Cleveland defensive backs headline PFF’s All-AFC North Team
January 20, 2015Braxton Miller still enrolled at Ohio State
January 20, 2015When J.R. Smith last walked out of Quicken Loans Arena, he was entirely draped in Cleveland Cavaliers gear—it looked as if he was a fan who had just won a shopping spree to the upstairs team shop. He had just been traded to the Cavs in a three-team deal that included the Oklahoma City Thunder, and was playing his first game with his new team. His locker was loaded with Cavs merch as it awaited his arrival, so it was only fitting that he would at least pretend to appreciate his new gifts. On the night, Smith missed all five shots he took, though two of them were of the buzzer-beating Hail Mary variety, and his new team lost a tough game to the Houston Rockets despite leading at the start of the fourth quarter.
Before leaving the arena, Smith chatted with Houston’s Dwight Howard and James Harden, signed a handful of autographs and casually discussed his desire to get the rest of his automobiles from New York to Cleveland on short notice. If there was any saving grace, it was that his teammate, LeBron James, following the loss, made pseudo assistant coach Damon Jones remove his shirt to reveal the word “DAMON” tattooed, plainly, at the top of his left arm. All James had to do was point at it and Smith burst into laughter. You see, James and Smith are both heavily inked up so Jones’ nametag of a selection provided both men with a laugh at the retired three-point launcher’s expense. If there were doors on the team’s maple lockers, there’s a chance Jones would’ve been tossed into one.
The team may have lost the game and Smith, 29, may have just had his world tilted on its axis, but if anything was evident, it was that the one they call “Junior” was well ingratiated into his new team despite having been in the city of Cleveland for just several hours before heading west for a five-game road trip.
J.R. comes to battle. He competes on a consistent basis and so that was something that mattered to us.
How would he fit in? The team has enough new faces—only Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson and Matthew Dellavedova are active holdovers from a season earlier—and is already struggling to gel. Would there be enough shots to keep him happy, or would he just trend downward in a state of disarray as he did toward his final weeks in New York?
“For me, he’s a new and welcomed player on our team,” Cavs head coach David Blatt said of Smith. “I have no preconceived or pre-existing opinion, and I have no doubts about his ability to help us as a basketball player. I had a discussion with him. I can tell you that it was a good and open discussion—short and to the point.”
What was said in that brief and succinct discussion will likely forever remain unknown, but what has taken little time to become apparent is that Smith, shortcomings and all, has immediately fit in to what the Cavaliers are looking to achieve on both ends of the floor. Known more for his shooting abilities than his defensive prowess, Smith’s first play as a Cavalier came in the way of diving for—and recovering—a loose ball underneath the Houston Rockets’ hoop, wrestling the ball away amidst the forest of legs that stood over him.
[Related: JR Smith grabs a mid-game snack from a Clippers fan]
Smith is the kind of player who, like most other shooters, has the tendency to produce a 2-for-10 evening as he did in a recent loss to the Sacramento Kings. But he also has the ability to singlehandedly shift momentum in his team’s favor with his stroke beyond the arc. The 29-year old sees himself as a guy who can being a lot of energy, but also a lot of heart, a player who, regardless of his role, will have a positive impact on the team.
On Monday night, in what was just his second game in The Q as a member of the Cavaliers, Smith started at shooting guard—just as he has since his second game with the team—and casually racked up 20 points on just 11 shots, hitting six of his nine three-point attempts. While each of them had an impact in the contest, none may have meant more than the one that splashed through the net with a little under four minutes remaining in the third quarter. With the Cavs jumping out to an early-game lead, the Bulls were doing their best to chip away. LeBron James had just drawn his fourth personal foul, a charge against Bulls swingman Jimmy Butler, and was subbed out of the contest joining fellow Big Three member Kevin Love on the bench. On the ensuing play, Smith drained a 26-footer that put the wine and gold back up by 20 points, putting momentum squarely in the Cavs’ favor and providing fans with a sense of security that James can in fact sit out for stretches and not fall victim to a squandered lead.
“Does he take too many shots sometimes in the wrong places?” Cavs GM David Griffin asked, rhetorically, upon Smith’s arrival. “Absolutely. A lot of players do that and have done that. But J.R. comes to battle. He competes on a consistent basis and so that was something that mattered to us. We also looked at the rest of the roster that we have, and we feel like from a human standpoint, J.R. is ready to take the next step, and I think everybody including J.R. would tell you this is a place he can do that.
“So, we think this is the right environment, the right fan base, the right city for him and we took it into account, but there’s not a great deal of trepidation on our part now.”
Upon joining the Cavaliers, Smith sought out James and his opinion on how he should “fit in” with the team. The two have spent time in the past, working out in Akron and enjoying their joint fandom of the Dallas Cowboys. James quickly rebuffed any notion of a transitional period for the trigger-happy shooting guard saying that the team brought him aboard because of who he is and what he brings to the table. His floor spacing and ability to provide instant offense was a welcomed addition—no fitting in was needed. In the team’s recent win over the Los Angeles Clippers, Smith’s box score totals wouldn’t be the kind to turn many heads, scoring just eight points on eight shots in 30 minutes on the floor. But with 47 seconds left and the Cavs needing a score to stave off the hard-charging Clippers, it was Smith who David Blatt went to off of the bench out of a timeout, and it was Smith who kept Los Angeles’ JJ Redick just far enough from the rim that he was not only late in closing on Tristan Thompson, but fouled the Cavs’ forward out of desperation.
Since going 0-for-5 in his first game with the Cavaliers, Smith is averaging 17 points per game on 46.4 percent shooting—this after averaging 10.9 points per game on 40.2 percent shooting in 24 games for the Knicks before the trade to Cleveland. While experiencing a bit of a renaissance in Cleveland, it’s highly likely that Smith’s role turns into that of a sixth man, giving way to Shumpert who is expected to join the team Wednesday or Friday after completing several practices without limitation. It’s also highly likely that even in this role as a reserve, while he may smatter in some more 2-for-10 nights, that Smith forces the NBA to discuss the “JR Smith game,” wherein his offensive prowess can be fully attributed to a Cavs playoff win in the way Daniel “Boobie” Gibson did in 2007. Throughout his career, Smith has been told that he shoots too much; in Cleveland, he’s being encouraged to shoot more, a desire that’s aided by how open he gets when opposing players are converging on one of the team’s stars.
As little time as he has spared getting intertwined in the fabric that is the 2014-15 Cavaliers, he’s taken even less to become a fan favorite for his ability to rack up the points in addition to the way he celebrates high-leverage conversions with his fingers displaying threes and his arms flailing in a variety of ways. A Nike guy, Smith has spent many evenings in colorful versions of the Kyrie 1, Irving’s new signature shoe, as well as the LeBron 12, showing immediate support of his endorsed teammates. When he emerged from the trainer’s room for the first time, standing before Cleveland media as a member of the Cavaliers, the first question he received was from a reporter who inquired about fit and the future, leading with the premonition that Smith himself was a “colorful character.” After all, we’re talking about a guy who once shot 22 threes in a single contest.
“Colorful?” Smith rebuffed. “Nah. It’s just the tattoos.”
22 Comments
JR being one of LeBron’s boys certainly helps matters
I’ve liked the fit so far, and I think he’s had a very refreshing attitude and I’ve liked his willingness on defense. Hopefully he is willing to accept that role as 6th man… I have no reason to believe that he wouldn’t.
“All James had to do was point at it and Smith burst into laughter”
…and by “it” you obviously mean Amon Ones gut right?
Dude dropped the D and J because he just couldn’t carry them around anymore.
And it’s nice to have a consistent scoring threat not named James or Love.
This and JR being on a team he knows has a chance in the playoffs let alone “at the playoffs.
In the East.
…..Because the Knicks don’t.
Unreal.
it was also mentioned last night that JR is refocused on basketball because “there’s nothing to do in Cleveland”, so he just works out and plays video games. so there’s that.
I always found this concept so funny. What do athletes do when they go out on the town? Don’t they just go to night clubs and strip clubs? You can do that in Cleveland.
At any rate, I’m happy that this is how J.R. is currently thinking. As long as he doesn’t realize that Cleveland has night clubs and strip clubs, we all win!
Great anti-Noah positive spin: Come to Cleveland and become the best you can be at your job because there is nothing else to do!
note: understood it’s not true, but it’s funny 🙂
“Ugh I’m so bored. Guess I’ll call Kevin to work on some pick and roll… AGAIN.”
There is a JFF joke/point to be made here, I just KNOW it.
LeBron’s boys?
if you travel to Akron each of the past few summers to spend some signficant amount of time with James and the LRMR crew, then I think that qualifies, no?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B703jlHIUAENf9w.jpg
Whatevs, take the points when he’s hot and hold your nose and ears when he’s not. Every place he’s been, JR is fun and exciting, until he isn’t. Hs track record is long and consistent. If he’s a good piece for this year’s ride before things go south, fine. A stable team should be able to deal with him short term.
you better watch out. LRMR is putting him solely in the Ohio State corner these days with his “Ohio-Only” marketing and he will likely have any such evidence erased and “tie up all loose ends”
unless, we consider Kentucky just part of greater Cincinnati, which may be plausible (since the Buckeyes don’t have good basketball right now)
Exactly. There are plenty of bars, restaurants, places to go out. I lived in Atlanta for 8 years. While the greater Atlanta area and downtown is sprawling and bigger than Cleveland, it was highly inefficient. There are just as many places and things to do here as there are there if not more in a lot of cases.
What are they expecting, midget strippers that crap solid gold? A city is just buildings with people in it. It’s what you make out of it.
Agreed, and if he somehow turns rotten then there’s only one more year left on his contract. I should probably knock on wood, but I don’t think he’s going to be a locker room problem while he is here. He’s always been more of a knucklehead than a malcontent. And his gunner mentality might even be considered a good thing if he’s the primary scorer on the second unit.
I was trying to think of a joke along those lines. Something like, “Cleveland doesn’t have tap-dancing bears who strip and serve you martinis while growling the Star Spangled Banner? What kind of a boring, one-horse burg is this??”
agree on all. I’m reconciling that Smith’s catch and shoot is a better fit than Dion’s Hug Ball/Ponder/3-steps/Gun routine. And if Smith leaves next year guys like him can be found. Maybe C.J. Miles will be available again.
Something I didn’t realize about J.R. until now is that he can get his shot off lightning fast. C.J. Miles was that way, too. So if you put J.R. and Dion Waiters in the same scenario with the same space between the shooter and defender, J.R. actually has more time where he is open than Dion does simply because it takes Dion so much longer to finish his shooting motion.
Listen, Smith has always been a good player but he was not long for the Knicks after they cut his brother. In fact, he basically tweeted that he was going to mail it in because he felt betrayed. I’m ecstatic that he’s in Cleveland.
http://www.si.com/nba/point-forward/2013/12/30/j-r-smith-chris-smith-knicks-cut-released
My basic concern with Smith is the same as I had with Waiters: Buckets don’t lie, but (as somebody brilliantly put it over at FTS) bricks don’t lie either. The good news is that Smith is a more accurate shooter than Waiters, so if he stays professional like he has been we should be just fine.
My guess is that part of why he was a head case on the Knicks was that the Knicks are absolutely terrible and have no idea how to evaluate players properly. What they seem to go for is players that score a lot per game, but that means they get a whole bunch of shooters who are each focused on getting their own shot and not on playing as a team. Oh, and scoring a lot of points per game doesn’t mean you’re actually a good shooter, just that you’re willing to shoot in more situations.