Atlanta Hawks: Is Josh Smith an All-Star?
Hawks forward Josh Smith has never been named to an NBA All-Star team despite impressive career numbers. CURTIS COMPTON/ccompton@ajc.com
Vivlamore reporting.
Is Josh Smith an All-Star?
Despite all-around career statistics few in NBA history have reached, the Hawks forward has never been chosen for the All-Star Game. He has not been voted in by fans, selected by coaches nor named a replacement by the league.
Through his eight-plus year career, Smith is on the verge of becoming just the 24th player in NBA history to reach the milestones of 10,000 points, 5,000 rebounds, 2,000 assists and 1,000 blocks. The 23 players who reached those marks, including nine Hall of Famers, combined to appear in 184 All-Star Games. Only one, Mychal Thompson, never made an all-star appearance.
In Smith’s 624 career games, he has averaged 15.1 points, 8.0 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 2.2 blocks and 1.3 steals. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he is the only player in league history with career averages over 15.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 2.0 blocks and 1.0 steals.
Steve Smith, the former Hawks player and broadcaster and current analyst for NBA TV, said Smith being left off the All-Star team is a “travesty.”
In a series of interviews with NBA executives, coaches, players, analysts and support personnel, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution examined the question of why Smith has never represented the Eastern Conference in the midseason exhibition featuring basketball’s top players. The inquiry revealed a number of possible reasons - some of Smith’s own doing, some out if his control.
Smith doesn’t figure to be voted in by the fans as a starter. He is competing at forward with the likes of LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, Chris Bosh and now Carmelo Anthony – all high-profile, high-scoring fan favorites. James has been a starter for all eight games that Smith has been in the league taking away one spot. He and Garnett were the starting forwards for three straight years (2008-10). With the Knicks adding Amar’e Stoudemire and Anthony from the Western Conference, starters with James the past two years, the competition for votes is tougher than ever for a player who has never selected.
In the first balloting results released by the league, Smith is eighth among front-court players with 69,344 votes. He trails the leader James by 572,000 votes and is just ahead of the Sixers’ Andrew Bynum, who hasn’t played a game this season.
Coaches, who name the All-Star reserves, have ignored Smith. One reason could be the early-career reputation that Smith developed especially playing under then-Hawks coach Mike Woodson. While other players had run-ins with Woodson, several of Smith’s were highly-publicized.
Coaches may also be influenced by some of Smith’s on-court reaction to officiating. Smith’s scowl and sometimes overt actions certainly look bad. Many of the head men from the early part of Smith’s career are still in the league with the same or different teams in NBA’s often-limited coaching carousel.
“He has the ability,” said Heat coach Eric Spoelstra, who noted he was unaware Smith has never been an All-Star. “He has the production. He’s been successful enough to have been an All-Star at some point.”
The league had two prime opportunities to name Smith a replacement and passed. David Lee was named in 2010 and Rajon Rondo was named in 2012. Lee, a forward, was named to replace guard Allen Iverson. Last season is the most troubling for the Hawks and Smith’s camp. When the Hawks’ lone representative Joe Johnson pulled out of the game with left knee tendonitis, the Commissioner David Stern opted for Rondo, a guard, instead of another Atlanta player.
Johnson’s career in Atlanta also hurt Smith. The guard made six straight All-Star games as a Hawk. When center Al Horford was named to the team in 2010 and 2011, before missing the game with an injury last season, the Hawks were unlikely to have three representatives.
“In the past year’s I’ve put up All-Star quality numbers,” Smith said. “I always seem to fall short. I think it impacts the people around me more so than me like my parents, my family, my friends. They feel like I’m deserving of that opportunity at least once or twice in my career. They see the things that people normally don’t see. They see the offseason workouts. All the energy I put into that in order to be a better person, be a better player. They see all the ups and downs of the season. They experience all that. They understand. They see me and they see all the struggles. They want it more. I definitely want it. I definitely want it, don’t get me wrong. I want to do it for them.”
The Hawks style of play in recent years was suggested as something that works against Smith. The offense was looked at as a half-court system that promotes isolation plays, mostly running through Johnson. With the trade of Johnson, the Hawks are emphasizing an up-tempo style.
While the Hawks have made the playoffs the past five seasons, their failure to get past the second round could also have affected Smith’s selection. National attention comes with deep postseason runs.
While Smith puts up impressive numbers in several statistical categories, not everything the forward does appears in a boxscore. Smith can guard several positions and he influences many opposing shots as a help defender.
Over the course of this career, Smith’s numbers tend to get better as the season progresses. Each year, from November to April, Smith’s monthly-averages in points and rebounds per game get better with just a few exceptions. All-Star voting and selections occur in the first three months of the season.
One statistic that works against Smith is his shooting percentage. For a player who excels around the rim, Smith’s jump shooting adversely affects his numbers. He has shot over 50 percent from the field only once in his career (2009-10). An ill-timed jump shot can be accentuated by the ensuing groans from fans after a miss. For his career, Smith is shooting 28.3 percent (221 of 782) from 3-point range.
Smith, who jumped directly from high school to the NBA, has been a regular starter throughout his career. It has taken time for the 26-year old to mature into the player he is today from a basketball sense. A case can be made that only Smith’s statistics the past two seasons are All-Star quality.
“I always say you have to do it twice,” TNT analyst Kenny Smith said. “I say 8 out of 10 guys have to do it twice. He’s in that 8 out of 10. Having one great year followed by another great first half of a year. I think that he’s done that this year so he’ll be on.”
The starters for this season’s All-Star game, to be played Feb. 17 in Houston, will be announced Jan. 17. The naming of the reserves by coaches will follow in several weeks.
For Smith, the wait continues.
- Chris Vivlamore
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167 comments Add your comment
High-sider
December 26th, 2012
4:31 pm
Slimjr,
I’ll let you “chalk up” that Knicks’ loss (yesterday to the Lakers) to the fluorescent (orange) unis. (LOL) You don’t have to worry about ‘Melo; he has a “track record” of “bringin’ it” in clutch situations (e.g., 2003 NCAA Tournament Championship Game vs. the Kansas Jayhawks).
SteveW
December 26th, 2012
4:32 pm
I’d sign Monta in a heartbeat to a reasonable contract, def. liabilities and all. He’s a scorer in a scorer’s League, and somebody has to put the ball in the bucket sometime.
SteveW
December 26th, 2012
4:36 pm
‘Melo, off season tournament = no pot belly and nagging injuries = MVP
Melo looks so much more in shape than last season. What an offensive BB player.
DF maybe is just waiting for a good deal on a SF. Gotta get 1 or 2, or else go big and move Josh down.
Slimjr
December 26th, 2012
4:37 pm
Swingman912, agreed.
So what does Danny have up his sleeve besides a ton of cap space? Guess we will find out this summer?
Slimjr
December 26th, 2012
4:39 pm
True H-s, thanks for that reminder..it’s been 9, almost 10 years already? Wow!
High-sider
December 26th, 2012
4:45 pm
SteveW,
David Lee made the 2010 (Eastern Conference) All-Star team while playing for the Knicks. The Knicks finished the 2009 – 2010 regular season with a record of 29 – 53.
Love’s and Griffin’s first (Western Conference) All-Star appearances occurred while both players were playing on “losing teams” (if I’m not mistaken).
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/l/leeda02.html
O'Brien
December 26th, 2012
4:45 pm
Another SF I would have taken a chance on (in addition to Matt barnes) is Pietrus, who ended up signing with the Raptors, for $1.2 mil, and is playing 20+ minutes per game for them. He is not the defender he once was, but he is a legit SF, and has to be better than Tolliver.
Rod from College Park
December 26th, 2012
4:45 pm
“Dont know where those all stars are gonna come from…”
And that is the problem. Unless we can get Dwight after this year, and that is only if his back is better than it has been so far, there will be no stars. No way Chris Paul leaves LA witth all those weapons. We will have to win another way, which will require putting together a number of second tier stars to win. Ferry has his work cut out for him.
Rod from College Park
December 26th, 2012
4:52 pm
“Another SF I would have taken a chance on (in addition to Matt barnes) is Pietrus, who ended up signing with the Raptors, for $1.2 mil, and is playing 20+ minutes per game for them. He is not the defender he once was, but he is a legit SF, and has to be better than Tolliver.”
In the overall scheme of things he is better than Korver. The reason I say that is that he is a good 3 point shooter when left alone, and he is a top notch defender. He is not a better shooter than Korver, but he brings many other things to the table. Plus he can man up on some of the top scorers in the game and do an above average job, ask Joe Johnson.
vava74
December 26th, 2012
5:02 pm
High-sider:
“Maybe, Jamal recognized “the writing on the wall” and decided not “to give it his all” and “tank it” after Game 1 since he knew he wasn’t coming back to (the) Atlanta (Hawks) and after being “slapped in the face” with the re-signings of Joe Johnson and Al Horford during his tenure with the Hawks coupled with the fact(s) that the Hawks traded its 2010 first round pick for another 2010 first round pick which happened to be another shooting guard (Jordan Crawford)…”
Whoooaaa!!!
The level of delusion is rampant. So if what you say to “excuse” Jamal’s disappearing act was true, you would basically sanctioning and endorsing an unprofessional and douchebagish behaviour!!
And you call yourself a Hawks’ fan ?? Get the f@ck out of here and back deep into Jamal’s jock.
As for Jamal’s career… My goodness… Am I supposed to be impressed with the fact that he averaged 20ppg for lottery teams whilst shooting .400 from the floor?!?
Bacause I am supposed to, I must like a different sport…
Jamal is posting his best numbers EVER precisely in the year in which he FINALLY got it that you are wasting your talent if you only play on raw talent and don’t work on your game.
Jordan and Kobe are workaholics, Durant is a workaholic, Bill Russell was a crazy mutherf@cker who would spend his days studying HIS TEAMMATES in order to know how to extract the most out of them as a teammate and the leader of the celts and studying opponents and visualising what, how and when to do stuff against opponents A, B and C.
Jamal has been a complete defensive disaster his whole season and a chucker and the fact that he is now playing his best basketball EVER and by a mile in the year in which he finally developed a PROFESSIONAL ATTITUTE does not validate all the cr@ap he made in the past.
I always said that Jamal was IMMENSELY talented, you can go back and check it, but had a loser mentality, much alike other guys who only played out of raw talent and never worked in their games.
Do you happen to know why Jordan has such a poor final season? Because he trained so hard in the off season, pushed himself so far due his thirst to excell that he broke his body and played the whole season banged up with severe tendinitis.
Jamal could have been great and might still make a dent in history if this year he wins the title but, regardless of wining or not winning deep down he will know that he wasted 12 years as a pro that could have been REALLY something.
As for the CHI series, just go and watch the games again and stop living on the cr@p that Rod feeds you. If Jamal was SO GOOD why the f@ck he did not get anything done even with that famous double coverage?
That double coverage, for your information was in all 4 main guys, JJ, Al, Josh and Jamal. It’s Thibs system, constant trapping on the main guys when they have the rock and, as you may remember, we were always playing 4 on 5 on offense with Marvin or Collins and most of the time 4 on 5 on D with Jamal.
And one final note Rod and mini-Rod, Teague held his own against Rose who did always huge damage when Jamal played point (it had happened in the regular season too).
Unfortunately, you both seem to live in a Stalinist State where Jamal is your ruler and where “Revisionist History” is the norm.
No fantastic season by Jamal erases the past, only accentuates it.
Najeh Davenpoop
December 26th, 2012
5:03 pm
“Najeh, why do you have an issue with Lin contract?”
Never said I did. I only said his contract, not his undrafted status, should be used as a benchmark for evaluating him. He should be compared to Mike Conley, not to, say, Donald Sloan. If he plays the rest of the season like he has played the last few games, of course he’ll be living up to his contract.
Najeh Davenpoop
December 26th, 2012
5:11 pm
“Frontcourt Allstar Pool: Lebron, Bosh, Melo, Chandler, KG, Pierce, Deng, Noah, B. Lopez, Verejao, Josh, and Al.”
LeBron, Bosh, Melo, Varejao, and Noah are the only players on that list I could see conceivably ranked higher than Josh, and I wouldn’t put Varejao and Noah ahead of him. The problem, though, is that at least one of those Celtics will probably make it because of name recognition, even though neither one really deserves it.
Duh
December 26th, 2012
5:12 pm
Smh…Jamal didn’t want a DIME under his previus (10 mill) contract that he had at the time. He even refrenced JJ and Al’s contracts that they had received. He wasn’t goint to accept anyyhing less from ATL. Anyone else? Sure, but not from ATL, no home-team discount for us. He’s lucky to be on a winning team right now. He should have taken a page out of Manu-Tony-Tim book (spurs).
“We both know he was not guarding Luol Deng, so one again, you are spewing falsehoods.”
‘Mal was SHUT DOWN in the playoffs. The one thing he is supposedly good at and he couldn’t get it done for us. JJ was no better. Neither are First options (Elite). Jamal is like the 7th or 8th option in LA once Hill and Billups come back.
With that being said, Look at Jamal’s teams when the’s the #1 option. Compare that to JJ’s teams as #1 option. In BKN JJ is not the # option and is really more of a spot up shooter there with the PG being ball dominant.
http://blogs.ajc.com/hawks/2010/08/27/atlanta-hawks-jamal-crawford-wants-trade-without-contract-extension/
Duh
December 26th, 2012
5:15 pm
“The following is Crawford’s shooting performance after Game 1 in which he was 8-for-16: Game 2 (2-for-10) in Chicago, Game 3 (3-for-7) in Atlanta, Game 4 (5-for-11) in Atlanta, Game 5 (1-for-9) at Chicago and Game 6 (2-for-10).
The Hawks were a playoff team before Crawford, and would be prepared to move on without him if his price is too high.”
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ycn-10426565
Najeh Davenpoop
December 26th, 2012
5:16 pm
“What is the HAWKS MISSING.NAJAH WHAT DO YOU THINK.I LIKE TO HERE IT.”
A superstar. A legit #1 scoring option. That’s what the Hawks have been missing since 1992.
Duh
December 26th, 2012
5:22 pm
Jamal Crawford isn’t happy about his contract situation. It’s been obvious to those around him at Hawks camp that his demeanor isn’t the same. He’s being a professional but the enthusiasm is lacking.
So far, Crawford has stopped short of publicly expressing his displeasure with the Hawks for not offering a contract extension. In that way he’s taking a different tact than Kenyon Martin in Denver and Aaron Brooks in Houston.
But Crawford’s stance might be shifting a bit. At media day Monday he was careful to avoid talking about the possibility of leaving the Hawks. Now, with GM Rick Sund still not offering an extension and also resisting trade inquiries, Crawford sounds more urgent about the issue.
“You think something is solid and a family you just want that to be what it is,” Crawford said today “I would love to be here long term, no doubts about it. I would love to lock that up before I become a free agent. I want to make it work here. But if that is not the plan I guess I will go elsewhere.”
Crawford will make $10.1 million this year. He is seeking a new deal after winning the NBA’s Sixth Man Award while helping the Hawks to 53 victories and the No. 3 playoffs seed in the East. The uncertainty with the expiring collective bargaining agreement also is a major factor in his desire for an extension.
Sund has declined comment on Crawford’s situation, citing his policy of not discussing players’ contracts. He typically hasn’t offered extensions on veteran contracts. The exceptions have been cases in which the player could expect a maximum contract in free agency like Joe Johnson.
If Crawford were to become a free agent next summer, he would be among the top players available.
“There is a part of me that is comfortable with that,” he said. “But my whole thing is loyalty. I’m a loyal person. And I thought the Hawks were big to step up and give me an opportunity to go further. I thought I played my role to the best of my abilities, and I just want to be here a long time.
“I don’t want to compete [for a contract] and have to go anywhere else but if I am not in the future plans then I guess that is what I will have to do.”
In the meantime, Crawford is doing what’s asked of him at camp. His back tightened up during practice Thursday and Hawks coaches offered to let him sit out sprints at the end of the session but Crawford finished.
He said he’s trying to separate the business from the basketball
“That’s the tough part,” he said. “I’m just taking it one day at a time, being supportive of my teammates. I have the utmost respect for Coach Drew and his staff, that’s for sure. I try to do as much as possible without my mind wandering too much. [But] at times, you can ‘overthink’ it instead of just going with the flow.”
MC
http://blogs.ajc.com/hawks/2010/10/02/atlanta-hawks-jamal-crawford-prepared-to-go-elsewhere-without-extension/
—————————————————
You KNOW what an EXTENSION is right? It meand an EXTENSION of your current pay with increases more than likely.
Duh
December 26th, 2012
5:31 pm
Basically, The Hawks choose Horford over Jamal. looks like a good choice to me. Jamal is not wroth Ten Million dollars a year under this current CBA and certainly not in this economy.