Josh Smith ranked 15 spots higher than Greg Monroe in SI.com player rankings
We’ve reached the point in the NBA offseason where real news, you know, non-peeing-yourself news, is hard to come by. That also means it’s time for the annual tradition of ranking players to commence, and Sports Illustrated debuted the first top 100 of the year on Tuesday with two Pistons making the initial 100-51 rankings:
SI.com’s Ben Golliver on No. 68 Greg Monroe:
"Monroe is a very talented four/five tweener worth pursuing, but not necessarily a franchise guy worth overpaying. After GMs showed an unusual amount of restraint this offseason, Monroe must now wait until next July, when the prospect of unrestricted free agency should help him find the type of offer that never materialized"
SI.com’s Rob Mahoney on No. 53 Josh Smith:
"Smith is still the enticing (and maddening) two-way dynamo we saw during those last years in Atlanta. He’s every bit the defensive difference-maker he was then, so long as he’s allowed to hang around the paint to best influence shots. It’s not as if his finishing ability or sharp passing has somehow left him either. What plagues Smith most is circumstance; if cast into a role that constantly tests his worst instincts as a player — instincts, it must be said, that Smith never had perfect control over in the first place — all is essentially lost. He can do better, and were he on a team with a more coherent internal structure, he would."
Initial thought: How the heck did Josh Smith end up being ranked 15 spots higher than Greg Monroe? Fifteen?
Second thought: You know, maybe it isn’t all that unreasonable?
Third thought: Yeah, it’s not.
Sorry, had to talk myself through that one for a second. We all know Smith was dreadful on the court last season — and Monroe has been dreadful off the court this summer — but when examining both players heading into the 2014-15 season, it’s not outlandish to think Smith could have a better season.
While neither is a great fit for what Pistons czar Stan Van Gundy has thrived with in the past, Smith’s versatility provides more to work with. Being forced to do things that, quite frankly, he’s not humanly capable of doing well was a big part of Smith’s rough debut.
Van Gundy isn’t going to have his worst shooter lining up 150 3-pointers, nor will he guard the league’s fast and athletic small forwards with a slow and moderately athletic power forward.
Monroe on the other hand is in a unique, maybe unenviable, position. He also isn’t that Van Gundy-type forward, but he’s still a talented offensive player. If the Big Three of Monroe, Smith and Andre Drummond is in fact not going to be used often this year, I wonder if Monroe and his qualifying offer may end up as the Pistons’ sixth man?
He’s already starting the year suspended two games, and it’s worth wondering if that ends up being his role all season? It wouldn’t be a bad role from a basketball standpoint, but from a Greg-Monroe-Wants-To-Get-Paid perspective it probably doesn’t jive well.
One Pistons player did just miss the top-100 cut:
"(Brandon) Jennings joins John Starks (1998-99) and Baron Davis (’08-09) as the only players to attempt at least 14 shots while shooting less than 38 percent overall and less than 34 percent from downtown. Simultaneously, Jennings — an undersized, undisciplined and often unmotivated defender — ranked No. 455 out of 468 players in RAPM, and none of the 12 players ranked below him logged close to his 2,729 minutes."
Golliver hits on it pretty well there.
What do you guys think?