Yahoo Sports reported Monday afternoon that the Houston Rockets had emerged as the frontrunner to land forward Josh Smith after the former Piston clears waivers on Wednesday. We got together and talked about the news.
McGuire: We all know how the Rockets are supposedly this “3 and paint” team, but are we really that confident in our shooting to want Smith? There’s no one on this team aside from Beverley that I really, truly trust to make 3-pointers when Harden is driving to the rim. Not Ariza these days, not Brewer (though he hit 2 Monday night against Portland to my surprise), not Motiejunas. And on top of it, Houston is actually not a very good offensive team this year – just 20th as ranked by offensive rating. Yet we’re talking about signing someone who is arguably the worst 3-point shooter in NBA history and who has never had a positive impact on the offensive end.
Dover: The story with Smith has been the same for years – great if he’s playing around the rim, awful outside. If the Rockets are serious about him, then it can only be because they want him in the paint. Motiejunas takes some threes but it’s not a key part of our offense from the 4 spot, so I don’t see why we couldn’t attempt to slot Smith into a similar role in our system and avoid the question of whether he can knock down the three completely. The problem is that after 9 and a bit seasons in the league, his bad habits are thoroughly ingrained and will be hard to change. For me the important question is: Is the culture of the Rockets’ locker room and their commitment to this style of play enough to break down the mental blocks Smith has from a career’s worth of taking shots he shouldn’t? Because one thing’s for sure – we definitely don’t want the version of Josh Smith that repeatedly puts up threes and long twos with no remorse.
Li: I agree with Paul, especially regarding the 3-point shooting. Despite taking the most 3s per game (35, no one else is even above 30), the Rockets still don’t shoot 3s very well (below 35%). Parsons, who was statistically our best 3-point shooter, is gone. Troy Daniels apparently was only good enough to hit game-winning 3-pointers in the playoffs, but not good enough to come off the bench during the regular season. Harden’s 3-point shooting has regressed for the second season in a row (33%). Adding Josh Smith does not solve these problems, and has the strong potential to exacerbate them. The best case scenario is that he stops taking any shot farther than 8-feet away, plays defense, rebounds, and does athletic things in general. Doesn’t that kind of sound like the best case scenario for Terrence Jones?
McGuire: While Richard elaborates on the 3-point shooting, Josh Smith mixed with WWE commentator Jim Ross:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZhrwS5W2Xk (editor’s note: language warning?)
I did watch this game live, and that play is possibly one of the few times I have broken out laughing at a NBA game.
I also want to touch on the Howard-Smith relationship which ESPN has touched upon. This makes me more apprehensive about signing Smith, not less. If we sign Smith, and he plays like well, Josh Smith, is Howard going to be fine with his friend getting benched in favor of Motiejunas? We all get irrational about how our friends are doing, after all.
Huq: Well I for one am absolutely stoked about the Josh Smith Reclamation Experience. We will change him. We will rebuild him. We will eliminate the long 2’s and even the 3’s and unlock his basketball destiny.
Okay, maybe not. But seriously guys. What’s the risk? It’s a measly $2million. And if he’s only playing twenty minutes a night, we can live with a couple of errant jumpers here and there, if he’s bringing it on the other end, which I think he will. I’m all for anything that keeps Joey Dorsey off the floor, and for all his warts, Josh Smith is a massive upgrade over Tarik Black as well. Hell, I’ll say this: if we have Smith last year, LaMarcus Aldridge doesn’t walk all over this team and we probably travel to San Antonio the following week for the second round. I’m a firm believer in “fit” and I don’t think Smith is nearly as bad as he’s looked in Detroit these past two years. He can still be as good as he was in Atlanta when some metrics ranked him near the top of the league defensively.
On the other hand, Paul’s suggestion is troubling and something I hadn’t thought of. Moreover, I’ll be absolutely pissed if McHale benches Motiejunas for Smith.
All in all, I’m all for this. You can’t have enough able-bodied ‘bigs’ in the postseason and if Smith can still bring it defensively, I think you can live with his bone-headedness at the other end.
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