Originally Posted by
seasoned vet
SenorRoboto2k5 wrote:
Of course JR right now is like Kobe in his early years... but he's also a lot like Ricky Davis.
The difference is that Kobe got it. By his third year he was an effective starter, an All-Star who could score and play on a winning team.
Players like Ricky Davis and now JR never make that transition. JR has been a work in progress for too long now. It looks more and more like he'll just be another Ricky Davis. Obviously a great coach like Pop or Phil could force him to play right... or could get fed up with him and bury him on the bench.
- hate to bust your bubble, but Kobe didnt
'get it' until a few years ago....yeah i said it.....TILL A FEW YEARS AGO. after he gave up on his teamates against Phoenix in the playoffs. die hard KB fans will never admit this though.
- what got Kobe through at that time was him being an NBA golden boy. also, similar to teams like the Knicks and the Yankees, the Lakers had a reputation and had been rebuilding for a while, Kobe was the new youth so it made him untouchable. his first coaches were scared to bench him so it took him alot longer to 'get it'. one can only imagine what Kobe could have done had Del Harris disciplined him early on in his career, and taught him what a teamate is first then a leader.
- i will say in Kobe's defense, JR has been benched and publicly humiliated by his coach and he's still out there trying to show the world what he can do. so idk. maybe JR is a Ricky Davis and will never get it. and maybe if Kobe would have gotten the same discipline as JR early on maybe he wouldnt have gotten it either......
You're REALLY reaching with this one.
Kobe didn't get how to play unselfishly until the Lakers landed Pau Gasol, but just because he didn't "get" how to play like a complete teamplayer doesn't mean he didn't "get" how to play on an NBA team. JR Smith doesn't even get the latter. Kobe may not have gotten the rightdiscipline to curb his selfishness, but he could still "get it" to the point where he could adjust his offense, learn new skills, score effectively,and most of all, play an ALL-STAR role on three championship teams. JR doesn't get how to do that; he just knows how to chuck up the same predictableshots.
There are plenty of players that don't "get it" like you say, and play unselfish team ball, but are still successful NBA players on good teams. Ijust watched Joe Johnson hog the ball throughout the last minutes of the fourth quarter against the Celtics. He doesn't "get it" like you say,and there's no one disciplining him for taking bad shots, but he's still a leader that does a lot of things on a solid team. The difference with JR isthat he doesn't get any of that, which is why he hasn't been a good NBA player yet.
I don't even know how Kobe really got into serious discussion here. He's been an All-Star and a champion and JR hasn't come close to anythinghe's accomplished. JR has the athletic skills to do the things Kobe or MJ did, but look how much that really means.
I apologize if I sound like I'm hating on JR if you're one of his fans, but it's hard to disagree with the fact that he doesn't get how to playon a team; he just knows how to do nice dunks, stroke a shot, jump high (but can't apply it well). Until he does, he won't be a consistent player or avery big piece of any team. I will say, if he does get how to play well, he'll be fun to watch.