Hawks buzzard Josh Smith has famously wasted quite a few Atlanta possessions over the years by taking ill-advised three-pointers. That phraseology is actually redundant when it comes to Smith: it would be considered ill to ever advise Smith to take a three.Thankfully, someone showed Josh the light, and he hasn't attempted a trey all season. He convinces when he tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he hasn't even felt tempted to fire up a bomb. He found Basketball Jesus! Like a good son of the word, he should spread his experience. Which players would most benefit from a Brother Smith knock at the door?
Monta Ellis, G, Golden State. Ellis has a career three-point shooting mark of 29.1 percent. He has slowed his outside trigger this year, but averages 1.3 three attempts per game over his career.
Anthony Carter, PG, Denver. You may be interested to learn that Carter, who seems to fancy himself a designated gunner at times in Denver, has a career 23.9 percent mark from downtown. He took 217 threes over the previous two seasons, and hit only 66. Not a good look.
Gerald Wallace, F, Charlotte. Smith's kindred spirit has certainly backed off trey-shooting heights reached under Sam Vincent, but one three for Crash is one three too many. Incidentally, Wallace has hit exactly one three this year ... in 10 attempts.
And finally, Dwyane Wade, SG, Miami. Maybe it's sacrilege to suggest a superstar should abandon a shot as part-and-parcel to basketball as the three-point basket, but let me burn, brothers.
Wade is never going to learn how to consistently hit a three-pointer. He's a career 28.1 percent deep shooter, and last season he hit his peak of ... 31.7 percent. For a guy who gets to the rim at will, draws an unbelievable amount of fouls and hits two-pointers at an above-average rate, he needs to let the three go. (Of course, I write that after a game in which Wade hit three of six. C'est la vie.)
If Wade needs to pace himself on pace, there are better ways to use the rest possessions than by firing up threes. Like, almost anything short of handing the ball to the other team would be better. (That's only a small exaggeration.)
I never thought I'd be advising Dwyane Wade to take a page from Josh Smith's book, but there you go.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
I'm blown away that you included Monta Ellis but failed to mention his teammate Corey Maggette. His 3-point attempts should be counted as turnovers.
Uhh, Andre Miller?
wut about b diddy
I strongly disagree about Wade and Monta. Maybe they should tune down those threes, but they cannot eliminate them completely. Why? The very principle of blowing by your defender on the perimeter is that you establish a triple threat first. Otherwise, every defender stands back half a meter, which will give him just enough time to stop the penetration.