If you're going to cry, cry on the inside.

Life as a Josh Smith owner is like that Coldplay song.

Nobody said it was easy, no one ever said it would be this hard.

On the one hand, there's the 3.7 blocks, 1.9 steals, 7.3 rebounds, and 17.5 points a game. Plus he was just given PF eligibility in our Yahoo! league.

On the other hand, the hand bloodied, bruised, and battered from abusing your over-sized dome, there's the 36.9% field goal percentage (on almost 15 shots a game), the 20% 3pt% and the 74.5% FT% (which is actually a career high).

He has games this year of 13-22 FG, 6-10 FG, 6-12 FG, and 5-9 FG. Those are "balanced" by 2-14, 4-17, 3-16, 3-13, 6-14, 4-17 (again), and 5-16 field goal nights.

I watched last night to see what the problem is.

Here's my diagnosis: HE CAN'T SHOOT. AT ALL. He has two shots in his repertoire -- a long-range jumper that almost always clanks off the back rim and a running, left-handed, half hook shot. That's it. No put-backs, no mid-range game, nothing.

But I love him still. I'm like a battered woman. For Christmas I'm getting him this instructional DVD:




I'd get him "Scoring without the Ball" but there's no way he's ready for that.