You either love him or you hate him, but you cannot deny that every single game J.R. Smith of the Denver Nuggets gets fans on their feet to cheer. He’s got what I call the “ohhhhhh and awwwww” factor. He creates more looks of amazement on fans league wide than almost any other player in the game. Hell, last week on a last second shot to beat the buzzer he jumped from near the free throw line and dunked it two hands without even thinking about it.
Sure his detractors will knock his shot selection when he misses (which is rare these days), or when his defensive assignment scores on him (which isn’t as often as it used to be), but he is certainly maturing this year into a better all around player. He’s always been a high flier, and he’s always been able to pretty much score at will when he asserts himself. But since when do you see J.R. Smith taking it to the cup and instead of using his athleticism to force the ball up to the rim, he uses his court vision to feed the open man?
Last night Smith did just that, and dished it to Kenyon Martin for a serious rim rocker! J.R. is maturing enough these days to realize that his explosive scoring ability will lend itself to becoming a great passer if he wants to be. Defenders will be forced to either straight up double him, or at least cheat a bit off their man to help out their teammates. This will leave J.R.’s teammates either fully or partially open in scoring position for a pass.
On this exciting play below from last night, J.R. recognized it, and Kenyon Martin finished strong. The no look, behind the back mustard on the pass was just some added flair, to let J.R. still be J.R. I loved it….
Check it out for yourself:
Shout out goes to Cavsballa for the YouTube vid on this one!
