Well

Posted on: February 13, 2018 at 08:32:48 CT

He was behind an older guy with experience in the program.
When he did play, he showed some serious flashes of talent.
His playing time was growing.
You all think Kim was terrible, yet you buy Kim's judgement on what type of player Smith was.
Kim expected him to become a post up guy and that's not Smith.
I will continue to remind you that he outplayed Monk in the Ark playoffs. Some of you have argued it doesn't matter because they played different positions, without realizing that Smith played the floor and handled the ball a lot. He was not a center.

No, you don't want him to be your best player, but he can be a legit contributor on a good team.

Puryear is stronger, and Smith will have to work on that, but Smith is taller, faster, and generally more athletic. Might be a better shooter too, we'll have to see. That difference in strength also factored in to Kim playing Puryear over Smith because, again, he had false expectations of where those guys should play.