(Boulder-CO) According to this article on www.espn.com, J.R. Smith is going to be benched by Coach George Karl for not following what was a designed play for either Carmelo Anthony or Allen Iverson with 25 seconds remaining in game four. George Karl said, “I just love the dignity of the game being insulted right in front of me”, in a statement regarding Smith’s two three-point attempts with the second being from nearly 45 feet from the goal.
My opinion is that J.R. Smith, despite making huge strides this year both in maturity and basketball IQ, is still not a player that understands what, how, and when to do certain things on the basketball court. Honest mistakes aside and forgiven, I still feel that his half-assed backwards pass was a turning point not only in game three, but also in the series, and that since his defense has been, shall we say, lacking the decision to pull Smith’s minutes is warranted.
An interesting side note is J.R. Smith is 0-12 from downtown this postseason.
7 comments:
Id bench him too.
I always feel he is going for a really big game. Like one of those 25+ performances he had in the beginning of the season but he cant find his touch since the brawl and injury and so his style of play doesn't match his abilities right now. Maybe sitting him down changes his attitude from 'hardly trying to score big' to 'hardly working to earn back his minutes'.
I must admit I had not understood why JR Smith took all those Crunch time shots. Plus it is not the first, he also did that in game 3 and maybe 2. I'm just not being confindent with the offensive rythm. I am still waiting for Iverson's big game and hopefuly it will come tonight but still he needs to give the ball to Melo, I mean he's constently taking less shots and scoring more than AI. Looking at the last game, I just pictured a play the Nuggets should play. let me describe you that one: Melo would be working with his back to the basket on the right wing coming closer to the paint and Iverson would be on the Three point line on that same side, doing this they could not double AI because the SPurs would already double Melo. So basically, Bowen would guard Melo, Duncan would have to be coming to help which would leave Nene alone in the paint. If it was Prker who would come to help then Iverson would have an open Three and he ould hit it (have you noticed how he hasn't had any open 3 in the Series?) And if that didn't work, well Melo could have shot it or AI would have drove inside and dish it out because there would have been 4 Spurs trying to guard the paint at that moment which would leave omeone open on the left wing 3 point line. (thought it would ne JR but since he won't play...)
Anyway, this is probably a shitty play but it's just that I git tired of seeing AI waiting for 10 seconds to take a poor shot without doing any pass. Coach I'm sure you can come up with something better than that, so please show me tonight..
Go nuggets,
By the way, congrats for your blog. I'm a sixers fan who has tended to cheer for the Nuggets this season since... well you know why. and I've heard of your blog through SLAM website. So anyway, Keep it up, doc. I feel like Iverson and Melo will score 70 tonight.
I like the move by Karl. It's like any profession, don't follow instructions and perform well, you get pulled from primetime. Nuggets take game 5, JR comes back to play in 6 (and seven, think positive here).
I don't appreciate how Karl went about announcing it. JR is a young kid, and while he's had highs and lows this year I don't think he deserved this. I think this will either really hurt his confidence (as if it could be hurt any more after the first 4 games) or really put him in a defiant mood.
Regardless, the team is coming together tonight and we're going back to Denver for game 6. No doubt about it.
And 'thomasgenty', as a former Sixer fan...just accept the fact you have a new fav team and climb aboard! It's much easier on the soul lol
I hate that he did this so publicly (well, I hate that he did it period, because JR's the homie). If you really want to damage a guy's psyche (especially a young, very streaky player), that's exactly the way to do it. George has no idea how to handle things like this -- keep the shit to yourself and deal with it at a team meeting. Going to the media and issuing some proclamation about him being "done" is irresponsible and rude. Hire Adrian Dantley! Haha, for real though, AD's lineups were much better and he was actually showing some life on the bench during the game he coached.
I want to see Carter get some of JR's minutes, actually -- I think we should try running him at PG for a stretch and see how he does. From what I've seen, he can hit the outside shot, so it's worth a try. Or get some Von Wafer action -- that guy's a very good shooter and he hasn't even played yet. At this point in the series, George should activate everyone (except JR I guess) and see who can do something. Hopefully Reggie is back also.
I really hope they don't lose their minds and trade JR away or something. You can't just give up on that kind of potential (especially for a cheap price) -- and he and Melo are good friends, so we'd be throwing away some good team chemistry...
I don't think they'll completely get rid of JR. Remember before the suspension and injury JR was ballin outta control. He just needs to get back into his rhythm and such. Unfortunately that probably won't happen until next year.
By the way, Barkley (and Kenny) killed it with his thoughts about the JR situation. It was a bullshit move by George, and I'm glad Chuck called him on it. They were spot-on about the way George handling the situation might put the whole team's psyche at risk because their coach didn't hesitate to throw a player (who's played great for stretches and never shown a lack of enthusiasm) under the bus. It's just unnecessary, and I really hope George doesn't do it with anyone else.
And yeah, I don't really think they'll get rid of JR, but if George had his way, I think they would. He's been super termermental with him all season long, and it finally boiled over. But he's our only real firepower off the bench (minus whoever ends up on the bench when K-Mart is healthy), he's cheap, and he's full of potential... So the organization would be stupid to get rid of him.
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