Josh Smith - Videos

[slinslin]

http://www.zonabasket.com/hospitalet/videos.php

This guy can definately finish. Between the legs, reverse, tomahawk.

Smith is quite simply a freak of nature. There are few that have the NBA skills that he naturally possesses at this moment. Smith is a “run and jump” type of player. He really improved his game over the summer of 2002. At the adidas ABCD camp, he made the coveted top 20 participants list. He also made the all tournament team at the adidas Big Time Tournament.....Smith showed his ability to step outside and hit a consistent three point shot as well as developing a nice mid range shot. If Smith can develop a slashing move, a nice back door cut and a decent handle, we could be looking at a very, very good swingman.....He loves to play above the rim. Sometimes he gets caught up in trying to please the crowd or dunking on every possession. He plays in the paint on his high school team, which should help him continue to work on rebounding.....Mentally he still needs to progress. He is still learning the game. But only a junior, he has plenty of time.

-Justin Young

Strengths: A sweet shooting lefty combo forward. Josh is an excellent shooter with very good ball handling skills. He can shoot the lights out from down town or take the ball to the hole for a huge dunk. His ability to play more than one position provides nightmares for opposing players and coaches...Loves to back in smaller players and either slash to the basket or kick it out to a perimeter player. He is a very good shot blocker for his height and a good on the ball defender. His unbelievable shooting touch is what separates him from the rest of the pack. A special talent.

Weaknesses: Sometimes struggles playing against bigger opponents…Although a proficient rebounder he needs to work on his positioning...Has a tendency to rely on his jumper too much and not take the ball to basket as often as he should...Been known to get down on himself when having an off night

Notes: A potential star in the making. Smith has what it takes to make it in the league.

Lefties are always nice to have in the NBA.

6'8 220lbs what nbadraft.net lists him. He is #42 and in the longer videos he looks pretty tall, taller than 6'8 but that is tough to judge since the players are all still growing.

But he doesn't really look shorter than any others on his team and Oak Hill is by far the best high school basketball program in the country.

Based on this Josh Smith might be a "safe" pick if you go for a high schooler.
Amare played some at Oak Hill I think, Carmelo of course, Jerry Stackhouse, Desagana Diop and a lot others I think.

 

[George O'Brien]

nbadraft.com has him listed as their third choice after Howard and Okafor. HoopsHype ranks him 6th.

I'm not wildly enthusiastic about taking HS players, even ones with this kind of talent. I'd be more likely to go for Warrick (similar size) because he has more experience and has proven himself in the NCAA Championship to be a clutch player.

 

[capologist]

Holy crumpets... a high school team beat CSKA Moscow and Real Madrid by 29 and 16 points, respectively? A high school team?

I guess that answers any questions about the quality of European basketball.

 

[slinslin]

Obviously it were there youth teams, Otherwise it would probably be a good idea to draft their entire highschool team.

Smith looks like the definate #3 pick. We are top 5 based on record and if we were to end up at #3, Smith is the most talented player available and the Suns shouldn't pass up on him.

We need depth everywhere although much more in the frontcourt which can still be adressed later in the draft and in the offseason with the money we can spend or trades.

 

[George O'Brien]

Originally posted by slinslin
Smith looks like the definate #3 pick. We are top 5 based on record and if we were to end up at #3, Smith is the most talented player available and the Suns shouldn't pass up on him.

We need depth everywhere although much more in the frontcourt which can still be adressed later in the draft and in the offseason with the money we can spend or trades.

Actually the Suns are currently at #6 because the Bobcats get #4.

If Smith is really as good a shooter as the scouting report suggests, he might get some minutes.

 

[slinslin]

We have one of the worst 5 records in the league right now and we are talking about the lottery.

There is a decent chance we wind up with a top 3 pick.

I don't think any NBA team that had the worst record in the league ended up with the #1 pick so far unless Cleveland had the worst record last year.

The Hawks could catch us. We won only 1 of the last 10 games. Gilbert Arenas is back for the Wizards, they could catch us.

The only teams too bad to catch us are probably the Bulls and Magic.

 

[elindholm]

I don't think any NBA team that had the worst record in the league ended up with the #1 pick so far unless Cleveland had the worst record last year.

Cleveland was tied for the worst record last year.

Still, that's irrelevant. The team with the worst record has the best chance of winning the lottery, regardless of what has happened in the past.

 

[capologist]

The probability of the team with the fifth-worst record getting one of the top three picks is 29.5%. Details are here.

[Note: The 2004 lottery has a very slight difference from the table in that 1999 post. Charlotte gets the fourth pick, no matter how the ping-pong balls turns out. So just insert a blank column between column 3 and column 4 to get a table describing the 2004 lottery. Also note that any ties in win-loss records may change the probabilities.]

You know, I had forgotten, but we kind of got screwed in the ’99 lottery. We had a 74% chance of a top-seven pick, and a 98.3% chance of a top-eight pick, but we ended up with #9. Well, I guess it all worked out. It’s not like we would have been better off with Rip Hamilton or Andre Miller instead of Shawn Marion.

Also, it’s incredible how badly the Grizzlies screwed up. They had the option of conveying their pick to the Pistons. Instead they drafted Steve Francis, who didn’t want to play for them, traded Francis for garbage, and then had to give the Pistons the #2 overall pick in the 2003 draft.

This has to be one of the worst sequences of management decisions in the history of the NBA. In 1997, the Grizzlies trade a future first-round pick to Detroit for Otis Thorpe. Thorpe plays 47 games for the Grizzlies in the 1997-98 season, contributing a total of 528 points and 371 rebounds. In 1998, they trade Thorpe for Michael Smith and Bobby Hurley. In 1999, instead of conveying the pick to Detroit, they draft Steve Francis, and trade him for junk. Eventually they end up having to give Detroit the #2 overall pick in the 2003 draft.

 

[slinslin]

Here is another Josh Smith video
http://homepage.mac.com/digitalhoops/Pages/Josh_Smith.html


Did anyone see Dwight Howard vs Sebastian Telfair yesterday or Saturday?

Telfair had 30 points but got hurt in the 3rd quarter, came back later to hit a game-winning 3 as time expired.

Howard was in foul trouble from what I heard and finished with 22 points 14 rebounds and 4 blocks.

 

[George O'Brien]

Originally posted by slinslin
Here is another Josh Smith video
http://homepage.mac.com/digitalhoops/Pages/Josh_Smith.html
Did anyone see Dwight Howard vs Sebastian Telfair yesterday or Saturday?

Telfair had 30 points but got hurt in the 3rd quarter, came back later to hit a game-winning 3 as time expired.

Howard was in foul trouble from what I heard and finished with 22 points 14 rebounds and 4 blocks.

I take these all star games with a grain of salt. It is almost impossible to play good team defense and all the players are only HS stars. Telfair may become a great player, but unless he has grown from his listed 160 pounds, I think he would struggle in the NBA for a few years.

Give him a couple of years of college to mature physically and learn to play against bigger players. Then he could be a top 5 pick. This year, he is likely to do no better than middle 1st round and could slip further if a lot of college guys come out.

 

[slinslin]

Here is another Josh Smith video from a dunk contest.

http://testing.iolani.honolulu.hi.us/iclassic/data/movies/2003-DunkContest-large.mov

He is not lacking athleticism that is for sure.

 

[George O'Brien]

Originally posted by slinslin
Here is another Josh Smith video from a dunk contest.

http://testing.iolani.honolulu.hi.us/iclassic/data/movies/2003-DunkContest-large.mov

He is not lacking athleticism that is for sure.

I have not seen him play, but Smith has been rising in the various draft polls. A lot will depend on his outside shooting because the other SF/SG swing players coming out of the draft are not terrific shooters.

 

[Joe Mama]

Originally posted by George O'Brien
I have not seen him play, but Smith has been rising in the various draft polls. A lot will depend on his outside shooting because the other SF/SG swing players coming out of the draft are not terrific shooters.

I think I read that he has supposedly become a much better shooter over the last year. In fact I thought I read somewhere that he is actually a very good shooter.

Joe Mama

 

[George O'Brien]

Originally posted by Joe Mama
I think I read that he has supposedly become a much better shooter over the last year. In fact I thought I read somewhere that he is actually a very good shooter.

Joe Mama

That is why I am so intrigued by him. But not every supposedly good shooter turns out that way, so he will require extensive testing.

The only position I cannot see the Suns drafting for would be PG. At this point, Smith could be a serious BPA pick at #5.

 

[slinslin]

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Creating his own shot off the dribble right now seems to be the biggest knock on Smith but he is 18yrs old so what else do you expect.

The video of that dunk was pretty impressive because it is not like he is thin as a rail and can jump, he is well built it looks like and jumps that high.

A windmill dunk over a basketball rack from a step within the freethrow line is impressive.

 

[slinslin]

With the latest rumors saying that Josh is on top of our board right now I bump this tread for everyone who wants to know more about him.

 

[Yuma]

http://www.zonabasket.com/hospitalet/videos.php

This guy can definately finish. Between the legs, reverse, tomahawk.



Lefties are always nice to have in the NBA.

6'8 220lbs what nbadraft.net lists him. He is #42 and in the longer videos he looks pretty tall, taller than 6'8 but that is tough to judge since the players are all still growing.

But he doesn't really look shorter than any others on his team and Oak Hill is by far the best high school basketball program in the country.

Based on this Josh Smith might be a "safe" pick if you go for a high schooler.
Amare played some at Oak Hill I think, Carmelo of course, Jerry Stackhouse, Desagana Diop and a lot others I think.

I tried everything to get a video to play. I left clicked and right clicked on the whole page and nothing! Is there a trick to getting the videos to play?

 

[slinslin]

Seems like those videos are not online anymore.

 

[George O'Brien]

This thread is certainly a blast from the past.

It is funny reading the old posts. I wasn't andy more enthusiastic then about him than I am now. If it were a choice between Josh Smith and Iggy, I'd take Iggy any time. Iggy is a proven defender who averaged 5 assists per game. Iggy is supposed to have a good "handle" and goes to basket well and is considered to be very athletic. What does Josh Smith offer Iggy doesn't, besides being two inches taller?

 

[slinslin]

http://draftcity.com/articles/0030.htm

What does Josh offer that Iggy doesn't? More youth.

The better question is who would be better if Josh had played 2 years at Arizona already nad how quickly would he have develloped?

 

[George O'Brien]

http://draftcity.com/articles/0030.htm

What does Josh offer that Iggy doesn't? More youth.

The better question is who would be better if Josh had played 2 years at Arizona already nad how quickly would he have develloped?

And your point is?

Let's be clear. My prioritiy is someone who can contribute this season, become a rotation player the next and have an impact when the Suns make a push. I don't want guys guys who offer more promise than proven skills.

If the Suns decide that Biedrins is not ready to produce, then I would agree with passing on him even if he has great upside. I'm really consistent about my priorities:

1. The guy has to play defense.
2. The guy has to be ready to contribute his rookie year.
3. The guys has to play defense.
4. The guys needs to be athletic
5. The guy has to play defense

I don't believe any HS player can play defense. Amare was one of the few who was ready to enter the NBA and he is still very weak on defense. I'm not convinced that LeBron is adequate on defense and he is better than almost any current HS player from that perspective.

 

[Joe Mama]

What does Josh Smith offer Iggy doesn't, besides being two inches taller?

I'll admit I have not seen much of Josh Smith... only the two All-Star games. However if I had to go just off of what I've actually seen I would say Smith is a better shooter, especially around the three-point line. Right now he's 2 inches taller. He is also probably a little more athletic if that's possible.

Josh Smith is one of those guys we talk about where we would just have to trust the Phoenix Suns to make the right decision. I think it's fair to say that none of us have seen enough to give a fair evaluation.

Joe Mama

 

[PhiLLmattiC]

I can do that

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

i think expecting a rookie to contribute is a pipe dream in this day and age. i am big proponent of drafting the player with the biggest upside. even if it takes him three years to develop this team is young, and in three years will be hitting its stride big time. drafting a player to play now who doesn't have a big upside is folly and will only keep the mediocrity continuing.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

This thread is certainly a blast from the past.

If it were a choice between Josh Smith and Iggy, I'd take Iggy any time. Iggy is a proven defender who averaged 5 assists per game. Iggy is supposed to have a good "handle" and goes to basket well and is considered to be very athletic. What does Josh Smith offer Iggy doesn't, besides being two inches taller?

Have you seen Igoudala play? A proven defender? Ask Luke Jackson and his nonstop scoring barrage on Igoudala in Eugene. or Desmon Farmer lighting him up in LA. Dre wasn't even the best defender on a team that gave up way too many points. People always say Dre is a good defender but he never was in college (although he has the athleticism to be a great defender and a perennial All-Star).