Los Angeles Lakers: 3 reasons why signing J.R. Smith was a bad move
3. J.R. Smith will be out of game-shape
If you’re a fan of any team that has been linked to J.R. Smith over the past few months, you’ve no doubt seen footage all over the web of him taking no prisoners during workouts.
I have zero doubts that he’s in great shape. After all, this is still an elite athlete we are talking about. However, footage against rec-league ballers or solo footage means nothing to me. If you base your assumptions of a player’s skill set based on footage shot in such an environment, you’d be led to believe that Ben Simmons is an elite outside shooter.
From a conditioning perspective alone, playing against the best of the best night in and night out is a whole different beast to those workouts we’ve seen on Instagram. I think that it’s going to be incredibly difficult for Smith to hit the ground running by the time the playoffs start.
One could argue that a factor in Smith’s favor is that the entire NBA will have been on hiatus for four months by the time it returns, increasing the potential for rust and poor conditioning to be widespread.
However, by that point, it’ll have been nearly two years since Smith last graced an NBA court. Four months is shorter than the offseason for any team that didn’t make it to the NBA Finals. On the other hand, returning to the NBA after two years away from the game and playing at a high level is incredibly rare, unless your name is Michael Jordan.
This isn’t accounting for the fact that J.R. has one month to learn Frank Vogel’s offensive and defensive schemes. Once again, it’s possible that Smith absorbs all of this information like a sponge and blows away my expectations. However, based on his history of exhibiting both questionable on-court IQ and off-court work ethic, I’m highly skeptical that this will be the case.
Next. Examining Zach LaVine’s potential fit with the team. dark
How do you feel about J.R. Smith joining the Los Angeles Lakers? Do you think it’s a bad move like I do, or do you think it’s one the team needed to make? Either way, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.