. I think if Smith convinces himself that he's a lowpost scorer and NOT a 3pt shooter, he will be special
Can Hakeem reverse the damage that Rasheed Wallace has done? http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/09/18/josh-smith-working-with-rasheed-wallace-on-midrange-shots-post-moves/ Here's Rasheed on his "post moves" http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/celtics_nba/celtics/
And just to be clear, those are not shooting percentages. That is the breakdown of where he shoots on the floor. 34% of the shots he takes come from 0-3 feet of the basket. If you want his shooting percentages, they are: 0-3 ft: 62% up from 58% 3-10 ft: 40% up from 31% 10-16 ft: 50% up from 18% 16-<3 ft: 28% down from 34% 3-pt: 22% down from 24%
I think Josh has worked out with Dream more than anyone has. Just from reports I found online, Josh worked with Hakeem in 2007 and again in 2009. Honestly, it seems like the only players who seem to actually benefit from Hakeem's tutelage are players with guard skills like LeBron and Kobe.
Agreed. You can't teach other-worldly agility and quickness to mere mortals. As I've said for some time, only guards and small forwards can even attempt to successfully do Dream's moves at full speed in a real game. I look at our team and Harden is the only one that could actually replicate any of the things Dream did in the post. Dmo is perfectly suited for the Kevin McHale school of freaky-good post moves that don't require any athleticism. I laughed when in an interview Dwight said Dream told him "you do my moves better than me." I think Dwight actually believed it.
I don't think we know who taught who what. For a while, many thought T.R. Dunn was responsible for the defensive improvement.
Hakeem ain't gonna do ****. He's been working with Dwight for the past couple of years and still no improvement.
Don't blame the teacher for the student's shortcomings. Others have thrived under his tutelage. DMo is a prime example.
Donatas had the advantage of already having post skills. He also has the advantage of still being 24 years old. He seems to be using the same moves that he's been using for the last two years. The only difference is that his shots are falling consistently. Can that be attributed to working with Dream? Maybe. Can it be attributed to consistent playing time and less time spent camping at the 3 point line? Seems more likely. Very true.
Who knows? He is getting paid 5+ million a year from Detroit. Maybe he will be willing to take the MLE or bi-annual if it means he will be able to play for a championship with his BFF Howard. If the Rockets make it deep in the playoffs with Smith playing a big part, I can't see how Morey doesn't try to bring him back for reasonable money.
If he would just keep his shots 16ft and under. It's very obvious that his open long range shots are still worse then other players contested shots. Seriously stop smith and get your head out of your ass.
I think during a telecast that Calvin Murphy said he had worked with Smith during his time in Atlanta and was able to get his FT% up to a respectable amount. Murphy was saying how he was surprised at how bad his FT shooting has gotten since then. Maybe we need to add that to our player's workouts along with Hakeem.
