J. Smith(ATL) and E.Okafor(CHA)

by buzzer beater on Jul 3, 2008 2:26 PM PDT Comment 23 comments

By now the whole league should have an idea of the size of our treasure chest, second tier star players such as Smith and Okafor should be legit possibilities for the Warriors to sign. Why these 2 players besides the fact they will both become restricted free agents?

J.Smith is playing on a team with a plethora of SF, his style of play and skill sets would greatly benefit the Warriors - his ability to extend out to 3pt range when needed (although not at a high percentage), rebounding, shot blocking, length, ball handling and explosiveness. I would take him over Harrington any day of the week. Warriors would be doing them a favor by taking Smith away, and being on difference conferences always helps.

E.Okafor is playing for a team that is not going anywhere, even with the addition of JRich, they won't be going anywhere close to where the Warriors are heading in the next few years. Okafor could be the low post player Warriors have always wanted. To help defend the rim, finish pick and rolls, get physical with the pool of talened big men in the West, plus he might be just as smart as A. Foyle! I'm sure he would appreciate the environment of an intelligent fan base of the bay area.

With the addition of either player, this Warriors team would be much bigger, while still fast and athletic as hell with Monta at point, sharing ball handling duties with Jackon/Buki/Bellineli. I'm already curious to see if Coach Smart will assign ball handling duties to Bellineli in the summer league, i think it would be smart to. With the break up of the speedy Suns, the new trend in the West is to become bigger. Suns got bigger, Portland will be a monster, Lakers, Jazz, Hornets are all loaded with big talented players, Warriors need to follow the trend and sign one of these players if they want a piece of the conference championship.

This FanPost is a submission from a member of the mighty Golden State of Mind community. While we're all here to throw up that W, these words do not necessarily reflect the views of the GSoM Crew. Still, chances are the preceding post is Unstoppable Baby!

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i realized

don’t overpay for Smith, but instead use our $$ to push the price on him so that we can steal Childress. Smith’s drive and ethic is questionable, and I think that we might end up overpaying for someone whose development might underwhelm.

by dhp318 on Jul 3, 2008 2:31 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I read the article on ESPN too, but i’m not too thrill about the stealing Childress as much as signing Smith. Childress is an inexperienced twinner (G-F), isn’t dominant in any particular position and get easily pushed around. Anthony Randolph can easily end up being better than Childress in a year. True that Smith’s drive and work ethic might be questionable, but think back to Jackson, Harrington, Baron, which one of those players made you think they had good work ethics?? Smith is much less of a head cast for Nellie to handle compare to those guys.

by buzzer beater on Jul 3, 2008 2:41 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

agreed on both fronts

childress is mediocre at best. i’ll cry if we spent more than $3MM on him. i’d rather have pietrus.

smith is a beast. anyone who has played fantasy ball can tell you that. if he can put up numbers like he has over the past two years with a “bad attitude”, i’d guess that he would DOMINATE at GS playing loose under Nellie. he might be redundant with AR, but smith is a proven commodity. best case, we have interchangeable parts, worst case we trade one of them down the road.

monta, smith, wright and biedrins is a pretty damn solid, intriguing core (and probably a matchup nightmare) no matter who you put in the 5th spot.

by b.radley on Jul 3, 2008 4:01 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

why is everyone down on bench players?

does anyone realize that we have no playable bench players left after losing barnes, pietrus, and biedrins? Except Harrington, but our lineup of Baron/Ellis/Jack/Harrington/Biedrins was the most productive starting line up… Having a solid bench is crucial and I really like him as a role player…

by dhp318 on Jul 3, 2008 4:33 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

like is said...

i’d take him for $3MM, but more than that and i’d prefer to sign pietrus, or get maggette with the MLE or slightly more that that, since most everyone else can only offer him the MLE. he’s infinitely more valuable than childress. that’s really all we’re saying. don’t overpay for him.

by b.radley on Jul 3, 2008 4:36 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

oh, and better yet, let's get james jones

he should command more than childress, but i bet they end up getting paid something similar. others are suggesting him elsewhere and they are right. i’d pay more for him than for childress, and he’d be a better fit (a little older, and a lights-out shooter). i bet he goes for the MLE, tops. better spent on him than childress.

ok, i’m done dissing childress now. :)

by b.radley on Jul 3, 2008 4:44 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Childress

I think Childress is a better player than Pietrus. He shot 57% from the field last year compared to Pietrus’ 44%, shot over 80% from the free-throw line compared to Pietrus’ 67% and even shot better than Pietrus from downtown despite three-point shooting not being one of his strengths. I would rather have Childress than Pietrus as he is a more efficient player, as the stats show, and he is a year younger.

by zaki on Jul 5, 2008 10:33 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

nothing excites me about childress

hes a twinner like you said above, and doesnt do anything special or anything more than our current guys can do. Love the idea of Okafor and beans down low, if only we can also grab like heinrich to run the point

by cuse7284 on Jul 3, 2008 3:02 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

no and no

okafor wouldn’t be a good fit at all, and hinrich sucks

"It's not my fault your team's so shitty." -Steve Friend, head coach, Chabot College, to Laney College's head coach, who asked why we scored so many runs after we beat Laney 30-3 in 2006

by flipgatey3 on Jul 3, 2008 4:23 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

please extrapolate what you mean.

Okafor is what Mully would call the type of player that we don’t have on our roster. Just like the way he describe the upside of Richard Hendrix. Clearly the warriors are hoping to have a player like Okafor.

by buzzer beater on Jul 3, 2008 11:20 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

3pt ability?

Um, what exactly makes you think that Josh Smith has “3 point shooting ability”? His career 26% from behind the arc (maxing out at 30.9% in his second year) doesn’t suggest “ability” to me. I’d take him over Harrington any day of the week too, but let’s be realistic about what he is and not give him attributes he doesn’t actually have.

by jae on Jul 3, 2008 3:19 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

He is only 22.

Al had a horrible 3 ball when he came into the league. Smith has a nice stroke, but remeber he is only a couple years removed from shooting the hs 3. Give Smith whatever he wants. I am tired of this crap about “character issues” Just because the guy doesn’t have the motivation of Dwight Howard doesn’t mean he has character issues. If you want to compete next year start out by locking up Smith and Monta for the next 5/6 years. If you want to be a mediocre team that doesn’t make it to the playoff sign that skinny bitch Childress.

Eveland rocks! Eveland rocks! Somewhere Drew Carey just smiled.

by miggyk2 on Jul 3, 2008 3:30 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

So what evidence do you have that he has the ability? Because Harrington developed the shot means that Smith will? Hmmm. That’s some, how shall I put it, totally moronic logic.

by jae on Jul 3, 2008 10:42 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

a better to say it is that Josh Smith has the capability to become a decent 3pt shooter. He’s got a nice smooth shooting stroke (oh and he happens to be a lefty…in case you haven’t notice Mully’s perference on picking his players lol), the reason why he hasn’t been shooting a lot 3’s and making alot of them is because he finds it more exciting to throw in monster dunks on people. he’s never really had to rely on 3’s, just like monta’s game, they were both successful in other ways, but that doesn’t mean they can’t become good 3pt shooters. Smith’s stroke is actually more effortless than monta’s, i wouldn’t be surprised if Smith becomes a decent 3pt shooter like Harrington or T.Murphy, If you play enough fantasy bball, you saw a progression of Murphy’s game when he added that 3pt shot. He can easily lead the Warriors in 3pts made in a game on any given night. If he decides to work on his shot, i don’t see why he can’t become a 35-39% 3pt shooter

by buzzer beater on Jul 3, 2008 11:31 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

ok, let me clarify. He has 3pt shooting ability, but it’s not his speciality compared to harrington. how’s that?

by buzzer beater on Jul 3, 2008 3:22 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

i wouldn't say

“ability” when he shoots 26%. more like liability. but i see what you are saying.

"It's not my fault your team's so shitty." -Steve Friend, head coach, Chabot College, to Laney College's head coach, who asked why we scored so many runs after we beat Laney 30-3 in 2006

by flipgatey3 on Jul 3, 2008 4:24 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Josh Smith

is a “meast” (sorry Sean Taylor) him signing and pairing him with monta and jackson. People need to stop underrating jack, he was as valuable to this team as baron was. Baron could just carry us to 1 win without him in the lineup. But a lineup of Monta,Jack,Smith,Harrington or Vince Carter, Biedrins. and if we sign Buike and Pietrus. We got a good team. WE BELIEVE shall never die

by Dub4lif3 on Jul 3, 2008 6:44 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

+1

But is there anyway we could get Vince Carter and Josh Smith and not go over salary cap?

by warriorsalltheway on Jul 3, 2008 8:41 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

i have no idea what you just said

by buzzer beater on Jul 3, 2008 11:33 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

3 point liability?

why are people getting on smith for his lack of 3pt skill? do you guys not realize that monta cant shoot 3s? but everybody praises him for being the future of this franchise…smith can defend which the warriors need cause from what we see, they dont defend at all! from what we saw in round 1 against the celts, smith has a bright upside

i want a bike, like a beach cruiser of somthin like that - Baron Davis

by boomdizzle5 on Jul 3, 2008 7:04 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

yes, finally. thank you

by buzzer beater on Jul 3, 2008 11:34 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Smith > Brand

I like Brand more overall and I think he is more consistent, but he is old. Smith is for sure the type of player that I would like for our future. It keeps Oracle fun!

The Time Is Now! Win Warriors Win!

by ballin on Jul 3, 2008 9:46 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Yes, bring J.Smith to Oracle. Brand is not coming to the Warriors, we should all get over him by now. Let’s think about more realistic pieces that we can add.

by buzzer beater on Jul 3, 2008 11:40 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs