I think sometimes when we think about a player to much it seem to lessen his faults and catapult his advantages. hence the grass is greener over there approach. I usually keep a level opinion on most players. I may like them, but never forget things are not always as they seem. I will tell you what made me this way. the rockets signed a player named stromile swift. I watched this guy in Memphis and thought we had stole something from Memphis when we got him...........however as his career unfolded it became clear why Memphis let him walk.....needless to say he is on my hated rocket player list. I fear the same with j-smith. some of you guys think his talents will plug right in while his faults will be covered up. I'm not so sure about that. j-smith has been in the league 9 years.....he is who he is. going under the assumption his game will change is hopping at best. if he come here and continues to take bad shots would you be surprised? I wouldn't. j-smith has played with some talent laden teams and still was unable to help that team go anywhere. what will change here? if you are going to sell me j-smith tell me your vision of what we will be getting both good and bad. because right now i'm not convinced.
Okay, let us take the hope out of the equation. Let us say JSmith's bb IQ stays the same and he still takes bad shots. What do we still know though?
1. He will take fewer bad shots because he will have the ball less often in his hands. That will just be fact, unless for some perverse reason, McHale/FO decide that JSmith will put up the most shot attempts every night rather than Lin or even Parsons or...the efficient Harden. lol, doubt that will happen, so that is not hope, that is realism. So even if he still takes bad shots, at least the total volume of them will go down.
2. He can RUN. He is ATHLETIC. He is fast. He rebounds pretty well and is a great weak side blocker. We need all those things at the 4 spot.
3. He can play SF/PF, which is flexibility we would appreciate because our team includes a lot of players that could go into different spots. His flexibility allows us to optimize lineups because it gives us more options to play with. Smith at the 3? DMo can be at the 4. Parsons at the 3? Smith can be at the 4. GSmith at the 4? You get the idea. I like having those options.
4. Similar to #3, JSmith can guard both the SF and PF positions. We happen to need both! lol, he obviously brings the defensive prowess of our team up. I don't think anyone is arguing otherwise. He'd help when Asik sits too since we wouldn't just be left w/ a vacuum of defensive skill on the court *coughHardencough*.
5. He shoots 38% from the right wing from 3 pt land. Yes plz. His percentages from other 3 pt areas are not great, but neither are most spots atrocious. He can shoot them enough where defenders will have to go out to guard him, and that stretches the floor in a system that totally values that.
6. He can also drive and kick out the ball. Again, fits perfectly in our system where that is our bread and butter. He also has one of the highest assists per game for a player that spends that many minutes at the 4. We need that skill.
Recap: JSmith is a flexible player who can play and guard both the 3 and the 4. His defensive abilities will help shore up a lot of our defensive weaknesses, and his ability to drive and kick or pass out from the post is a skill that we definitely need (esp. the latter since he can suck in the defense and kick it out to the open player at the 3 pt line...kind of like what we hope GSmith does now, except w/ a lot better passing skills). JSmith is decent from 3 pt range so that he will at least draw out defenses to keep him honest. Downside is that, IF he takes a lot of these contested, good chance he'll miss a bunch, unless it is from his right-wing sweet spot. He may still make poor decisions and take a lot of midcourt shots, but at least he won't have the ball in his hands as often to make those mistakes. Finally, boy can RUN N' GUN like a bawss. His temperament is questionable.
JSmith is just not a #1 option on a team, and on the Rockets, he might not even be the #2 option on offense. This only helps him make fewer bone-headed plays and just do what we need him to do. Sure, he wasn't the #1 option on the 2010 ATL Hawks either, but I think 1) our system plays to his strengths more and 2) we have a better team w/ more potential than that team did 
I'm not saying JSmith is the REASON we might win per se, but he might be just what we needed to go over the top. For those reasons, I think JSmith definitely makes our team a LOT better. Good enough to win a championship? Overall doubtful, but we wouldn't lose any of our young assets or core players, so who knows after those players develop and get more comfortable w/ each other! Is he worth max? Probably not, but for $14M, I'd take him.
And remember, this is taking all the hope out of the equation -- hoping that he'll stop shooting so many bad shots, and hoping his 3 pointers get better as he is asked to focus on those instead (a la Delfino).
but we do agree what should be the 1st option 
