Calling JR a ******ed pick is, well, ******ed.
As someone who's watched JR Smith play every game this season, I feel that I can comment on his game.
First of all, the JR Smith after the ASB is not the same guy that people perceive. Second, he's really not injury prone. The reason it looks like he missed several games is because he had a bunch of DNPs this year while he was in Karl's doghouse. Last year he had arthroscopic and came back before expectations. Casual fans have also labeled him cancer which is not necessarily true. He's no angel off the court, but on the court and in the locker rooms things are much different. He's been a fan-favorite, and is usually labeled as the hardest worker in practice. True he was banished in GK's doghouse for a while, but during that time Nugs fans got to see something that the national media didn't catch. JR has always been the teams biggest cheerleader off the bench, and despite his minutes being wittled down to pretty much zero, he cheered
more for his teammates. When being interviewed by our local radio guys, he declined to comment on his benching, instead turning it around and saying something like "I'm just working really hard right now to be ready for when my name is called."
So during a Miami road game where the Nugs were sucking, GK gives JR some early burn, in which he goes off and the Nugs win. Karl then began inserting him in earlier and earlier, and what Nugs fans saw was a complete turnaround in his play. Sure he took a lot of 3's, but what was most encouraging was his driving. I doubt that many people realized how incredibly awesome he is at driving and finishing, and that coupled with his 3 point shooting makes him impossible to guard. I'll even go so far as to say that he's one of 2 players in the league that can be that filthy from the line
and drive with the best of them, the other one being Manny.
His post ASB numbers are phenomenal:
26 PP/36
.493 FG%
.620+ TS
.400+ 3 PT FG
3.3 AST/36
2.4 TO/36
1.9 ST/36
Defensively he works hard, but you'd never hear me say that he's a good defender. He's actually a + defender on the Nugs according to 82 games, but that really isn't saying a whole lot. His biggest problem is that, like AI and Melo, he gambles too much. Whether or not this can be fixed is up in the air, but the fact that he's one of the better defenders on his team would lead me to believe that he does have upside on defense.
What makes JR such a tough cover here is that he has RANGE, not 3 point range, but range from 30 feet. I know it looks like he's taking bad shots when he's chucking it 30 feet, but can you argue with someone who shoots that high of a percentage and takes it to the rack? Those long three's are going open everyone else's game, because JR forces defenders to start guarding him way outside.. and when they do that he just blows right by.
Here's a scouting vid from a pickaxenroll. I know it's a blog, but it's one of the more respected Nugz sites. It talks about the improvements he's made, and gives some examples from the Phoenix game. Also
here's an article from the Denver Post which talks about JR's maturity over the past year.
In summation, GKA is at-worst getting an super-efficient volume scorer who has an above average number of assists and turnovers. Off the court he still has a lot of room to grow, but that can be said about several players taken before him.
In the history of the game, how many other 22 year olds have averaged 40%+ from downtown, 60%+ True Shooting, and more than 20PP/36 Minutes? I'll give you a hint, it's less than two.
Oh and &*%( you GKA.
Last edited by Seadood228; 06-12-2008 at 12:24 AM.