NBA Sunday: J.R. Smith Silencing Critics

When the Cleveland Cavaliers acquired J.R. Smith in a three-team, six-player trade with the New York Knicks and Oklahoma City Thunder on January 5, there was a moment when Twitter literally stopped working. Ten minutes after news of the trade first leaked (with Smith’s name being the first to surface in reports), users noticed that Twitter wasn’t able to load for several minutes. Kim Kardashian couldn’t “break the internet” in November, but apparently Smith succeeded a month and a half later.

Perhaps this was a coincidence, but it seems plausible that the temporary malfunction was due to Smith. After all, he’s one of the most polarizing players in the NBA and he’s often the butt of jokes due to his inefficiency on the court, partying off the court and all-around strange antics (such as untying his opponents’ shoes during free throws or tweeting out a picture of a naked model in bed with him).

When the trade surfaced, Smith was trending and it seemed just about every tweet was mocking him (or the Cavs for acquiring him). Many people had assumed that Smith was untradeable due to his poor play, negative reputation and $6,515,510 contract. He certainly wasn’t viewed as an attractive asset, as the Knicks proved when they had to package him with Iman Shumpert and got back just three non-guaranteed contracts in the three-team deal.

The Cavs landed Timofey Mozgov from the Denver Nuggets shortly thereafter, and many expected Mozgov and Shumpert to significantly improve some of Cleveland’s weaknesses. Smith’s role was less clear, as he’s never been the most efficient or consistent player and he was having one of the worst seasons of his career statistically at the time of the trade. Some around the league said that the trade was worth it for the Cavs just to land Shumpert and if Smith produced at all, well, that was just a bonus.

Smith, who is very active on social media, no doubt read this criticism. He knows how he is perceived and sees the jokes. He has gone back and forth with critics on Twitter, trading barbs with them. He was clearly determined to silence his doubters and just win games upon arriving in Cleveland.

Through 21 games with the Cavaliers, Smith has done just that. He’s playing very well, providing much-needed spacing for Cleveland and contributing on both ends of the floor (which he hasn’t always done throughout his career). Smith complements LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love well, since he’s always ready to knock down an open shot after a kick out and can also create his own buckets when necessary. He’s been so productive that he has actually become the Cavs’ starting shooting guard for the last 20 games, departing from his usual sixth man role.

Cleveland has won 15 of their last 17 games (including eight wins over current playoff teams) and Smith has received a large portion of the credit. The mercurial 29-year-old shooting guard has completely bought in to the culture and system in Cleveland, and has earned praise from his coaches and teammates.

“From day one, J.R. Smith has come in here with a great impact and with great focus on being a good two-way player,” head coach David Blatt told reporters. “He’s defending his position well, he’s rebounding his position, he’s giving us a real presence at both ends and, without question, has been one of the main differences in our team.”

“I really can’t comment on anything in the past, but I can tell you one thing: J.R. Smith has been a dream for us, as a team and for me personally,” Blatt added, according to the New York Post. “I love the guy. I love coaching him. He comes to work every single day. He’s a great teammate. He’s playing both ends of the court for us consistently. He’s one of the main reasons for our turnaround, together with Iman, who simply started later because of [his] injury. Those guys, honestly, they’ve been a godsend. They really have. They turned the team around.”

When The Post asked James what Smith has brought to the Cavaliers, the four-time MVP described the guard’s contributions as “everything we needed and more.”

While Smith’s production has certainly helped the team, it’s safe to say that Smith needed the Cavaliers more than they needed him. This has given him the chance to salvage his career, be a significant contributor on a championship contender and change the way he’s perceived by everyone in basketball.

In New York, Smith was asked to create instant offense off of the bench, which is why he was often chucking up shots and playing inefficient basketball. It seemed he would do the same in Cleveland, since one of his first quotes to the media was famously, “My motto is: ‘When in doubt, shoot the ball.’”

However, he has been taking smarter shots (and a lot of open shots thanks to the Big Three), so his shooting percentages are up across the board even though he’s attempting more field goals, three-pointers and free throws than earlier this season in New York. His true shooting percentage on the Knicks was .487, but it’s up to .540 on the Cavs. Since joining Cleveland, he’s scoring 6.5 points off of catch-and-shoot opportunities per game (ranking ninth in the NBA) and his catch-and-shoot effective field goal percentage is 54.8 percent, which is up there with the NBA’s better shooters. By comparison, Dion Waiters was scoring just 1.9 points off of catch-and-shoot opportunities this season in Cleveland before being traded, with a 37.7 percent catch-and-shoot effective field goal percentage. Smith is a much better fit for this particular role than Waiters was, which is why the trade has worked well for the Cavs.

In addition to his improved shooting, Smith’s turnovers are also down significantly – as his turnover percentage is just 8.8 percent, which is the lowest of his 11-year NBA career. He’s playing better defense as well, which has made him much more valuable to the Cavs. Box plus-minus is a stat that estimates how many points a player is responsible for per 100 possessions versus the league average, and Smith’s box plus-minus was -4.1 in New York versus +1.8 in Cleveland. He’s playing much better all-around basketball, and making an impact on both ends of the floor.

Smith attributes his success to his supporting cast and Blatt’s system. He believes he’s a perfect fit for the Cavaliers and he couldn’t be happier with his current situation.

“The coaches have been unbelievable and my teammates are incredible,” Smith told reporters. “The credit goes to my coaches and teammates because they just made it so easy for me to come in and be me. They were very accepting of who I am, and who Shump is and [Mozgov] as well. We’re grateful and we just want to go out there and produce.

When asked why he’s managed to be so successful in Cleveland and have such a seamless transition to his new team, Smith says it’s because his teammates are unselfish, his shooting has helped spread the floor and he’s getting a ton of open shots thanks to playing with three stars.

“LeBron does a great job of swinging the ball around. He just attacks the basket and then we make the kick out [shots],” Smith said. “We have guys who are willing to sacrifice the ball in order to make the best play, and I think that starts from the [top] with LeBron and Kyrie and Kevin and goes all the way down. We all want to make the extra pass and we all want to make the right play. When that’s the case, it’s easy for people to make shots when you’re wide open.

“[I’m playing because] I space the court well. It’s just the way everything worked out… I fit right in for spacing-the-court reasons, and then my defense has been helping us out as well. I think with that combination, it’s just a perfect match.”

Smith also notes that the change of scenery has been good for him. Not only was New York full of distractions in the form of nightclubs and parties, he was surrounded by family, friends and hanger-ons since he was playing so close to where he was born and raised (New Jersey).

Players often dream about playing for their hometown team, but then they don’t realize everything that comes with that – such as constantly dealing with all of their family members and friends, getting ticket requests all the time, being dragged in every direction by the people in their life and everyone from their past trying to get close to them since they’re now a famous athlete. Smith is now living distraction-free in Cleveland, with only occasional communication with friends and family.

“It’s not just the nightlife, but being from [New York] you know so many people — family, friends — that have constant access to me,” Smith told the Post. “I think that took a lot of it, too. But being in Cleveland, there’s none of that. People call me and stuff like that, but other than that, it’s care-free basketball.”

One of the best things about Smith’s move to Cleveland is that he gets the chance to compete for a title. He’s never started in a playoff game, but he’s appeared in 51 contests over seven postseasons with the Denver Nuggets and Knicks. While those teams were talented, Smith says this is the best squad he has been a part of and has no doubt that they can hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy if all goes as planned.

“My teammates in Denver were unbelievable, with Chauncey, A.I., Carmelo, Kenyon Martin, Nene. I mean, I’ve played on some great teams that had 50-plus wins for, like, seven straight years. But still, I think this team is definitely the best team that I’ve played on,” Smith said of the Cavaliers.

“I believe [this team can win a title] – we have great pieces and we’re deep at every position. Can we win a title? For sure. I definitely think we’ve got enough… We’ve got everything .We’ve got all of the tools in the shed, it’s just a matter of us using them the right way.”

Smith points out that even though the Cavaliers have been winning a ton of games lately, their best basketball is likely still ahead of them since the team is still getting acclimated. He’s just 21 games into his Cavaliers stint, Mozgov has played only 20 contests with the Cavs and Shumpert’s been in 13 so far. This is a team that has yet to play at full strength and reach their full potential, which Smith acknowledges when he admits that “we still don’t know each other all the way, fully.”

Cleveland is currently 34-22, which puts them in fourth place in the Eastern Conference behind only the Chicago Bulls (one game back), Toronto Raptors (three and a half games back) and Atlanta Hawks (nine and a half games back). While James has spit out clichés about not paying attention to the standings and just focusing on what they can control, Smith was more candid and admitted the team wants a top seed.

“Every win right now is big and important with 26 games left; we’ve got to make a push to get that one or two spot – whichever – and be as good of a team as we can be,” Smith said. “Then, we’ll see what happens from there.

“As long as we go out there with the right mentality defensively and then share the ball offensively, we’ll be fine.”

It still sounds somewhat strange to hear Smith preaching about playing tough defense and sharing the ball, but that’s the player he has become on these contending Cavaliers. The jokes have stopped, the critics have been silenced and Smith is winning.