Josh Smith Turns Kenneth Faried's Jab into War of Words
The 2014-15 NBA season is less than a week old, and we've already got our first player-on-player beef—this one stemming from some brutally honest postgame comments Kenneth Faried made about Detroit Pistons forward Josh Smith.
"Josh Smith, we let him keep shooting. And he ended up with 25, but he still kept shooting. He shot them out of the game," Faried said after the Denver Nuggets notched a season-opening win over Smith's Pistons on Oct. 29, via NBCSports.com's Dan Feldman.
True enough, Smith's hot 6-of-10 first quarter put Detroit ahead early. And, predictably, his 3-of-12 finish allowed Denver to take control down the stretch.
The overall shot chart isn't a complete disaster, but there were certainly a few too many attempts from beyond Smith's range.
This is hardly a new issue for Smith. He's long been pilloried for his refusal to scrap perimeter shots from his repertoire. For his career, Smith has hit just 34.9 percent of his long-two attempts. Despite that inaccuracy (and his far more effective interior game), a full quarter of Smith's career tries have come from between 16 and 23 feet, per Basketball-Reference.com.
His career three-point percentage is a robust 27.9 percent.
Smith, it seems, is sensitive to criticism of his shot selection. So much so that he fired back immediately at Faried's factual assessment of a basketball game by making it personal—never a great debate tactic.
Per Goodwill (via SBNation's Drew Garrison), Smith added that, "I don't respond to nobody with dreadlocks who plays basketball."
That would ostensibly disqualify Faried.
Faried merely said what everyone else has been thinking and writing about Smith for years. It's surprising when a player offers up blunt honesty. Canned postgame answers are the norm, and even if Smith's not happy about Faried's thoughts, we should all be feeling somewhat refreshed by this rare instance of the interview truth bomb.
The NBA at large, though, might be a little annoyed.
Feldman wrote: "Right now, all of the Pistons’ future opponents are telling Faried: 'Shhhhh.' If Smith ever gets wise to why opponents leave him open outside the paint, he might stop falling for it and taking—and bricking—so many jumpers."
We've yet to hear a response from Faried, but he's got time. Denver won't see Detroit again until Feb. 6. That's plenty of time for J-Smoove to work on his stroke...or develop a thicker skin.
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