jamsion paired with a 100% dwight will be fine. jsmith is just as short as jamison, and may be a better help defender by far, but he will get bullied in the post too
THAT is the main thing that we need, and Dwight isn't 100% right now so we can't start putting Jamison at the 4 because Dwight will "eventually" get there.
Josh Smith would be bullied a lot less often in the post than Pau and he wouldn't give up his position as easily either, and will also play better help defense which will help Dwight out TONS and also give us an extra defending rotation so that Dwight wouldn't have to rotate every single time.
You have metta at the 3, Smith at the 4, Dwight at the 5. The 4 and 5 capable of defending either side of the basket and also available for switches depending on the assignments.
Pau DOES NOT switch, is late on his rotations and does not give any effort on the defensive end as soon as someone takes one step to the left or to the right.
You see what Hill did when Pau let someone run by? He made the switch and blocked the shot. That's pretty much what Smith would do but he'd be doing it off a much better defender actually giving effort.
Tell me with an honest face that Smith and Howard(even not at 100%) would allow the Kings to score 50 points in the paint? His rotations and defense alone would prevent the mismatches that Pau created because of his lack of defense and effort on that end and would help our paint numbers.
In all honesty in our halfcourt outside of the paint and on the wing we're defending rather well, it's when they get to the paint and Pau REFUSES to rotate EVEN when he is right beside the guy that they get easy buckets because Dwight is doing what he's supposed to be doing when he rotates. Dwight will rotate but Pau doesn't and it costs us points inside all game and teams are starting to take advantage of it and exploiting us because of it.
With Smith that WOULD NOT happen and teams would have to beat us with jump shots instead of exploiting our defensively weak 4.
It would be a HUGE deal having Smith on this team strictly on his defense alone since that is where we're being hurt. Pau never switching and causing mismatches because he refuses to play defense is causing teams to destroy us on the inside and that's on Pau.
With Smith that doesn't happen and whether or not his offense is on he would stop teams on defense and that is vital and needed.
Kobe at the 2, Metta at the 3, Smith at the 4 and Howard at the 5 is the scariest defensive 2-5 lineup in the league at that point.
To act like Smith's impact on our team would be "miniature" or not matter that much is probably one of the biggest misconceptions ever.
Edited by Majesty, November 22, 2012 - 03:09 PM.