Love him or hate him he’s entertaining and on Sunday the reigning Sixth Man of the Year J.R. Smith returned to the court. We all know and rather not speak about the massacre that was the Spurs game, one that saw the Knicks down by almost 40 points in a performance that hasn’t been seen in the Garden under Coach Woodson’s watch. Smith had little impact in his first game back going 1-for-9 from the field for five points and team high four turnovers per NBA.com. It would be foolish to get carried away with Smith’s less than spectacular performance. If anything is consistent about J.R. is that he will look like the second coming of John Starks on some nights and other nights look like Stephon Marbury 2.0.
The key thing to take away from Smith’s return is the
countdown to the possible exit of fan favorite and virtually the team’s only
asset sans Carmelo Anthony; Iman Shumpert.
Frank Isola of the Daily News thinks Shumpert might be closer towards a
Garden exit than the starting lineup. In his the column he reports “The rest of the league seems to value Iman more than the Knicks do,” said one Eastern
Conference executive. “And his value is high.”
It will be interesting to see how Woodson uses
Smith, Shumpert and neophyte Tim Hardaway Jr. The early success of the rookie
has made someone available and it will be interesting to see how it unfolds.
It’s no surprise that Woodson and Smith have a great relationship and Woodson
has gotten the more out of Smith than any coach he has had while in the league.
These factors set up for an interesting next couple of months. If Smith plays
like the reigning Sixth Man than adios Shumpert, but if Shumpert flourishes
both Smith and Woodson might be given a pink slip at year’s end. Damn it’s great to have J.R. back!
