JR Smith - come to Houston, get served

by Xiane on Jan 27, 2010 2:37 PM CST

According to Jim Rome, JR Smith will be served tonight in Houston. With legal papers.

According to his story, attorney Rusty Hardin (with an "i" and of Roger Clemens fame) defended JR in a case where he broke someone's jaw (allegedly) and (allegedly) JR stiffed HardIn out of money due for his services. At any rate, HardIn is evidently suing JR Smith. If you know much about lawyers, you know it is actually very, very rare that they sue their clients, so it makes me wonder about the backstory.

I hope JR's served as he's being introduced, personally.

We've heard all the rumors flying about a trade for JR, and possibly sending Battier over to get him. If you ask me, (and you didn't), trading for a guy who goes around (allegedly) breaking jaws and stiffing the professionals who do work for him for Battier, who might end up a senator or something seems misguided at best.

I'm not usually one to run up the "character" flag (I didn't with Artest) but this strikes me as a time when flying those colors makes sense.

JR Smith? No, thanks.

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I would love for this trade to happen.

As a Nuggets fan, I’ve been witness to J.R.‘s struggles this season. I guess the question for Houston is – do you need scoring or defense more at this point? J.R. is the only player in NBA history to have notched multiple 10+ made 3p games, but as has been mentioned, has offcourt issues and doesn’t make the smartest decisions on offense or defense. He can light the other team up, but he can also turn off the lights on your team.

Whereas Battier has a proven track record of being an excellent defender, not so much a scorer.

With Houston’s struggles on offense, and Denver’s need for a better and more consistent wing defender, I think that this trade would benefit both teams IF Houston would be prepared to handle J.R.‘s inevitable antics. And from the sound of it, it doesn’t seem to be so.

Swats.

by BeefySwats on Jan 27, 2010 2:56 PM CST reply actions

There was a snippy discussion of this in the fanposts the other day.

My take, and I think that of at least a few others around here, is that the Rockets don’t need offense so desperately that they are willing to give up a great defensive player that also is a team leader/glue guy, even without JR’s character issues. I also don’t think that JR adds much that we can’t get from Budinger and Ariza (whose offensive stats are quite similar to Smith’s).

I think that intangibles aside, I’m wouldn’t want Houston to make the Battier/Smith trade. And the fact that Shane’s intangibles are incredibly positive and JR’s are incredibly negative just push the proposal into “laughable.”

by Moondebah on Jan 27, 2010 3:20 PM CST up reply actions