J.R.: Denver's most enigmatic athlete

[mutumba]

You've posed the question to your buddy or to your morning paper or to your television screen, sometimes asked with vociferous anger, other times with stunned bewilderment. "What was J.R. Smith thinking?"

And you've had times when you couldn't wrap your mind around this idea — how the very same player could be so mentally focused, making 3 after 3, and you wondered how he'd do with six guys guarding him, or, even the Celtics' starting five.

Well, make sure you're strapped in, because we're about to embark on a journey that makes roller coasters seem like Sunday drives. We're going . . . inside J.R. Smith's brain.

http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_11421258

The cover of the Sunday Post sports section. I was expecting a little more praise for J.R. because of how well he's been playing lately, but just a bunch of the usual comments about his potential being hampered by his "defensive lapses and decision making." Thoughts?

[Shady08]

Read the newspaper this morning, interesting article...

[pickaxe]

It was a thoughtful article. Not praise or really ripping him apart, just pointing a bunch of stuff out.

What we can get from J.R.'s latest performance is his FT% is still suffering and it seems that is priority #1. We know when he shows up with energy and is focused, as of late, he has been playing the best basketball moments of his career thus far.

But.....as you can see, in a critical moment at the end of the game his FT% effort came back to bite not only him but his team. Actually, it doesn't bite him because he was all ready at 67% ft.

I'm happy with J.R., but it's the same thing with any player, we want to see consistency.

[corona]

tmac's been a shoddy free throw shooter (as far as great scorers are concerned) his entire career. last year he shot 68%. he's under 75% on his career. and he still has one of the best single season PERs in nba history. that doesn't concern me nearly as much as some of his shot selection (basically not going inside enough), questionable turnovers and getting caught up in pick and rolls. but when you're one of the best per-minute scores in the league (and statistically a pretty darn efficient one)...you gotta be allowed some heat checks. and considering we switch 95% of p&r situations anyway...i don't get the complaint about not fighting through them.

jr with his faults > ac and jones playing at their peaks.

[Shady08]

jr with his faults > ac and jones playing at their peaks.

/thread

[pickaxe]

The heat checks are necessary, and J.R. does need to drive inside soon after finding out he may be a little cold shooting. Part of driving is getting to the foul line....

Well, the only part about that which is concerning is we know J.R. can shoot better from the line. Last season he ended up 128-178, which is o.k., but to shoot 75% all he had to do is make 5 more free throws......you can't tell me J.R. shouldn't be finding some way to maintain his focus in a game, maybe find it at the line, and make ~5 more free throws by end of season.

Now this season he is on pace to shoot the highest number of free throws in his career. He has got to be ready for that fact if he is to be a big factor in the offense. Would I trade Jones/Carter for J.R. 75% free throws? Maybe.

Besides, teams are just going to foul J.R. late in the season if they know he doesn't take the line seriously. And then we are really going to be disappointed.

So, J.R. only has to shoot free throws at the level he did in N.O. the rest of the year to get back up to 75% - 80 for 98 which is 82%, and if he does 74 for 98 that by itself is 75% for the rest of the season.

If he drove more like he needs to or improved his shot selection or did any of those things his free throws might get less scrutiny. Look at his FG% during the games where he struggles from the line, he's shooting really poorly overall in those same games.

Anyway, I think if he fixes free throws the other things will come.

[pickaxe]

Plus considering Carter and Jones combined career FT%, JR would have another argument for getting the minutes late in games.