T. Moore - Hawks benefit from having Dominique around

[conleyorbust]

Here

[JoshB914]

Nice article. 'Nique has been huge for Smoove this season. I

I remember early on when his shooting % was in the high 30's and 'Nique pulled him aside to talk to him about his shot selection. Now Smoove is shooting 46% and blossoming into a great player.

[tontoz]

I wonder if Nique has tried to get Smith to stop shooting 3s. He has shot over 230 of them the past 2 seasons. He shot 25% last season and is shooting 25% this season.

At some point you have to accept that you aren't a 3 pt shooter.

[evildallas]

^^^ Nique has made comments against Josh shooting the 3 on air. I'm sure he's said things privately directly to Josh as well.

To be fair to Josh he's dialed it back to taking less threes than he's done in the last 2 years. In 2005-6, 1 of approx 7 shot was a 3. In 2006-7, it was 1 of 6.5. Now, it is 1 of 11. To me that is accepting that he's not a very good 3 pt shooter. Realistically, by seasons end he will have shot only 2/3 as many 3s this year as he did last year in spite of taking more overall shots.

[conleyorbust]

^^^ Nique has made comments against Josh shooting the 3 on air. I'm sure he's said things privately directly to Josh as well.

To be fair to Josh he's dialed it back to taking less threes than he's done in the last 2 years. In 2005-6, 1 of approx 7 shot was a 3. In 2006-7, it was 1 of 6.5. Now, it is 1 of 11. To me that is accepting that he's not a very good 3 pt shooter. Realistically, by seasons end he will have shot only 2/3 as many 3s this year as he did last year in spite of taking more overall shots.

Smith's shot selection does make him seem like a moron. I'd like to see what he does in the confines of an offense that doesn't have him setting up outside of the 3 point line.

[tontoz]

^^^ Nique has made comments against Josh shooting the 3 on air. I'm sure he's said things privately directly to Josh as well.

To be fair to Josh he's dialed it back to taking less threes than he's done in the last 2 years. In 2005-6, 1 of approx 7 shot was a 3. In 2006-7, it was 1 of 6.5. Now, it is 1 of 11. To me that is accepting that he's not a very good 3 pt shooter. Realistically, by seasons end he will have shot only 2/3 as many 3s this year as he did last year in spite of taking more overall shots.

He shouldn't be taking them at all.

Boozer and Amare are far better jump shooters than Smith but you don't see them jacking up 3s. Smith has shot more 3s this year than those two have in their careers, combined.

[JoshB914]

Yeah but Smoove spends more time on the perimeter than those two. I hate how we run plays for him to take open jump shots, I can live with doing it a few times a game but we do it far too often.

Last game Smoove was passing up a lot of jumpers and taking the ball to the cup. I'd like to see more of that. I'm sure he will be fine in the end, he has drastically improved his shot selection this season and should continue to improve on it.

[tontoz]

Yeah but Smoove spends more time on the perimeter than those two.

And he shouldn't be on the perimeter more than those two. They are far better jump shooters than he is. He should NEVER be behind the 3 pt line. EVER.

Last game Smoove was passing up a lot of jumpers and taking the ball to the cup.

In the first half he did. In the second half he went back to jacking up jumpers. He took 3 three pointers on the game even though he was owning the Magic inside in the first half.

[JoshB914]

Agree on the three point line, he should never be back there. He has been improving in that area but I too think he should stop taking them altogether. But he does take a lot mid range jumpers on plays that are run for him. The amount of jumpers he has "jacked up" has decreased quite a bit since the start of the year, and thats a big reason his shooting % has actually reached a respectable level.