04-09-2009, 02:54 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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Year Of The Basel
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Parts Unknown
Age: 23
Posts: 39,464
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Nuggets Looking To Mine The Best Out Of Enigmatic Smith
Quote:
George Karl let out a hearty laugh when asked to describe coaching J.R. Smith. It was obvious Karl wanted to choose his words more carefully than the 23-year-old Nuggets guard chooses his shots.
"On my good days or my bad days?" answered Denver's venerable coach.
Well, how about both? No point in selling Smith short or sugarcoating anything.
"All young players of special talent are good and bad players," Karl explained. "They have good minutes. They can have five minutes where they're All-Star caliber, and they have five possessions where you don't know where the hell they're from and who's been coaching them.
"J.R. is definitely improved. He's definitely progressed where his moments of bad basketball are minimalized. And we've given him more responsibility. J.R. is having a good year, but he's still probably not about that line of consistency that you want a 30-minute player."
Smith's story, in many ways, is a tale told all too often in NBA circles. Immature and unfocused at times, yet dripping with talent. A lot of players with his upside -- limitless athleticism and one of the purest strokes around -- have flamed out because of an inability to grasp the big picture.
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http://www.nba.com/2009/news/feature...ith/index.html
__________________
Bleeding purple & gold...
credit to shoop
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Nuggets Looking To Mine The Best Out Of Enigmatic Smith
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