Dallas would be a good fit for him

People complain about LMA being a jump shooter?

He shot the lowest field goal percentage on two point jump shots in the ENTIRE NBA. What’s worse is that HALF his shots are 2 point jumpshots! eFG% on his jumpers was 34.9%! He has a career eFG% of 46%… for someone of his size and athleticism, that is simply ABYSMAL.

For Bedge’s sake, and for the sake of all our sanity, we must not get Josh Smith. He is widely believed to be one of the most athletic, and simultaneously underperforming players in the NBA.

Josh Smith is a beast who is just now growing into his potential. We just need to tame him and figure out if he can play the three?

then yes.

from what I hear, he is a great defender and a termendous shot blocker, but he does shoot too much

as a poor jump-shooter who shoots too much, I think this is partially due to his circumstances. I have watched a decent number of Hawks games this season (as for whatever reason they show far more of their games than Blazer games down here in NZ) and it seems defences are more than willing to give him that 20-23 ft jumpshot entirely unguarded. It is a flaw in his game that he settles for this inefficient shot rather than using his athleticism to get to the rim however with the Blazers his role would change which could see this flaw become less prominent. LaMarcus takes the same 20-23 ft jumper with far greater success and as our legitimate 2nd option would take pressure off Smith on the offensive end.

This leads me to the one important positive I see in acquiring Smith….he is uniquely suited to the task of guarding Lebron. The Blazers will inevitably encounter some form of LeBron led team on any run to a championship and so dealing with him will be an unfortunate necessity. Smith’s outrageous athleticism, size, strength and commitment to the defensive end make him perfect to fill the role of attempting to slow down LeBron (and other bigger SF’s such as Carmelo, Pierce, Artest, Odom etc). With Batum providing a quicker more perimeter oriented brand of defense they could provide a defensive challenge to most wing players in the NBA today.

To me this makes him a better option for an upgrade at SF than many that have been proposed so far in this offseason (with the possible exception of Gerald Wallace) and I have no doubt he would be a net positive for the Blazers in the future. Certainly worth some combination of Rodriguez, Outlaw, Blake, Martell, Frye (S+T), 24 and 2nd rounders and a better investment of close to 10 million per year than Hedo, Odom, Ariza or Artest.