Greg Doyle is a tool, quite frankly. He says crazy shit and typifies the "craziest guy in the room" journalism that passes as sports analysis. He's actually toned it down a bit, which is surprising, because he has to cover the completely irrelevant Hawks/Bulls series instead of th more bombastic Heat/Celtics. Someone with as little sports knowledge as Doyle and a hardon for whatever obvious megastory is running, would have spontaneously combusted by now, but he hasn't been so bad.
But check this out.
Now, there's nothing easier, more obvious and more redundant a topic for an article than "hey, Josh Smith probably shouldn't take so many 21 foot jump shots, don't ya think?", but I'm gonna let that pass. After all, it is at least, true.
For all this talent, Smith is a big disappointment
Smith should routinely be the Hawks' best player, but he's not. Joe Johnson is that guy.
This is all, basically to the word, undoubtedly correct.
Smith might not even be No. 2 on the Hawks, given the persistence of Jamal Crawford.
Wait a minute. I thought you just said Jamal Crawford was possibly the second best player on the Hawks. Let me rewind...
Smith might not even be No. 2 on the Hawks, given the persistence of Jamal Crawford.
Jamal Crawford is shooting 40.7% in the playoffs. He's also been much worse, across the board, against the Bulls, so I don't know what Doyle is basing this on; no doubt the dozens of Atlanta Hawks games he watched, pen and pad in hand, this year. Jamal Crawford has 1.4rpg in 30.3 minutes. I know he's a guard, but holy shit that's amazing. Is he deliberately avoiding the ball?
Anyway, Josh Smith has been no prize pig either, I understand, but he's much better than Jamal Crawford dude, seriously. Still, I understand the hyperbole, and agree with the basic thrust, I'll let this slide without my usual apoplectic commentary.
He might not be third, given the emergence of Jeff Teague.
This is getting out of hand...
Hell, some could argue that Smith is behind even Al Horford.
OK, this is why we're here. Do you have any idea how much better Al Horford is than Jeff Teague and Jamal Crawford? Fucking, I can't even begin to describe, I'm so outraged by this comment. It's not about Smith being behind Horford (sadly, we pretty much have to concede he is), it's just how little basketball Greg Doyel must watch to rank the Hawks in this order. And he gets to write about it for a living.
Al Horford is one of the best five centres in the NBA.
He's averaging a double-double in the playoffs, along with a block, nearly 4 assists.
He was 11th in rebounding, 5th in FG%, 9th in double-doubles, 1st among centres in assists (by a long way), he was also 2nd among centres in free throw percentage in the regular season. According to the highly respected John Hollinger's PER formula, Al Horford was the 23rd best player in the NBA this season, which quite frankly, sounds perfectly plausible to me, particulary accounting for position.
There's an argument to be made that Josh Smith is the fifth-best player on the Hawks, and that's obscene.
There's no such argument, even to make a ostensibly obvious point like you're trying to. But there's even less argument that Al Horford is the fucking fourth best player on the Hawks. He's been a reserve for the All-Star game in back to back seasons you idiot.
I now know how Jim Mora felt at that press conference.
Jeff Teague?!?!?! Jeff Teague?!?!?! You kidding me? Jeff Teague?!?!?!
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