Welcome Nick Smith Jr

[Walt Cronkite]

Yes, I was happy to have Ish come back, didn't expect the guy that was talked out of retiring would be getting minutes.

[fatlever]

he can't be worse than theo, bryce, thor and ish

[Bassman]

With Martin, Terry, and Stinky Frank out, NSJ should at least be seeing Ish minutes (10 last night) - ideally in some Theo, NSJ, Hayward type of backup lineup. I was really hoping that Ish would be a garbage minute getting cheerleader.

Hopefully would also put an end to the Theo/LaMelo bizarreness Clifford thinks makes sense. Just play Theo at backup and put a couple of basket getters around him - stop out clevering yourself squeezing Theo and Ish into funky lineups.

YES! NSJ deserves some time, give it to him and stop scratching the ish.

[fatlever]

keep ish, scrap bryce

[JMAC3]

Played a lot during the 4th quarter last night, only 2 shots. Maybe that gets his confidence going, idk how much longer Cliff can play Ish and Theo because neither one of them can shoot at all.

[Rich4114]

Happy NSJ got mins and more importantly, was in there in crunch time. He is our most exciting bench guard easily. He's going to make bad plays but he's also going to score the rock, something Ish and Theo cannot do.

[fatlever]

Left the swarm game on crutches.


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[Diop]

this team is cursed

[JDR720]

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[Snidely FC]

btw Nick Smith Jr. scored 14 points in six minutes before going down with the injury in the first quarter

Nick Jr puts on a good Show

[Bassman]

Somehow, somewhere, somebody hated this team enough to build voodoo dolls….and they take great pleasure in ankles.

[JMAC3]

We need NSj to work out.

Hornets essentially traded AJ Griffin/Duren etc for Nick Smith, Bryce McGowens, Nnaji and Amari Bailey.

AJ Griffin probably would of made most sense. Doubt they would have selected Duren. If the Hornets get 3 real rotation players from those 4 I think its a real possibility it was alright move. AJ Griffin isn't playing real mins for Hawks this year even with Jalen Johnson hurt.

[JMAC3]

I guess toss Tari Eason and Ochai in the mix too. I think a chance NSj is better than both of them in a year though.

I really think he is a top 15 player from this draft class when all is said and done. Dude has the pedigree, work ethic, attitude. Just needs to work on body and a become a bit more fundamentally sound.

[JDR720]

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Not sure what the point is in sending him back and forth when he's injured.

[luciano-davidwesley]

I have done a 180 on my Summer League opinion of Nick Smith Jr. This kid has a real future in the NBA. He is now officially in the rotation and averaging 18 minutes a game in December, up from 8 minutes per game in November.

Since the increase in playing time he is averaging nearly 9 points a game and is hitting 1.7 threes a game on 4.2 attempts (45.5/40/100 splits). He has also shown some mid range scoring ability and has a pretty deadly pull up jumper in the midrange. Shooting the ball he looks like he's a bit of a laser judging from the eye test. His jumper looks really accurate and you feel confident it is going in when he shoots the ball. He squares himself up nicely and shoots off a steady base. He possesses a nice stroke and high arc on his jumper, he is also dipping his toes in the water with some deep threes. He has no shortage of confidence on his stroke.

He does have a decent herky-jerky handle but has used it primarily to pull up for a jumper or floater at this stage rather than go to the rim. He still needs to tighten it up a little as he has bobbled a few dribbles out of bounds so far this season. He's also flashed a step back three in his repertoire but it still needs a little work.

On the other hand, he still has a ways to go passing the ball, he can make some ill-advised full court passes that usually lead to a turnover, though creating for others was never going to come naturally to him. He's clearly a scoring guard at this stage, albiet very good at it. He is quite turnover prone when passing in traffic.

I'd also like to see him add more rim pressure to his game and I hope he can get the confidence and strength to finish in the lane through contact and contests. This is a clear weakness at the moment and you can see he prefers the pull up due to a lack of confidence at the rim. He finishing at the rim is definitely not great at this point. He's missed a fair few bunnies.

Defensively he gives up a lot of ticky tack fouls and because he isn't very strong a lot of players can finish through them for easy and1 opportunities. He'll probably never be great on this end given his profile but he does at least possess reasonably quick hands to strip the ball at times and has a knack of getting some unexpected cheeky weak-side blocks at the rim.

The dude is a baller though and will only get better if we can pair him with some defensive muscle as he could be a target for post ups and isolations defensively.

If the team sells before the trade deadline Miller and NS Jr would be the big beneficiaries if Terry is shipped out.

TL; DR - He has a really nice stroke from deep and mid range, decent handle and quick hands but needs to work on taking it to the rim more and rim finishing efficiency, passing and his strength and defensive tendency to foul. He rarely if ever gets to the line because he doesn't take it to the rim.

Overall there's a lot to like for a young 19 year old rookie.

[fatlever]

if the 3pter is legit, like it appears to be, that changes a lot for nick.
i love his effort
still not a fan of the iso shot hunting. we don't need more of that on this team. time and place.

[fatlever]

up to 47.7% on 3s 21 of 44
was surprised to see Bryce at 41.5% on 22 of 55

[Rich4114]

up to 47.7% on 3s 21 of 44
was surprised to see Bryce at 41.5% on 22 of 55

NSJ is actually legit. I'm sure those numbers will drop, but if he ends up being +38% from 3 on normal volume it is a huge win.

[JDR720]

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[MPM]

Hoping what we saw last game holds. Bryce on the bench. NSJ off the bench before Bryce.

(Bryce has taken strides but he's nowhere near the player NSJ promises to be)