10 FOR 35
Josh Smith’s three-point shooting output through the first five games of the season. Don’t blink your eyes -- you’re seeing that right. One of the worst long-range bombers in the league year in and year out has attempted a whopping seven threes per game. This has been a recurring issue for Smith throughout his career.
While it is unrealistic to expect each NBA player to excel at every single aspect of the game, it is reasonable to expect the players that have specific weaknesses to acknowledge them. Smith has almost never been able to come to terms with this shortcoming.
I say “almost” because there was one year when he finally swallowed his pride and fought the urge to live beyond the arc. In 2009-10, Smith did not convert a single three-pointer. He tossed up just seven, and the majority of those were end of quarter/game situations where a last-second heave was necessary. The straight from high school product had matured, resulting in a plus-50 field goal percentage for the only time in his career.
But the renaissance was short-lived. The next year he was back to his old gunslinging ways, firing bricks from 23 feet with no regard for the poor souls trying to grab such violent caroms off the front iron. And it’s only gotten worse since.
After nine years in the NBA, asking Smith to forgo the long ball entirely might seem like an obscene request. And in a sense, that is understandable. By this time, players have established themselves and are more or less free to continue doing what got them to this point. But isn’t that just a copout?
With anything in life, it is easy to continue doing the same things, making the same mistakes, by merely chalking it up to, “It’s how I’ve always done it...not gonna change now.” After all, that’s basically what Josh Smith has done for virtually his entire run as a professional hooper. But my admiration for the guy would grow tenfold if he decided once and for all to make team success the priority over individual desire.
Clearly, the guy enjoys shooting three-pointers. But clearly, him doing so is destructive to the goals of the group. For his career, he is a 28% shooter from downtown. Normally, such percentages would dictate that said player has had minimal attempts. In Smith’s case, he is just 23 more wild launches until hitting the not-so-celebratory 1,000 mark.
Well, here’s hoping he never reaches that number this year. If the enigmatic forward can somehow, someway, concentrate on his strengths and let others more skilled in the practice take care of the triple tries, the Pistons will be a much healthier basketball team. And Pistons fans will sleep much easier at night.
9:1
The first number (9) represents the number of times Michigan’s offense found the end zone against Indiana.
The second number (1) represents this same accomplishment over the two games that followed against Michigan State and Nebraska.
The 2013 Wolverines are aboard a sinking vessel, and the man responsible for steering the ship to dry land isn’t wearing a headset to properly communicate with the Coast Guard. It’s a disaster from every angle.
As has become custom in Ann Arbor the last number of years, Michigan jumps out of the chute with a slew of victories. Most are against the dregs of the MAC with some
1-AA mixed in. Then they manage to take down once-mighty Notre Dame in dramatic fashion and national title dreams start forming. But inevitably, the meat of the Big Ten schedule appears and Michigan goes from undefeated to unwatchable.
The last two games have set back offensive football decades. Drives begin and end in the span of one trip to the fridge. Devin Gardner, once thought to be a Denard Robinson-type runner WITH the ability to throw, has proved to be nothing of the sort. Throws lack zip; pocket presence is absent; scrambles for positive yardage are a distant memory.
Against the Cornhuskers, Michigan was twice presented with golden opportunities to take over the game in the 2nd half. Consecutive ‘Husker turnovers gave Gardner and the offense two possessions from inside the opponent’s 35. The first drive resulted in a loss of two yards and a missed field goal. The next netted three whole yards and three points. When such gifts from the other side are not appreciated appropriately, defeat becomes a near-certainty.
The blame for such ineptitude can’t fall on Gardner’s shoulders, entirely. Many in Wolverine Nation are calling for the head of offensive coordinator Al Borges. There is very little in the way of imagination or creativity in Michigan’s scheme; the overriding thought process before each snap appears to be, “Throw it to Funchess.”
Fitzgerald Toussaint looks run-down -- 17 carries over two weeks for 26 yards. Also, this guy is a senior. That means he’s been around for four years. His first name is Fitzgerald and yet he still hasn’t come to be known as just “Fitzy.” A greater disappointment I could not fathom.
Credit must be given to the Spartan and Cornhusker defenses, respectively. Both displayed solid game plans and precise execution. But having said that, scoring one touchdown in 120 minutes of football is simply bad offense. When a team lights up the scoreboard for 63 points in one afternoon, it is unfathomable that the same group would resemble a confused high school offense in the two subsequent weeks.
Perhaps the man in charge of the entire operation ought to throw a headset on next Saturday; partially to shake things up and partially to at least give off the impression that he is even the slightest bit tuned in to the action on game day.
1st
The calendar says November and the Detroit Lions are in first place.
Coach Jim Schwartz/Lions photo.
That means the boys in Honolulu Blue control their own destiny. Win the next seven and we’re looking at the first ever playoff game to take place in Ford Field.
Make no mistake. This is far from a perfect football team. The offense goes through long spells of inactivity. The cornerbacks are either too old (Mathis) or too young (Slay). The team can be undisciplined at big moments, and watching David Akers makes me miss Jason Hanson.
But the only thing that matters today, on November 11th, is that the standings look like this.
Detroit: 6-3
Green Bay: 5-4
Chicago: 5-4
Minnesota: Awful
If the Lions continue on this ambitious path, Thanksgiving dinner in 2013 could be a pleasant reliving of the afternoon’s glories instead of an angry, turkey-filled stress-fest where we eat away our feelings of gridiron sadness.
We’ve all had that meal many times before. It isn’t pretty and generally involves your Uncle Lenny going on a Ford Family rant before the first casserole has been passed.
This year feels different. The town is hungry. Eight and eight with a side of mashed potatoes won’t satisfy the appetite.
We’re more than halfway home and the Lions are in first place.
Take a picture and remember the feeling. This doesn’t happen often.
