The +New York Knicks' JR Smith is the reigning NBA 6th Man of the Year, but was recently suspended 5 games this upcoming season for smoking marijuana! Is a he Superstar 6th Man or Not Worth the Trouble? He's certainly not superstar material, that's for sure in my opinion. He had a great season last year, but I doubt he will do it again next season. Remember he did not have a healthy +Amare Stoudemire, an Andrea Bargnarni, or a +Metta World Peace playing with him.
At best, I agree with JR in saying that at best he is a solid sixth man and not a very efficient one at that. Last season, out of nearly 16 shot attempts, which was second behind +Carmelo Anthony, Smith hit just 6.6 of them and that was not not even consistent to say the least. He started the season shooting a decent .438 for the month of November, then his touch tanked down to .385 for the next two months while he was jacking up 16 to 17 shot attempts per game. Once February arrived, Smith's seemed to have had found his shooting touch as he finished the season strong hitting .452 from the field. Nonetheless, his wayward shooting certainly shows that JR Smith is certainly that reliable of an offensive option and not really that deserving of that Sixth Man of the Year Award he received.
Lets not forget his absolutely terrible performance in the playoffs where he shot an abysmal .331 from the field off of 15 shot attempts per game. It only went on to prove how over-inflated and overrated the public perception of JR Smith really was and exposed him for the ball chucker that he really was. In fact one can go as far to say that much of New York's troubles in the playoffs which led them into falling in the second round against the +Indiana Pacers had to do with JR's poor shot selection. Unfortunately, as it was the case with the Knicks, there was really no one else who the team could look for offense which put the team in a Catch 22 situation. They were damned if they allowed Smith to shoot his team out of the game and they were damned if they did not because there was no one else to shoulder the offensive load to take the pressure off of Anthony.
Nonetheless, the Knicks still managed to retain his services at a rather reasonable price of 16$ million for three years, but that may have been thanks to Smith needing knee surgery in the summer which diminished his already inflated value. So is JR worth all the trouble? I would say so considering his contract is pretty reasonable that the Knicks can easily trade if ever things do not work out; however in the terms of him being caught smoking weed, I personally believe that is unacceptable. A man pushing 30 should have grown out of doing such juvenile things as smoking weed--especially at this point in his career--and it is foolishness like that that nobody can take this guy seriously as an elite level player.
So that's my take. What's yours? I'd love to see what your comments will be. You can always catch JR and his briefs right here on +Slap Dog Hoops. Hope you got all got all your inoculations and vaccines, JR, because India is not exactly known for its hygiene. Not even Indian New Yorkers wanna go back there--you know what I mean?
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