People keep saying Josh Smith hurt Atlanta in the Playoffs, but is absolutely untrue. Josh Smith was the only reason Atlanta even pushed us to 6 games in the playoffs, without him we probably would have swept them or beat them in 5 games.
He was an absolute beast against us and was killing as constantly on both ends of the floor. The fact that he took one or two bad shots at times is irrelevant because he (by far) did more good for Atlanta against us then he did bad. He was averaging something like 17 points and 13 rebounds, he hurt us with his scoring, and he did a good job against us on defense. He almost single handedly won them a number of those games.
Also people complained about him taking too many jumpers, but he hit a lot of midrange jump shots against us in the playofs and that hurt us because it helped to stretch our defense so that guys like Williams, Turner and Holiday could penetrate. Sure he may not be a KG calibre jump-shooter, but he is a decent midrange shooter.
I don't understand how people criticise his shot selection so much, because Rondo takes at least as many bad shots (bail-out three's early in the shot clock, contested jumpers when other guys are open, etc) as Smith does, and most of us are happy to have him here!
The important thing is that Smith is an incredibly talented and versatile big man who has the ability to play and defend three positions (SF to C). He can impact games in a number of ways and this is clear by looking at this stats:
Last season: 18.8 PPG, 9.6 RPG, 3.9 APG, 1.4 SPG, 1.7 BPG
This season: 16.4 PPG, 8.3 RPG, 3.7 APG, 1.3 SPG, 2.3 BPG
Smith is an above average rebounder, an above average scorer, and elite passer and an elite defender at his position. He has the potential for a triple double any night, and he could be our defensive anchor once KG retires if we could (unlikely) manage to get him here.
In fact Smith is probably the only free agent I can think of right now that I'd consider trading Sully for.
Imagine a defensive frontline of Smith and KG now? Imagine the defense of Smith + Bradley in the future? I'd love to get this guy!