Josh Smith Leading the Atlanta Hawks and Outplaying All-Star Counterparts

At the start of the 2009-2010 Josh Smith had a few goals he hoped to accomplish this season. Some of those goals were personal and some were team goals.

One of those goals, making the NBA All-Star game, seemed like a sure thing for Smith, as he was having one of the best seasons of his career, while being one of the leaders on a Hawks team that was playing like the NBA’s next elite team.

Unfortunately for Smith, it wouldn’t work out for him again as he was snubbed by the powers that be from being named to the All-Star game.
Smith could have packed up his bag and hung his head low with another season at home during the All-Star game. Instead, Smith has gotten better and has emerged as the MVP of the Atlanta Hawks since the All-Star break.

How good has Smith been since the All-Star break? In their 17 games, Smith has either led the Hawks in scoring, rebounds, and assists in 16 games. He has led the Hawks in points five times, in rebounds seven times, and in assists 13 times. Smith had a career-high 11 assists last week against the Detroit Pistons.

But, just how good has Smith been? Well, let’s do some comparison analysis shall we. We will compare Smith’s numbers with the forwards who made the All-Star game in the East over him.

Kevin Garnett and LeBron James were the two starters for the East; while Paul Pierce, Chris Bosh, Gerald Wallace, and David Lee were reserve forwards for the Eastern Conference.

Other than Bosh, James, and Lee, Smith has been putting up better numbers than Pierce, Bosh, and Wallace.

While both Bosh and Lee have better overall numbers than Smith, Smith’s team has seven more wins than Bosh’s team and five more wins than Lee’s team.

Begin Slideshow

View full post on Bleacher Report – NBA