Digital Hate Machine

Josh Smith Article March 6, 2009

For those of you who don’t know me personally (probably no one reading this), Josh Smith is my favorite player in the league. I’ve followed him since his senior season at Oak Hill Academy, and I started following the Hawks soon after they drafted him in 2004. He soon became my favorite player in the league because of his athleticism (best or second best all around athlete in the league), his shot blocking (potential to be the greatest non-center shot blocker in NBA history) and his horrible decision making (just mind boggling). I’ve always been drawn to players and teams like this; loads of potential with obvious shortcomings. I love watching young players try to figure it out, and Josh is the most fascinating of them all. His ceiling is so high, but his problems, like his decision making and occasional lack of effort, is also very pronounced. But for the most part, I’ve been treated to a steady progression of improvement by Josh since his rookie season, capping with a borderline All-Star last year along with some highlight reel plays during the Hawks surprising run against the Celtics in the playoffs.

This year, however, has been a regression, to say the least. Josh started off fine, but then dinged his ankle early in the year, causing him to miss some time. He came back a little shaky, with his shot blocking taking the most noticeable dive. I didn’t think too much of it, his ankle was probably still bugging him and maybe he wasn’t too confident taking off on it. Things never turned around on that front, and he’s dropped off in basically every category but steals. The most bizarre thing has been his Shaq-like free throw shooting; a career 70% shooter suddenly dropping to 55% (including a recent stint where he missed 10 in a row). He looks like a shell of his former self, at least if you only looked at box scores.

I live in Southern California, so I very rarely get a chance to watch him play live. I watched both times the Hawks visited the L.A. teams (both at the actual game), along with the recent Cavs game on ESPN. And after watching these games, I can say that a lot (not all) of Smith’s decline can be attributed to the way he is used by head coach Mike Woodson. Most of Atlanta’s offense is run through Joe Johnson in the post; Josh is often left sitting in the weak side corner for a pass in case Joe gets doubled. This does two bad things. First, it takes Josh out of the post, where he is at his most effective. Second, it puts him in a position to hoist low percentage jumpers, since he’s often catching the ball wide open outside. While some of the pressure to should be on Josh to turn these shots down, I think more pressure is on the coach to not put his players in low percentage situations. On top of that, it takes Josh away from working the offensive glass.

Also, Josh is probably only behind LeBron in terms of finishing in transition. The Hawks also have Mike Bibby, who’s great at throwing passes on the run or shooting jumpers on the move. Joe Johnson, Al Horford and Marvin Williams are all above average athletes at their positions. So how do we take advantage of this unit? How about by playing at the 22^nd fastest pace in the league (according to Hollinger’s Pace statistic). Atlanta basically walks the ball up, and I saw them turn down numerous running opportunities in the games I saw.

Mike Woodson was an assistant on the championship Detroit team a few years back, that’s how he landed his gig in Atlanta. His system is very similar to the one run in Detroit. The thing is that Pistons team had multiple effective post-up guards (Billups and Hamilton) and a big man who can space the floor with his shooting in Rasheed Wallace. This is another example of the stuff I talked about a few articles ago, about finding talent that matches a system or vice versa. The worst instances of coaching are forcing a structure on players who aren’t capable of playing in it. It cost Terry Porter his job (although the blame isn’t exclusively his) and should cost Woodson his at some point. However, since Atlanta is a young team and young teams have a habit of getting better, Atlanta has won more games each year since Woodon started coaching (not that win totals of 13, 26, 30, and 37 are the most dramatic improvement ever seen) there is really no risk of Woodson going anywhere. And until that happens, or he adjusts, Josh will likely continue to play below his ability.

A lot of this will come off as making excuses for Josh. That’s probably part of that, and I will admit that his lack of effort frustrated me at times against the Lakers and Cavs. However, the larger issue remains. Players play certain ways, and it’s up to coaches to find the most effective ways to use their players given how they are most effective. And walking the ball up and shipping him to the weak side corner like he’s Bruce Bowen doesn’t cut it. I guess the best I can hope for is an off-season trade to the Golden State Warriors (Andris Biedrins? How about Corey Maggette and Brandon Wright?) so Don Nelson can show the world what Josh can do.