Forget Joe Smith

["Damon Graff"<dgraff@mfi.com>]

     I've been out in San Francisco this past week on a business trip, and 
     I'm on the plane now heading back to Boston.  There has been a lot of 
     talk on the list about Joe Smith, and I'd like us to put those things 
     to rest.  While we could probably get Smith for even less than 
     Chauncey, there are no indications that we'd want him, especially 
     given the ridiculous amount of money that his agent has considered 
     he's going to be worth in the FA market.  Here's an article from the 
     SF Examiner on Smith and the Warriors sorry situation:
     
     Joe Smith Comes Up Small Again
     Rocket's Willis has season highs vs. Warrior forward
     
        Houston - Word of the Joe Smith fraud is starting to spread around 
     the league.
        People who see him for the first time regularly ask what happened 
     to him, wondering what happened to the player who was picked first in 
     the 1995 draft.
        His offensive game is a mess, his rebounding has declined, and his 
     defense ... well, the topic is usually avoided in polite conversation.
        Opponents prefer to dwell on the exploits of the player who 
     trampled all over smith for yet another season high, the way Kevin 
     Willis did Saturday night in the Rockets' 90-84 victory over the 
     Warriors.
        Willis greeted his former teammates warmly before the opening 
     tipoff, even giving smith a playful chest bump.  Then he ripped the 
     Warriors for 22 points and 19 rebounds, both his best outputs of the 
     season.
        Not all of them came against Smith, since the 6-foot-10 forward 
     wasn't around for long.  For the second time in the three-game Texas 
     trip that ended Saturday, Smith's minutes (25) were cut down by foul 
     difficulties.
        "Joe doesn't usually get into foul trouble," said coach P.J. 
     Carlesimo.  "That hurt us."
        Actually, it didn't.  Golden State might have had its second 
     straight victory after opening the season with nine losses in a row if 
     it had only managed to keep Smith on the bench longer.  With him out 
     of the game, the Warriors outscored the Charles Barkley-less Rockets, 
     42-37.
        If Smith were a hockey player, his plus-minus differential would 
     have gotten him sent down to the minors.
        His offensive numbers on Saturday were not quite horrible.  He 
     finished with 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting and eight rebounds, and is 
     now averaging 15.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 41.5 percent shooting.
        But numbers don't begin to tell the story of Smith's season-long 
     ineffectiveness.  Watching him let a perfect-pass in the lane go 
     through his legs for a turnover, committing a lane violation and 
     failing to hustle after a loose ball, that presents a more accurate 
     picture.
        Scouts from teams that at one point might have been interested in 
     trading for the free-agent-to-be have surely picked up on it.  And 
     they can't help but notice that the guy going on a scoring tear 
     against the Warriors is usually the one Smith is supposed to defend.
        Besides Willis, Matt Bullard (season-high-tying 12 points) and even 
     Othella Harrington took turns riddling Smith with points.  
     Shakespeare's Othello was said to be begging for a chance himself.
        In his defense, Smith said the matchup against the muscular Willis, 
     who has 2 inches and 20 pounds on him, presents some inherent 
     difficulties.
        "He's strong, he's physical and he's very aggressive," Smith said 
     of his friend and tormentor.  "Offensively he's got a jump hook that's 
     tough to stop.  It's tough going up against a guy like that."
        And to think the Warriors figured Willis was expendable because 
     they had Smith as their power forward for years to come.
        Willis' big night overshadowed the terrific job the Warriors did on 
     All-Star center Hakeem Olajuwon, who was held to nine points on 
     4-of-14 shooting, mostly by Erick Dampier.
        But the Warriors couldn't turn that effort into a victory because 
     their offense (38.2 percent from the field) kept to its standard as 
     the most inept in the league.  Aside from Latrell Sprewell (a 
     game-high 28 points), they had nobody else who could create a shot, 
     which killed their chances to overcome the 73-62 margin the Rockets 
     opened with 8:25 left.
        Suffice it to say Bimbo Coles taking 18-footers was their 
     second-best option.  And this was on a night when he was making some 
     of them, going 7-for-16 for 15 points.
        "I think we need to get some guys better scoring chances," Coles 
     said.  "We just need to have some guys step up and make some buckets 
     when we need them."
        Smith would seem to be the logical candidate.
     
     
                - Damon