http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/columnists/bharvey/stories/MYSA062208.buckjrsmith.en.3ac3698.html
Buck Harvey: J.R. gamble would be up to Popovich
Web Posted: 06/21/2008 09:15 PM CDT
Buck Harvey
bharvey@express-news.net
The one who makes the most sense for the Spurs is the one with the least sense.
That would be J.R. Smith, the flawed diamond of this summer’s free-agent class. He has been everything the Spurs are not, and he also has everything the Spurs need.
For one, he can dunk.
So he’s worth a look. And if the Spurs go in that direction on July 1, and if they interview Smith, then what follows will hinge on this:
Can Gregg Popovich see something he likes in someone he shouldn’t?
Next season might hinge on it, too. The Spurs likely won’t get enough from the draft to help them immediately, even if they find a way to move up.
The other free agents are equally uninspiring. Role players are available, not much more.
But then there is Smith, a remarkable athlete who the Spurs previously tried to acquire in a trade. Then, just before the 2006 trade deadline, a deal fell through that would have sent Brent Barry to New Orleans in exchange for Smith.
Byron Scott had given up on the kid, but the Spurs thought they had missed out. Given their locker room, couldn’t they have reached Smith as they once did Stephen Jackson?
Smith eventually went to Denver instead. In 2007, against the Spurs in the playoffs, Smith gave the Spurs little reason to regret anything.
Smith committed such a sequence of selfish, foolish plays in one game that George Karl benched Smith for the finale. “I just love the dignity of the game,” Karl said of Smith’s play, “being insulted right in front of me.”
A headline from the Denver Post then summed up Smith’s standing: “Who shot the Nuggets? J.R.”
The absence of gunfire is one of Smith’s few selling points. He is a middle-class, gangsta wannabe. He’s been suspended a couple of times, brawling both on the court and off, and all he’s ever led the league in is apologies.
Jackson once proudly called himself the anti-Spur. Smith comes closer to being the anti-human.
His life has included tragedy. He once ran a stop sign, which ultimately resulted in the death of one of his passengers, a childhood friend.
And his life has included comedy. He yapped at Kobe Bryant in a playoff game this spring — while Bryant was going for 49 points.
Then there’s the defect that would never work on a Popovich team: Scouts say he is “an unwilling defender.”
Given that, maybe the Spurs decide they would be crazier than Smith to consider him. Unlike Jackson, after all, this risk would require a financial investment.
Still, there’s no one out there like Smith. He’s 6-foot-6 with 30-foot range, and he’s only 22. He averaged more than a dozen points for the Nuggets last year despite averaging less than 20 minutes. That’s also why the Nuggets want him back.
But the Nuggets are being squeezed. After Allen Iverson chose not to opt out of his contract last week, Denver has eight players with guaranteed contracts totaling more than $78 million. If the Spurs dangle, say, $4 million a year, would the Nuggets want to match the offer and pay even more luxury tax?
Smith may get a better offer elsewhere. Smith also may not want to play in a regimented system.
But if he’s open to the Spurs, and Popovich is open to sitting down with him, a franchise-changing decision would come down to one thing. Popovich’s gut.
Popovich hasn’t had to do this lately. Mostly he’s been talking someone such as Michael Finley into signing. This time Popovich would be listening.
Statistics wouldn’t matter, nor would stories from the past. It would be about Popovich getting a sense of Smith; knowing Popovich, he might challenge Smith, as he once did Dennis Rodman, just to see the reaction.
If Smith walked away with an attitude, then Popovich would save money and time. But maybe something else happens, and maybe Popovich thinks a follower such as Smith might prosper following Tim Duncan.
This is all the Spurs can go on, and this is how they would make such a gamble. Good sense has little to do with any of it.