Without Howard you could make the case that he's the 2nd best player on this team. He's been tremendous off the bench. Hope his good play continues....
Lou Williams? Taj Gibson? Jamaal Crawford? Ryan Anderson? There is a whole league's worth of NBA basketball being played outside of Houston. You should check it out. To qualify, you just have to play more games as a reserve than as a starter. Smith will qualify, but has already started 32 games, which voters inevitably make a mental effort to subtract from his season averages. Even with good numbers as a reserve, it sill hurts his case as there are essentially 32 games he doesn't qualify in. Think of how missing 32 games would hurt an MVP candidates chances. He is playing better since coming off of the bench, but he won't win the award. Why not just enjoy the fact that he is playing well off of the bench instead of (irrationally) setting it up to be some utter disappointment when he doesn't win it?
It's sad and great he's usually the second highest scorer on the team. We need Bev and Ariza to step up. Brewer has his moments.
He's been good, but this award has gone to a guard 9 of the last 10 years, and there's plenty of qualified scoring guards (Crawford, Lou Williams, and Mo Williams come to mind). Major uphill battle and he's not even definitively the best candidate on his own team.
No? Who is? Brewer? Smith (in Feb) is 15ppg, 8rpg and 4apg laced with 1spg and 1.4bpg on 49fg% and 44 from 3 Surely he's making a pretty solid charge? [Brewer hasn't had a month anything like that so far - I hope he does ]
Smith's been marvelous this month, but if you only start being a sixth man after the New Year there's lots of catching up to do. There is no definitive Rockets 6th man - Brewer, like Smith, is averaging 12 points per game with a 15 PER as a Rocket - and unlike Smith, came to the Rockets with a few sixth man appearances already under his belt. Note: I'd take Smith for the award over Brewer due to his defensive impact, I just said it's not definitive.
I'd argue it is fairly definitive that Smith is our 6th man, and Brewer our 7th (and Terry the 8th? When Howard is back, Jones/Dmo fit into that mix as well - how great is our bench??) You're right about there being a lot of catching up to do, but this is the NBA, you're only remembered for what you've done lately, and better to be the strongest 6th man candidate for the last 4 months of the season than for the first 4 months!
Recently there was a thread where someone apologized to Harden for underestimating him and not giving him the respect he deserves going into this year. I want to do the same for Josh Smith. While I wasn't completely against signing him when he became available earlier in the year, I had read so many reports portraying him as a cancer in Atlanta and Detroit that I feared he would wreck the Rockets chemistry. When the team struggled after he first arrived I have to admit I thought they had made a mistake bringing him here. I was wrong. Very wrong. Josh along with Brewer have made the Rockets second unit one of the best in the league. His contribution to the second unit offense is similar to Hardens with the first in that he can facilitate, score, and bring the ball up the court, and defensively he has played solid as well as being a good shot blocker. Hearing his post game interview tonight praising his teammates and saying how happy he is to be a Rocket only proves more that I really misjudged him. Glad to have Josh as a member of the Rockets, and I'm very happy to admit that my early impressions of him were completely wrong.
