When J.R. Smith was in New York, it was clear that he was struggling. The cold streaks were more often than the hot streaks, so when Smith was traded to the Cavaliers, we knew that it was either going to be a potentially championship winning move or a Playoff destroying move. Lucky for Cleveland it was a good move, a great move in fact. If it weren’t for Shumpert and Smith, they probably would’ve gone out earlier in the Playoffs.
On the New York side, it was an understandable trade, the two were moping about and it was obvious that Phil Jackson needed to shake things up. But it seems that Jackson had extra motive when it came to J.R. Smith.
“J.R. had been exhibiting some delinquent behavior and had gotten into the habit of coming late to team meetings, or missing them altogether,” Jackson says. “Also, Shump and Tim [Hardaway Jr.] were regressing, so I decided to meet with them separately and try to find out what, if anything, was bothering them.”
Smith was first on the list. “We talked about his statement to the press that our shooting guard depth was going to be the team’s asset, but so far it hadn’t worked out that way,” Jackson says. “He was supposed to carry the scoring load for the second unit and he wasn’t doing the job. I also said that because of his unacceptable behavior, he had two strikes against him with this team. He didn’t really respond. He’s a very sensitive guy, with his big doe eyes. He looked like he was going to tear up. But he finally responded that he was going through some issues with his gal.”
Shumpert was next in line. “After he suffered a hip injury in Dallas, his game went rapidly downhill. Did he have any other issues to explain his decline? He said, ‘No. I don’t know what has gone wrong with my game.’ As with J. R., nothing got resolved.”
That sums up Smith really. It never just works out does it. Shumpert needs to look up to Tony Allen because his D can be great, but he tries to be an offensive beast and it just never works out.
