JR Smith

[is1531]

Should the 76ers go after restricted free agent JR Smith? I say they should. Here is a guy who can shoot the 3 point shot at 40%. We all know that 40% at 3 point range is better than 50% at 2 point range. Smith averaged 12 points in 19 minutes in the regular season, but scored 18 points a game in the playoffs. If you have Lou Williams off the bench with JR Smith ,Jason Smith and Carney, that would be a much improved bench. I also like Sasha V and his height. Sasha shoots trys at almost 44%. Smith is 23 and Sasha is 24. I will take both of them.

[psykosacul]

i dont like smith at this point. he needs some discipline. he would add some needed punch, especially from the three point line, but i feel like he is a hired gunslinger. he needs to be part of the team concept, and i just didnt see that from him in denver. (although to be fair, it seemed like even the dirty work players on that team were playing an individual game. they had a very strange dynamic out there, like instead of playing together, they just all executed their specialties seperately)

vujacic intrigues me, though while it seemed like everyone else on LA was passing and getting layups and working together, he was the one who would be more of a "gunner". but i would imagine he had the green light from phil, because phil just would have yanked him otherwise.

neither player is very good at defense, or seems to care much about it, which is bad. i think vujacic puts more effort in, in spurts and has active hands and feet, but not enough to make me like his defense.

[still in payne]

I like Sasha V., but Smith is an option if he has finally matured (he showed some evidence of it last season). It's unlikely the Lakers would let Sasha walk or trade him cheaply, but the Nuggets are going to be right around the luxury tax, Smith is from Freehold, NJ, and he might feel that there are more minutes to be had in Philly than in Denver. So Denver might not be inclined to match, or more inclined to trade him for less, and Smith may be interested in a shot at a starting job close to home. Also, the Sixers are young and looking up, the Nuggets...

[is1531]

i dont like smith at this point. he needs some discipline. he would add some needed punch, especially from the three point line, but i feel like he is a hired gunslinger. he needs to be part of the team concept, and i just didnt see that from him in denver. (although to be fair, it seemed like even the dirty work players on that team were playing an individual game. they had a very strange dynamic out there, like instead of playing together, they just all executed their specialties seperately)

vujacic intrigues me, though while it seemed like everyone else on LA was passing and getting layups and working together, he was the one who would be more of a "gunner". but i would imagine he had the green light from phil, because phil just would have yanked him otherwise.

neither player is very good at defense, or seems to care much about it, which is bad. i think vujacic puts more effort in, in spurts and has active hands and feet, but not enough to make me like his defense.

We would be getting JR or Sasha or both for offense only. Sam, Iggy and Thad can supply the defense. Nobody has 5 players that play tough defense.

[psykosacul]

im not asking for 5 guys who play tough defense. but 5 guys who try 90-100% of the time? thats possible.

[SendEm]

JR Smith is a bad basketball player. There are far more stats than just points and 3 point percentage that contribute towards ATTEMPTING to define a basketball player on paper.
Also it can only be BAD that JR Smith is moving closer to home considering his history which can be researched on google.
JR Smith is also about as bad as a guard can be on defense. He has the ability to average 26ppg which may one day happen, but he is not a CHIP player, just a scorer that Karl gave a simplified role to. We don't need a simple one track mind scorers on a team like this. If JR Smith couldn't help the Nuggets accomplish anything while playing his best at a role best suited for him, what makes one believe that he would come to the Sixers and help us do anything when asked to do things that he isn't suited for like play defense/hustle/cut turnovers/raise assists etc.?

[Samson]

He's a great young athlete with some size... We have greater young athletes with some size in Andre Iguodala, Thad Young, and Rodney Carney... not to mention Louis Williams (I am not comparing LWill to JR, but hear me: The knock on LWill is that he's not a PG so he needs to be a SG...so he's a phenomenally quick, athletic yet undersized SG in the future.... but he's 6'2" [not SO SMALL for a SG...] and AI wasn't exactly the best jump shooter ever...yet he made more than a few 3pointers.... just like LWill...streaky but still a dynamic scorer...and a year younger than JR)... JR Smith is not a a SF..he's a great sized SG at 6'7" but he's not a small forward...

So we have:

Andre Iguodala: A world-class athlete, do-it-all player that CAN play SG and SF... 6'7" and not only a do-it-all player, a potential All-NBA 1st Team defender and a great character guy...

Thad Young: A world-class athlete, also a damn-near-do-it-all player, *could* play SG in the future, if his shot develops (which it will), perfect at SF, even demonstrated more than effective at PF! Apparently he is like the nicest guy you will ever meet and like perfect character/smart too.

Rodney Carney: Yet another world-class athlete, 6'6", CAN play either SG or SF... hasn't been the main man everyone thought he could/would be right away, but he's not exactly old either and hasn't played all that much, has all the potential in the world (at least as much if not more than JR Smith)...

Plus

Louis Williams: Plays PG, Really is a scoring SG ala AI, another world-class athlete, which at 6'2" is nice size for a PG (but he's not a PG, at least certainly not yet) and isn't GREAT size for a SG, but if you make him into an AI clone and give him the scoring guard role, the size didn't stop Allen, did it? ... Again, plenty of potential and plenty young.

SO AFTER ALL THAT, I ask you...

WHY JR Smith?

Frankly I would not want to replace ANY of those above-mentioned 4 players with him. This takes nothing away from JR Smith, who you would be surprised to learn I actually really like and have a thing for in fantasy basketball, but just not for the Sixers...I like those 4 guys we have mentioned above and see absolutely no role for him here.

[is1531]

Sendem, I think you getting confused again. The Suns had one of the biggest scorers off the bench in Eddie Johnson. He made a career out of scoring. Ron Anderson played no defense, but he was a key player for the 76ers for 2 years off the bench

When your coming off the bench, you do not have to be a good defensive player. You just want to add to the lead or maintain the lead. JR Smith gives us a better bench, which is a void on the 76ers right now. Lou Williams and JR Smith guarantees the 76ers have 2 scorers off the bench. This year, the only player off the bench you could count on from the start of the season was Williams.

If fact if the 76ers got lucky on Elton Brand in free agency, that would allow a player like Speights( (if we get him with pick 16) to also come off the bench with Lou and JR to give us more scoring.

Nobody had 5 defensive players on a team on the court at the same time. Mark Aguirre lasted in the league a long time, even won titles with Detroit. Tell me what defense he played. He scored points and let the others play defense. Tell me about the great defense Alex English played or DR J played. Sendem, start usuing your eyes and stop reading all the stats. Watch the game.

[SendEm]

Samson I don't like how you are saying that just because the 6'0" Allen Iverson is able to play SG that the 6'1" Lou Williams can do so as well. You are throwing basketball TECHNIQUE completely out of the window. Due to Iverson's technique, freakishly long arms and HUGE HANDS he is capable of scoring over players of all height in and around the basket with many moves that Lou Williams doesn't have. Lou Williams is a decent young scoring guard (not shooting guard) that played his entire pre NBA life as if he were 6'5" but has had to learn many of the nuances and TECHNIQUES while in the NBA that just came natural to AI, or at least were instilled in AI before Georgetown. You just can't throw technique and skills out of the window. Iverson and Lou Williams both are sports cars but Iverson is a Lamborghini driven by the best race car driver in the world and Lou is a Corvette driven by a pretty decent pro driver. You can't look to get the same performance/results out of the Corvette that the Lamborghini will ultimately produce.
Lou Williams doesn't have that pull up fadeaway jump shot off of the drive that Iverson has. There's just not enough stuff in Lou Williams game to be a NBA SG full time because his height doesn't allow him to be a good enough scorer/shooter with the skill set that he has.Lou Williams is like a running Quarterback. You don't look at Randall Cunningham and say "Boy he would be a terrific runningback." Part of Lou Williams scoring ability is the element of surprise. At SG he loses that element surprise and just looks short. Randell at RB would lose that element of surprise and just look frail.
Iverson didn't need an element of surprise because no one could stop what he was about to do because he had the perfect game for his body offensively. Lou Williams doesn't have the perfect game for his body and that is why he is not a starter in the NBA and didn't start a single game over Willie Green and Rodney Carney.

[SendEm]

Nobody had 5 defensive players on a team on the court at the same time.

2004 Detroit Pistons.

[is1531]

Sendem, at least your weak one sentence return did not force you to paragraph your answers. However, it is time to learn how to use paragraphs. It obvious your not able to go back to far and understand what the role of the 6th man was. It's offense, offense and offense.

Most teams don't have a 6th man stopper like Michael Cooper. Most teams would just be happy having a Travis Outlaw coming off the bench providing instant offense. The instant offense came from the 6th man named John Havilicek, who was proably one of the best 6th men in history. Defensively, he was nothing, but he was a big part of the Celltics championship years in the 60's.

If you told me the Warriors do not need JR Smith, I could undestand, but he 76ers need 3 players from which, 2 players must be scorers. Monte Ellis is on of the best scorers in the game and he makes his share of steals per game. He never hits any trays and his half court defense is terrible. Their is a reason why GS gives up so many points. Monte is part of that reason. Through it all, I cut him slack. You will not cut JR Smith any slack, since you do hate the man.

[SendEm]

Okay so we got that out of the way how WRONG you were about no team having 5 defensive players. I provided a CHAMPIONSHIP team with 5 defensive STARTERS. So now you say that no team wants a defensive player as the sixth man? Well let's go back to that very same 2004 Pistons team where the first playerS off of the bench were defensive minded Antonio Mcdyess and Lindsey Hunter.

Now you also wanted to side track the public's attention away from you being WRONG by interjecting my appreciation of Monta Ellis game who is a NBA starter by comparing him to a NBA bench player? Monta is clearly the better player hands down. I will not entertain this. We should also bring Steve Nash into discussion since he also sucks on defense.

[tanman636]

JR Smith is an amazing athlete and a great shooter. I'm sure if we get him, he would work harder under Mo.

[PhilasFinest]

I wouldnt object to bringing JR here...i think hed be able 2 help us out alot and fits in with the style of play we have...plus would give us that shoote we lack.

this all being said if the price was right and we could possibly move Willie.

[SendEm]

Yes Willie and JR should never be on the same team's bench. We need a starting SG neither of those two players is a NBA starter. Willie Green is a far better defender than JR and less of a distraction to a team than JR has been in his NBA career. Should we somehow get rid of Green to sign JR? That wouldn't make much sense considering that we need a starter at SG and not a swapping of BENCH SG's.
Iggy must be traded for a SG so that Thad can start at SF.

[Samson]

Yo man, your arguments seem to jump around alot, kinda non coherent and ADHD/multiple personality style..., I'm not following you...

Do you take Paxil or something along those lines? If you do then I understand completely, won't say another word...

[LongLiveHinkie]

JR Smith is a punk and I can't stand him.

I'd only take him cheap, and if he were on the Sixers I still wouldn't root for him.

[Kunlun]

Would JR Smith want to come off the bench? He has shown that he has attitude problems everywhere he has gone, would he want to come off the bench in favor of Willie Green?

I would like JR on the team, but I want him starting, he has shown he can score with the best of them. When his defense becomes a problem, put Carney in.

[is1531]

Would JR Smith want to come off the bench? He has shown that he has attitude problems everywhere he has gone, would he want to come off the bench in favor of Willie Green?

I would like JR on the team, but I want him starting, he has shown he can score with the best of them. When his defense becomes a problem, put Carney in.

I have no problem with that. If JR Smith comes here, Willie would probably be dealt anyway. With Carney filling in as the backup 2 guard, it still would give us some size and hopefully Carney will be able to hit trays at a higher percentage than last year.

[jmon]

Nobody had 5 defensive players on a team on the court at the same time.

2004 Detroit Pistons.

Rip Hamilton isn't a defensive player. He is an offensive specialist. I'm not sure where people ever get the idea that Rip can defend. Before he got to Detroit, he couldn't defend. He still can't.

In 2004 they had 4 all world defenders and one below average one that was covered up by the others. Rip is a terrific player though in my opinion and a great fit, but he isn't a "defensive player" by any stretch.