Bad news. No more JR

[picnroll]

link (http://www.denverpost.com/nuggets/ci_5793474)

Karl sends Smith to the bench
By Chris Dempsey
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 05/01/2007 02:45:06 PM MDT


J.R. Smith of the Denver Nuggets (AP file)The biggest news coming out of the Nuggets video session Tuesday morning was coach George Karl announcing he was benching reserve guard J. R. Smith.

"He's done," Karl said.

Smith's mistakes throughout the series have grated on Karl, leading to the decision to bench him for Game 5 to be held Wednesday in San Antonio. The final straw apparently was Smith's ill-advised 3-pointer with 25.7 seconds left in Game 4 on Monday night with the Nuggets trailing 93-89.

"And then, of course the one with eight seconds to go, from 50 feet," Karl said. "I just love the dignity of the game being insulted right in front of me."

Karl said he had not talked to Smith about the benching by the time he met reporters at around noon. Smith is averaging 4.5 points and 2.3 rebounds in 11.8 minutes per game during the playoff series, which the Nuggets trail, 3-1.

[DDS4]

Maybe Karl should bench AI for dribbling too much while he's at it.

[picnroll]

Loveable Karl throws another of his players under the bus to the press. Good for team morale too.

[ElNono]

Shit, I just posted the same thing while you were posting it too. I swear I searched.

[picnroll]

Shit, I just posted the same thing while you were posting it too. I swear I searched.
Don't worry, at most you'll get a weeks suspension.

[easjer]

The best way for your future core players to learn in this sort of environment is to bench them.

Karl is a fucking dirtbag. Way to throw a guy who is at least making an effort to contribute under the fucking bus, man. Instead of telling AI to share it with Melo when Bown is on him or something that might be useful.

Did JR make some errors? Yeah. Worth benching him for? No.

Fucking asshole. Dignity of the game, huh? :ihit

I particularly love how he did the appropriate and respectful adult move of telling the media and making a spectacle before informing his player. I don't like the Nuggets or JR Smith so I don't know why I care, but this just pissed me off.

[ElNono]

Karl talking about dignity?. And he talked to the media before he talked to Smith?

[Bwild]

Doh! Freaking Karl is pathetic. How about calling a timeout when Popovich goes small and getting the right guys in the game? How about drawing up a play where Melo or AI get the inbounds and JR isn't forced to take that desperation 3? He can't blame the refs any longer or the flopping Ginobili so he goes after one of his own for a scapegoat. Pathetic.
:depressed

[bigfish22]

Well I guess, it's okay for him to cry now because his season is over. But only him!

[SpursWoman]

What a dick....I felt bad for JR after the last game, but this is even worse. :(

[Supergirl]

well, considering how short the rotation Denver has been playing with is already, I'd say this move hurts them anyway. JR may have made some boneheaded mistakes, but integrating a new player into the rotation is not a good idea at a critical juncture, and if they try and play with 1 less the other guys will be even more fatigued.

[Trainwreck2100]

Doh! Freaking Karl is pathetic. How about calling a timeout when Popovich goes small and getting the right guys in the game? How about drawing up a play where Melo or AI get the inbounds and JR isn't forced to take that desperation 3? He can't blame the refs any longer or the flopping Ginobili so he goes after one of his own for a scapegoat. Pathetic.
:depressed


He wasn't forced to take that 3, there was like 20 seconds left

[degenerate_gambler]

that's too bad....

smith is a fuck-up and his fuck-ups worked to the Spurs benefit.

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

Maybe if Karl didn't cut his minutes in half from the regular season, he wouldn't be in such a slump. I'm pretty sure he had a problem making a groove for himself in 11 minutes when had 23 in the season.

[SilverPlayer]

This is why I have always hated George Karl. Behind that chubby facade of someone who loves the game is someone who only cares about one thing. Himself. He's a con artist. He talks a good game, his teams are always scrappy, but never long term winners. They usually claw their way into things and then lose.

And Karl never fails to blame his team first, that is after he is done blaming the refs.

[Mr. Body]

I wonder, does he think Denver can win the series? Win or not - and likely not - he should endeavor to get his young talented player more experience. Let him play.

[mVp]

Karl is a fucking clown

[Spurminator]

Well, I guess nobody would have been upset about the Barry-for-Smith trade falling through if we'd known that both of them would be playing for us in the 2007 Playoffs.

[Cry Havoc]

Using sarcastic, heavy-handed comments to demean a player on your team?

That is freaking insane. Nugget fans should demand a new coach, and NOW. When I read this I was SURE it was a joke article until I saw the link.

[ducks]

beno for smith?

[ducks]

link (http://www.denverpost.com/nuggets/ci_5793474)

Karl sends Smith to the bench
By Chris Dempsey
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 05/01/2007 02:45:06 PM MDT


J.R. Smith of the Denver Nuggets (AP file)The biggest news coming out of the Nuggets video session Tuesday morning was coach George Karl announcing he was benching reserve guard J. R. Smith.

"He's done," Karl said.

Smith's mistakes throughout the series have grated on Karl, leading to the decision to bench him for Game 5 to be held Wednesday in San Antonio. The final straw apparently was Smith's ill-advised 3-pointer with 25.7 seconds left in Game 4 on Monday night with the Nuggets trailing 93-89.

"And then, of course the one with eight seconds to go, from 50 feet," Karl said. "I just love the dignity of the game being insulted right in front of me."

Karl said he had not talked to Smith about the benching by the time he met reporters at around noon. Smith is averaging 4.5 points and 2.3 rebounds in 11.8 minutes per game during the playoff series, which the Nuggets trail, 3-1.
had that three went in I wonder what karl would say

[Despot]

Wow

[Kobulingam]

WTF? He says this shit to reporters BEFORE talking to JR???? Karl is one fucking dumbass coach.

[ChumpDumper]

This is beyond contemptible. What exactly can a coach with 15+ years of playoff experience expect from a 21 year old player in his first playoff series?

One that didn't attend college?

Perfection?

Karl was a dumbass for putting JR in that situation in the first place.

[DarrinS]

That sucks. J.R. Smith is one of the best role players the Spurs have.

[Despot]

Why was J.R. in the game anyway? Who is to blame for that?

[leemajors]

i don't really sympathize with karl, but i imagine he has sat down with smith more than a few times this series and still isn't getting through at all. last resort?

[BeerIsGood!]

beno for smith?

Do it!

Seriously, I'd take Smith in a heartbeat as long as we didn't have to give up anything too valuable. The guy can shoot, is athletic, and in the Spurs system can be very productive. Karl has apparently burned the bridge by crying to the media before even telling Smith, so I say let's make an attempt at him.

[Bruno]

Diawara has the upside to be as good for Spurs than Smith.

I will be curious to see who Karl will choose between a player with some experience like Johnson and a rookie like Diawara who makes the transition from PF to SG this year. :spin

[BeerIsGood!]

i don't really sympathize with karl, but i imagine he has sat down with smith more than a few times this series and still isn't getting through at all. last resort?

When the kid is 21 with no playoff experience and has just seen his minutes cut by more than half to start the PO, what is sitting him down and talking to him going to do? It's Karl's responsibility to his team to put players in a situation to succeed, and he hasn't done that. Do you see Pop calling plays for Elson on the block? No, because he knows that's outside his realm and would set him up for failure.

[leemajors]

When the kid is 21 with no playoff experience and has just seen his minutes cut by more than half to start the PO, what is sitting him down and talking to him going to do? It's Karl's responsibility to his team to put players in a situation to succeed, and he hasn't done that. Do you see Pop calling plays for Elson on the block? No, because he knows that's outside his realm and would set him up for failure.
being told you are killing your team and losing games for them should not cause you to jack up wild threes. i'm not on karl's side here at all, but he has to be incredibly frustrated with smith at this point. smith has had plenty of chances to succeed, and has fucked up royally. smith was their best three point shooter this year, and denver has sucked from three this series. he had to be given chances.

[BeerIsGood!]

being told you are killing your team and losing games for them should not cause you to jack up wild threes. i'm not on karl's side here at all, but he has to be incredibly frustrated with smith at this point. smith has had plenty of chances to succeed, and has fucked up royally. smith was their best three point shooter this year, and denver has sucked from three this series. he had to be given chances.

He took one wild three, the others weren't outside of the Denver offense. Let's bench Barry too.

[aaronstampler]

He took one wild three, the others weren't outside of the Denver offense. Let's bench Barry too.


Barry's finished with a positive +/- every game this series. Smith with a negative. In fact, his is the worst on the team right now. Manu should expect some DerMarr Johnson in Game 5.

Or maybe Karl can just play a six man rotation and kill his guys.

[The Waco Kid]

That sucks. J.R. Smith is one of the best role players the Spurs have.
:lol

[2centsworth]

Demarr is zero threat from outside.

[exstatic]

Demarr is zero threat from outside.
I wouldn't say that. He had a bad year, but then his minutes were slashed. If you look at his career numbers, they're good. What he is is an EXTREMELY weak rebounder. That helps SA.

[judaspriestess]

Karl is projecting his anger at the fact he doesn't have a bench to compete with a team like the Spurs and the bench team they have.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

beno for smith?

Make it so.

[ShoogarBear]

And so the year 4 implosion of the Karl-Nuggets relationship begins.

[FromWayDowntown]

Barry's finished with a positive +/- every game this series. Smith with a negative. In fact, his is the worst on the team right now. Manu should expect some DerMarr Johnson in Game 5.

Or maybe Karl can just play a six man rotation and kill his guys.

I can't imagine that his plan for Game 5 doesn't include gigantic minutes for both Anthony and Iverson. Iverson will likely play 45-48 in regulation and I'd expect Anthony to be at least in the 42-45 range. He can conceivably rotate 5 guys through the other spots on the floor without doing too much damage, but if I were the Nuggets, I can't say that I think that's a recipe for taking 3 games in 5 days from a deep San Antonio team.

Dermarr Johnson, IIRC, was among the guys lit up by Manu in 2005.

[baseline bum]

I thought 100% this was an Onion article when I read it. That's sick to shit on a player like that to the media.

[Ocotillo]

And so the year 4 implosion of the Karl-Nuggets relationship begins.

Absolutely. I have always given Karl the benefit of the doubt thinking he was a good coach, just a bit of a hard ass with his players. His telling the media first is chickenshit pure and simple. The clock is running on him now.

[ATXSPUR]

karl = dick

[aaronstampler]

I can't imagine that his plan for Game 5 doesn't include gigantic minutes for both Anthony and Iverson. Iverson will likely play 45-48 in regulation and I'd expect Anthony to be at least in the 42-45 range. He can conceivably rotate 5 guys through the other spots on the floor without doing too much damage, but if I were the Nuggets, I can't say that I think that's a recipe for taking 3 games in 5 days from a deep San Antonio team.

Dermarr Johnson, IIRC, was among the guys lit up by Manu in 2005.


Well he pretty much has to play AI/Camby/Nene/Melo 48 minutes and Kleiza/Blake for the other 48.

See the dirty little secret nobody's talking about is that Najera is killing the Nuggets just as much as Smith is. Sure he hustles and gets offensive rebounds, but the guy can't score. Every time he's in the game we simply double off him and make life a living hell for AI and Carmelo. The Nuggets simply can't score when Najera is in the game and we pretty much go on a run whenever he's in there instead of Nene.

[DDUBB1770]

If he was so pissed about the ill advised 3 with 25.7 left what in the hell was he doing still in the game with 8 seconds left, pretty sure he couldnt have launced a 50 foot 3 from the bench, what an ass... man I wish Isiah would have just popped Karl him one after that brawl...

[davemaniscool]

Karl has always been unprofessional. Dressing down your own player to the media only hurts him and destroys whatever trust there may have been. Just think if your employer did that to you in a company newsletter.

[Cry Havoc]

Well he pretty much has to play AI/Camby/Nene/Melo 48 minutes and Kleiza/Blake for the other 48.

See the dirty little secret nobody's talking about is that Najera is killing the Nuggets just as much as Smith is. Sure he hustles and gets offensive rebounds, but the guy can't score. Every time he's in the game we simply double off him and make life a living hell for AI and Carmelo. The Nuggets simply can't score when Najera is in the game and we pretty much go on a run whenever he's in there instead of Nene.

Yeah, i kind of agree. Kleiza is at least a threat. He should see more playing time.

[ManuTim_best of Fwiendz]

i don't really sympathize with karl, but i imagine he has sat down with smith more than a few times this series and still isn't getting through at all. last resort?

The only reason Karl's actions suck, is he doesn't keep it between himself and a player. The fact that he calls out a young player like that, are markings of a bad coach. He's never gonna get anything out of J.R. Smith now.

Sure J.R. fucked up, and lots of coaches punish their players. But this guy has no class or conscience. He deserves what he gets in terms of getting owned (and outclassed) by Pop.

[makedamnsure]

man I feel for JR. Way to raise the guy's confidence for the future

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Damn, I wasn't expecting Karl to start throwing the players under the bus until next year

[exstatic]

Damn, I wasn't expecting Karl to start throwing the players under the bus until next year
Actually, he started last year with Kenyon. :dizzy

[Chris]

I actually had a little respect for Karl. Very unprofessional.

[boutons_]

Sit the player and STFU.

Tell the press without telling the player? Huge mistake.

[exstatic]

I actually had a little respect for Karl. Very unprofessional.
You must not have followed his career very closely. He does this at every stop, eventually.

[Samr]

Watching JR play against (read: for) the Spurs is a good thing, but this latest maneuver makes me really happy inside.

Remember kids, you too can be successful in life if you make public and obvious (-ly dirtbag) attempts to shift blame to everyone but yourself!

[FromWayDowntown]

Well he pretty much has to play AI/Camby/Nene/Melo 48 minutes and Kleiza/Blake for the other 48.

See the dirty little secret nobody's talking about is that Najera is killing the Nuggets just as much as Smith is. Sure he hustles and gets offensive rebounds, but the guy can't score. Every time he's in the game we simply double off him and make life a living hell for AI and Carmelo. The Nuggets simply can't score when Najera is in the game and we pretty much go on a run whenever he's in there instead of Nene.

I saw the +/- numbers on Najera today and will admit that I was mildly surprised at just how bad they've been with him on the floor in the last 2 games (-16, -10). He was +3 in each of the first two games.

Even if Najera was ridiculously bad, I don't think Karl is going to look at the +/- numbers and make a personnel decision at this point based on that. I think if he doesn't substitute a player -- Johnson or Diawara -- for Smith in his rotation, I still think he's going to play Blake, Iverson, Anthony, Nene, Camby, Kleiza, and Najera. It will definitely tilt their bench a bit, because he has too many bigs and not enough backcourt players.

[RC's Boss]

You must not have followed his career very closely. He does this at every stop, eventually.
Yep, Ray Allen, Gary Payton, Kenyon Martin. Now he's shot J.R.

[mrsmaalox]

This is why I have always hated George Karl. Behind that chubby facade of someone who loves the game is someone who only cares about one thing. Himself. He's a con artist. He talks a good game, his teams are always scrappy, but never long term winners. They usually claw their way into things and then lose.

And Karl never fails to blame his team first, that is after he is done blaming the refs.
And don't forget to blame the opponents style of playing too

[NuGGeTs-FaN]

WOOT........ i hope this is a step closer to him being fired. :clap

Id love to see GK out the door after game 5. This team is good enough but the coach is a d league coach with personal agendas that superseed the good of the team.

Who the heck would have Reggie Evans SIT for a playoff series? duh

[sabar]

Hey if the Nuggets won't use JR and Evans, we'll take them off your hands. :smokin

[George Gervin's Afro]

I actually think the shot Karl is referring to was a good one at the time. He was wide open and a shot needed to be taken.

[MannyIsGod]

Sounds like Smith violated a direct order from Karl. I don't think Karl in anyway is throwing anyone under the bus. You don't know what was said in his huddle prior to JR Smith taking those 3s, but obviously Karl is pissed off with the shots he took.

It isn't exactly like Smith has done anything right in this series. He was on thin ice after his game 3 performance, I'm not suprised he's being benched.

[Taco]

Loveable Karl throws another of his players under the bus to the press. Good for team morale too.

Not just Karl, the whole team is throwing him under the bus

[hater]

Karl fucked up. now who is he gonna blame when Spurs win the series?

[LilMissSPURfect]

You win as a TEAM and you lose as a TEAM ! there are no secrets in that! KARL needs to get with the program......

[ATXSPUR]

Karl fucked up. now who is he gonna blame when Spurs win the series?

Probably ai for being short. Of course we know he must blame somebody. The Spurs cant really be the better team.

what an asshat.

[hater]

I think karl will blame it on Melos and AIs cornrows for being to tight, "they was affecting their shot!" :lmao

[beirmeistr]

Watch out for The Nutcracker (Evans).

[cherylsteele]

Don't worry, at most you'll get a weeks suspension.
Naaa....a $500 vbookie fine

[SAGambler]

link (http://www.denverpost.com/nuggets/ci_5793474)

Karl sends Smith to the bench
By Chris Dempsey
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 05/01/2007 02:45:06 PM MDT


J.R. Smith of the Denver Nuggets (AP file)The biggest news coming out of the Nuggets video session Tuesday morning was coach George Karl announcing he was benching reserve guard J. R. Smith.

"He's done," Karl said.

Smith's mistakes throughout the series have grated on Karl, leading to the decision to bench him for Game 5 to be held Wednesday in San Antonio. The final straw apparently was Smith's ill-advised 3-pointer with 25.7 seconds left in Game 4 on Monday night with the Nuggets trailing 93-89.

"And then, of course the one with eight seconds to go, from 50 feet," Karl said. "I just love the dignity of the game being insulted right in front of me."

Karl said he had not talked to Smith about the benching by the time he met reporters at around noon. Smith is averaging 4.5 points and 2.3 rebounds in 11.8 minutes per game during the playoff series, which the Nuggets trail, 3-1.


Isn't this the guy that the Spurs fans were "wishing for" last summer? I'm thinking it was we need to trade Finley (washed up) and Horry (too old) and anyone else we could to get this guy on the team..

BTW.....what ever happened to all those naysayers from just a few short months ago? They don't seem to be around any longer.

[LilMissSPURfect]

Isn't this the guy that the Spurs fans were "wishing for" last summer? I'm thinking it was we need to trade Finley (washed up) and Horry (too old) and anyone else we could to get this guy on the team..

BTW.....what ever happened to all those naysayers from just a few short months ago? They don't seem to be around any longer.



WE wanted backstabbing GK on this team at one point??????? :dizzy

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

Do you think anyone's actually told JR Smith about the decision yet?