NBA Top 50: Josh Smith (No. 30)

Josh Smith, originally uploaded by Joel Kimmel Illustrator.

OtB is counting down the days 'til the NBA 2009-10 season tips off by ranking the top 50 players in the league. On Sunday there are 30 days left.

There are 30 days left 'til the NBA regular season gets underway. That means there are two days left 'til training camps get fully underway. That means we have a month of days 'til we get games. It means we have one day left for each to count down the top 30 NBA players. Thirty days, thirty players, thirty teams? Well, yes, but the league that does not have league in its title doesn't quite work that way. In a perfect world, each team would have one of the top 30 guys in the league. In a perfect world, every team would end the season at .500. In a perfect world, everyone dies of boredom.

Here to relieve us is our #30 NBA athlete, Josh Smith. Now, the Smith in Atlanta this season not named Joe may not seem to scream individuality and originality from every single pore of his existence. Doesn't seem to. His name doesn't explode off the page/screen, and he doesn't produce headlines like certain other guys on and off this list. What he does do is produce in ways never before thought possible on the court. When you talked about a revolution in the forward position(s) early in the aughts, who thought guys like Gerald Wallace and Josh Smith were coming down the pine?

71797182SC011_heat_hawks, originally uploaded by teddy_nguyen2004.

The two have been written about together, and I would be remiss not to cite those that have come before. Seriously, if you haven't copped the Macrophenomenal Almanac, what the hell have you been doing? Suffice it to say, the comparison is apt. Smith has regularly been a beast defensively, similar to Wallace in the accrual of an impolite amount of steals and blocks. They both score a bit over 15 a game, they both rebound over 7 per, and they both fly around the court with what can only be deemed reckless abandon. The only difference is Gerald Wallace allowed the recklessness to leave his body abandoned, and Josh Smith seems to have internalized it all.

Wallace had a rough season physically. Smith struggled this season after the early ankle injury. It certainly slowed him down, but throughout the season I got the feeling something else was bugging him. Okay, look. I'm not going to hide anything from you. I don't know if it makes for the best writing, but at least it's honest. I spent almost an hour searching high and low across the blogosphere (and maybe my searching powers just aren't what they used to be), and I could not find a reason besides the ankle for Smith's dip in tenacity this past season. I could've sworn someone close to him passed away at the beginning of the season, but it seems that was Zach Randolph's grandma and it just happened to be around the same time. Silly me.

I don't want to give too much creedence to cheap conclusions, but thinking Smith was going through the season with a specter hovering about him has to mean something. He just didn't seem as able to break free for rim rattlers. Not free from the defense. Free from himself. In the playoffs against Miami, J-Smoove caught some flack for showboating at the end of a blowout. Maybe it wasn't the smartest moove, but you can't fault the energy there. In a way, I think it suggests a break out season this year. And I'm not alone in this. We'll see what happens, but one thing's for certain, Smith won't be taking the traditional path. His star doesn't necessarily shine the brightest, and the skill set's not exactly number one dude material. Still, he does have that catalytic nature that all good teams need to get from somewhere. Having it come from a player with such a ridiculous combination of skill and explosive talent makes your team all the more dangerous. The Hawks had a pretty good offseason, and it all puts Smith in a position to wreak all the more havoc.

Posted in: Atlanta Hawks,Josh Smith,NBA Top 50