Nuggets should bring back J.R. Smith

The Denver Nuggets are not in need of any more scoring, but an extra shooter off the bench for a cold day could serve them well when play returns.

J.R. Smith has had one of the most unpredictable, up-and-down careers of anybody in the NBA in recent memory. His streaky, red hot shooting can suddenly spiral down into a painfully bad slump that renders him useless to the offense. He can play punishing perimeter defense, only to then devolve into playing softer and softer defense and allow his man to waltz into the paint as if he wasn’t there. But the Denver Nuggets ought to give him a hard look.

But during his time with the Nuggets, Smith enjoyed the better parts of his polarizing career. He burst onto the scene as a capable outside shooting threat who could single-handedly take over a game, while also being fully capable of self destructing. George Karl famously benched Smith during the team’s first round playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs during game five after having enough of his repeated mental errors throughout the series.

Smith then established himself as a keeper in the NBA the very next season. He notched career highs for field goal percentage at 46 percent, and three point range at 40 percent. Throughout his five years with the Nuggets, Smith was a frightening outside threat who could end a game at any given moment, sometimes even for his own team.

Smith was at the center of one of the most excruciating blunders in NBA history during game one of the 2017-2018 finals. He neglected to be sure of the score after retrieving an offensive rebound with 4.7 seconds left and inexplicably retreated to the three point line in hopes of dribbling out the clock instead of simply rising back up for a game winning attempt. Smith’s tenure in Cleveland was turbulent and uncomfortable after that, eventually leading to his departure from the team the next season.

The Nuggets should at least consider the potential help Smith could provide to them. Denver is not one of the league’s more potent outside shooting teams, as evidenced by their team ranking of 15th in the league at just under 36 percent. Smith, if nothing else, can give Michael Malone and his staff another desperation option off the bench to give the keys to and allow him to simply ket it go  in the hopes he can catch fire like he once did in Denver, New York, and Cleveland.