Knicks Rumors: 5 Reasons New York Must Pursue J.R. Smith

Within the next two months, Wilson Chandler, Kenyon Martin and J.R. Smith will all be free to come back to the NBA.

They all signed deals in China during the lockout that withheld them from departing until their regular season is over. My guess is that they thought the lockout wouldn't end because the basketball league in China even warned NBA players that they would be unable to play in the NBA until the regular season in the league they signed with ended.

Martin has already fled, which means Chandler and Smith will be making their pilgrimages back to the United States by March.

Chandler will be retained by the Denver Nuggets, but what about Smith? Word is that the New York Knicks are extremely interested in the services of the 26-year-old and will be looking to acquire him once he makes his return.

Where they'll get the money for him I have no idea. But we'll take a look anyway at five reasons why Smith must go after and pick up one of the league's most volatile shooters.

Much-Needed Three-Point Help

Usually, you'd expect Mike D'Antoni-led offenses to be high-octane with a high chance of a lot of three-pointers raining down.

Unfortunately for him, this isn't the Phoenix Suns and there aren't many shooters on this team. Even though the New York Knicks are making seven three-pointers per game, seventh in the league, they also happen to rank near the bottom in three-point percentage. At a little under 31 percent from beyond the arc, the Knicks rank 24th in that category.

There just aren't many three-point shooters on this team. Carmelo Anthony, Iman Shumpert and Josh Harrellson are the only players on the team averaging at least a three-pointer per game. None of those players are shooting better than 36 percent. None of those players are pure three-point shooters either, as Anthony continues to waste his driving and post-up ability on careless shots from beyond the arc.

With J.R. Smith on the team, the Knicks add a deadly shooter as well as one that has shot 37 percent for his career. He's shot 39 percent or better in four of the past five seasons and has shot as well as 40 percent from beyond the arc. Since Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire take up so much attention already, Smith would be able to pick and choose his shots.

Not to mention that he's lethal whether he's being defended or not. It's up to him on whether or not the shot goes in.

Space the Floor

There are so many things wrong with the New York Knicks offense that I don't even know where to begin.

For one, losing out on Chauncey Billups was a death sentence for this team. When you have two pure scorers like Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire who aren't facilitators and don't enjoy passing the ball, you need to have a point guard in there to counterbalance the shots between the two. With a point guard, the two scorers also find themselves getting easier scores.

Without Billups, you can clearly see how abysmal the Knicks offense is. No rhythm or flow, just five players running around and hoping something good happens after 24 seconds. Anthony may be able to thrive as a one-man team, but Stoudemire doesn't have the luxury of being able to create his own shot as easily. He needed a point guard like Steve Nash, Raymond Felton or Billups to get him open looks.

Aside from the dilemma at the point, the fact that the team has no three-point threats is also a concern. Anthony may be a three-point shooter, but you don't want to limit him as one. The Knicks need a pure shooter from the outside that can come in and attract some attention out there, so players like Anthony and Stoudemire have more room to roam around within the perimeter.

If you have Anthony jacking up every three-pointer, the team isn't going anywhere. The three-point shooting should be another player's priority, not the leader. Allow J.R. Smith to take a hold of the reins as the primary three-point shooter, so that he can make some shots, get some focus out on the perimeter and allow Amar'e and Carmelo to drive.

A Third Option

The New York Knicks have Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire—two players who constantly score 25 points every night and can single-handedly devastate an opponent from their sheer offensive skills alone.

Where do the Knicks rank in points per game? Seventeenth. Even though they have two of the league's best scorers, the Knicks are ranked behind the likes of the Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers and Utah Jazz. They're posting up 94 points per game and giving up 95 to their opponent, which explains the dismal 6-8 start.

That's why the acquisition of Tyson Chandler was such an ill-conceived idea. Sure it was good to have a tough defender down in the post, but there's only so much he can do on defense. Then what happens with the offense? Chandler certainly can't score without a point guard and the Knicks happened to get rid of theirs in order to acquire Tyson.

Currently, Iman Shumpert is the third-leading scorer on the team at 13 points per game. Solid numbers for a rookie, no doubt, but the Knicks need more than 39 percent shooting from their third option in order to start winning games.

Cue J.R. Smith. He's not the greatest at creating his own shot, but he can at least consistently contribute on a nightly basis. As long as the Knicks keep him out beyond the perimeter, Smith will be all the Knicks need as far as acquiring a third option goes. Once they have him, Amar'e and Carmelo will get easier scores inside and Smith will get easier shots from outside.

Added Strength to the Backcourt

Let's take a look at the New York Knicks' depth chart at the 1 and 2. I advise you to look away if you're squeamish.

At the point, the Knicks sport Iman Shumpert, Toney Douglas, Mike Bibby and Jeremy Lin. At the shooting guard, the depth chart reads as Landry Fields and Bill Walker. Six players compile the Knicks backcourt and possibly one or two of them would find starting jobs anywhere else outside of New York.

If you have noneffective players in the backcourt, what gives defenses the right to defend them? If each of your point guards are shooting below 40 percent and your shooting guards are failing to average more than eight points per game, you're going to end up seeing severe problems on how the offense is being run.

Why would a defense pay attention to Douglas, who is shooting 33 percent, when they can double-team Amar'e Stoudemire instead? No NBA team is worried about a point guard who shoots 23 percent from deep.

As for those shooting guards? I don't know what happened. Fields plain fell off the face of the earth. He's hitting 19 percent of his three-pointers only one year after converting on 39 percent of them. His backup in Bill Walker is converting on 31 percent of his three-pointers.

Seriously, who would guard any of these guys when all the scoring comes from the frontcourt?

Throw J.R. Smith in as a backup shooting guard. Don't allow him to start since there is a serious desperation for depth off the bench. Allow him to be utilized as a spark, hit 38 percent of his shots and watch as Carmelo and Amar'e suddenly get freed up for open shots because their teammates are actually shooting above 30 percent from the three-point line.

Needed Depth off the Bench

Prior to the start of the season, I had the New York Knicks finishing atop the Atlantic Division.

I still stand by that since we're so early into the season, but I'm definitely seeing some obvious concerns.

One of those concerns, which I knew of coming in, was the fact that the team has absolutely no bench. When they acquired Carmelo Anthony from Denver, they traded away every role player that could have been utilized as a reliable scorer or defender off the bench. Raymond Felton, Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari all departed, among others, and the Knicks were left with two stars, a superb point guard and no bench.

The Miami Heat last year showed us how a team can fare without a bench. They struggled to not only gel as a cohesive unit, but they also had to deal with the losses of their two best players off the bench. Those losses hurt the Heat as they lost out on their sharpshooter and their best rebounder and post defender. Without Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem, they basically had what the Knicks have today.

Coming off the bench as the Knicks' top producers are Toney Douglas, Bill Walker and Josh Harrellson. If it wasn't for Harrellson being a possible steal of the draft, the Knicks may very well have the worst bench that the league has ever seen. It truly does not get much worse than having Toney Douglas, shooting 33 percent from the field, as a sixth man.

If the Knicks add J.R. Smith, they need to send him to the bench. He can definitely play when Anthony and Stoudemire are out there, but he needs to start on the bench so that the team could look for something from their second unit. They're not going to survive if the second unit consists of Carmelo being surrounded by a lineup of Douglas, Walker, Jared Jeffries and Harrellson.

It's not fair to Anthony and it's not fair to the Knicks faithful. The Knicks need a player like Smith, so that the team can actually rely on someone to score outside of Anthony and Stoudemire to score when either of them are on the bench.