J.R. Smith & Foolishly Huge Suspensions Lost in all the MELOdrama and mAInia is the plight of J.R. Smith. Already having a shaky reputation from Hornets coach Byron Scott's comments last season that Smith was not mature enough to play in the NBA yet, and from Scott's refusal to give him decent playing time, Smith took another hit to his reputation from his understandable reaction to the dangerous flagrant foul (type 2: excessive) and to Nate Robinson going after him. His competitive emotions took over and he went ballistic. Some of us are wired that way. Smith was the primary beneficiary of the Nuggets making a statement in that game because he's the one who needs the most playing time, the most confidence, and the most improvement from sitting on the Hornets bench if the Nuggets are going to make a serious run in the playoffs. The Knicks interfered with his schooling and J.R. knows the value of school, and what happens if you are locked out of school, as he was by Byron Scott, so that is why he reacted the way he did. But Nuggets coach George Karl has not lost any of his confidence in the third year shooting guard out of St. Benedict's Prep School in Newark, New Jersey. At the time of the foul and the altercation, Smith was making critical progress toward becoming a 3-point threat, as well as a scoring threat in general. The massive and unprecedented 10 game suspension (12% of the season) will cause at least some backslide in Smith's progress, and it may not be until the beginning of March that Smith gets back to where he was on December 16. Fortunately, that is seven weeks before the playoffs. It is interesting to note from his comments at the end of this post that Smith seems to buy in to the team and teammates come first philosophy that Melo has proven to have. Melo's belief in putting team and teammates first in the priority order resulted, of course, in his even more massive 15 game suspension (18%, or almost 1/5 of the season). The only way to win a ring is to play as a team, but lord help you under the Stern dictatorship if you have the team concept as your number one priority during a regular season game when someone has violently thrown your teammate to the hardwood. You see, it's kind of complicated. The more you have the team concept as top priority, the more likely it is you can win, but also, the more likely it is you will get suspended for massive games under Stern's dubious ambition to eliminate every single altercation from the game. And then you probably can't win, unless someone does a magic trick, such as making Iverson magically appear the second game of the suspensions. I'll give Stern a small amount of credit if and only if there are no altercations at all for the rest of this season and for the entire 2007-2008 season. And even if there are none, which is extremely unlikely, I will still claim that it is unnatural to expect there to be no court confrontations, and I will still point out that suspensions of more than 8 games are killing the player, the team, and the game in order to cure the "disease" of confrontations and brawls. The only way Stern's ideas can work is if there are literally no more fights and therefore no more huge suspensions. Good luck. I think I am going to try to research other flagrant-2 fouls that occur this season (and last season?) and then note all of the stars who have no meaningful reaction to their teammate getting dangerously hammered to the ground. These would be the players who think of their own careers, contracts, and public reputations first and their teammates down the list somewhere. For example, how did LeBron react when one of this teammates was hammered to the hardwood? I am going to research this and report back here, or in the "Melo is the Ultimate Team Player" thread with any results. However, information may be hard to come by because Stern and the NBA head office are trying to downplay flagrant-2 fouls as much as possible, as evidenced by the extremely light penalties given for them. Here is an August 25 internet chat between fans and J.R. Smith that sheds some light on the "Who is J.R. Smith Mystery": J.R. Smith took a break from hosting the Second Annual J.R. Smith Basketball Camp in Neptune, NJ to chat with fans Friday, August 25. J.R., selected 18th overall out of St. Benedict's Prep in Newark, NJ by the New Orleans Hornets at the 2004 NBA Draft, joined the Denver Nuggets after a succession of summer trades. bobby, denver: Are you excited to work alongside with Carmelo? J.R. Smith: Oh yeah. I'm very excited, he's a great player and a team player. kim, denver: jr - how's your camp going and what's the best part? J.R. Smith: My camp is going great. We got some very good players here, but the best thing for me has been all the smiles on the kids' faces. cyril(homestead): jr how does it feel to get traded twice in the same summer. J.R. Smith: It doesn't feel any different for it to be done twice. I'm still just going to one new place. It isn't like it happened during the season twice, where I had to pick up and move two times. It was just one of those things and I'm looking forward to moving on to a new team with a new beginning and playing basketball. Colin(Regina): You probably have the most pressure of any of the nuggets going into training camp, because the nuggets have never had a great shooting guard. What are you going to do to change that? J.R. Smith: I don't consider myself great yet. I just want to be one of the guys and earn my place on the team, wherever that may be. I just want to contribute as best as I can to help us win games. Quincy, Colorado Springs: Have you had a chance to talk to any of your new teammates and if so what has been the vibe? J.R. Smith: I talked to Nene and Carmelo. It's been a great vibe. My hopes are high. We open up with the Clippers, so it's a great way to start the season, trying to get back at the team that ended our season last year. I really look forward to playing for the Nuggets. gene, new brunswick, nj: I was wondering since i just read Dajuan Wagner from Camden, NJ who played for the Cavs had a workout to get back in the NBA after some injuries - did you ever play against him in high school and what do you think of his comeback? J.R. Smith: I did play against him, my freshman year. He may be the best player to ever come out of New Jersey. The way he could score the ball, was unbelievable. Jacque(Clinton, MD): Hey J.R.!! Just wanted to let you know i'm a huge fan of your young career and i wish you the best in Denver!! What kind of workout have you been doing over the summer and what area are you focusing on? J.R. Smith: I'm focusing on coming into training camp in my best shape ever. I want to be totally in shape and be ready for camp. I don't want fatigue or anything like that to get in my way when I come into camp. Brad (Gadsden,Alabama): J.R., If you would have gone to college what college would go to? J.R. Smith: University of North Carolina. Icky, Reno, NV: J.R. - What are some things you like to do for fun? J.R. Smith: I love playing the new Madden game that just came out. I love video games, period. I also shop...go to the mall...and of course, I work out. I always work out. William(Kennesaw): Hey J.R., would you consider yourself one of the best dunkers right now? J.R. Smith: It's hard to say, there are so many great dunkers out there, Vince Carter and Josh Smith and so many other guys. I'd like to think that I'd be up there with those guys, though. Aaron (Camas): Hey J.R. I heard a little bit about your troubles with Coach Byron Scott last season; in effect, your playing time and statistics took a dip compared to your pretty impressive first-season. So, from your sophomore year, I was wondering if you could give us a little insight as to what you learned from last season and how you think it'll make you a better --and stronger-- player in Denver. J.R. Smith: The thing I learned most last year, is that things aren't always what they seem. No matter what people say, you need to always be ready to play right away and do your best. It's about what happens on the court, no matter what the talk is. J.R. SMITH
The problem with the suspension is there's no system in place to justify the punishment. David Stern should have given an explanation to why Melo is being suspended 3 times more than any other player who's thrown a punch. At least then you have the precedence set in place and have an idea of went through the committees though process when they decided on 15 games. David Stern has been making a lot of decisions without working out the ramifications of his decisions. Basketball is a physical and emotional sport. You're never going to completely eliminate players from fighting on the court. It's impossible to control all the variables in these players lives. Hell some of these players in the league have issues with each other before they even entered the league. It's just part of the game, and Stern has to understand it. A lot of these kids are raised to defend themselves and defend the people close to them. Carmelo Anthony was raised in one of the toughest cities, Baltimore, Maryland on Myrtle Avenue. Even after Stern suspended Ron Artest the entire season for running into the stands, and the Pistons Brawl. A few months later we see Antonio Davis run into the stands, because his wife and an unruly fan got into it.
<div class="quote_poster">shapecity Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">The problem with the suspension is there's no system in place to justify the punishment. David Stern should have given an explanation to why Melo is being suspended 3 times more than any other player who's thrown a punch. At least then you have the precedence set in place and have an idea of went through the committees though process when they decided on 15 games. David Stern has been making a lot of decisions without working out the ramifications of his decisions. Basketball is a physical and emotional sport. You're never going to completely eliminate players from fighting on the court. It's impossible to control all the variables in these players lives. Hell some of these players in the league have issues with each other before they even entered the league. It's just part of the game, and Stern has to understand it. A lot of these kids are raised to defend themselves and defend the people close to them. Carmelo Anthony was raised in one of the toughest cities, Baltimore, Maryland on Myrtle Avenue. Even after Stern suspended Ron Artest the entire season for running into the stands, and the Pistons Brawl. A few months later we see Antonio Davis run into the stands, because his wife and an unruly fan got into it.</div> Apparently he was taught to run too, I guess. I still support Stern for the 15 game suspension. Though basketball is an emotional sport and players react according to heat-of-the-moment situations, Stern has to make an example out of Anthony: throwing punches is strictly prohibited. It's not Melo was being threatened and had to react - he waited until everything was getting settled down and just hit Collins offguard. After this altercation, any other team involved in some type of altercation will think twice before they escalate it with violence.
