With Nuggets' Anthony sidelined, opportunity knocks for J.R. Smith

Reserve guard J.R. Smith's role could expand in Carmelo Anthony's absence. Greg Nelson/SI Steve Aschburner's Mailbag Submit a comment or question for Steve. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

There was an awkward intersection of headlines in the Denver newspapers this week. Come to think of it, given the subject matter of one of the stories, the use of "intersection'' is plenty awkward already.

Still, the bad news, good news and uncomfortable news facing the Nuggets in the wake of Carmelo Anthony's broken shooting hand were covered by these two blurbs:

• "Break gives way to bigger breaks,'' Denver Post

• "Nuggets' Smith won't face prison time for role in accident,'' Rocky Mountain News

The former pertained to Anthony's injury and the opportunities presented to certain teammates, J.R. Smith among them, by the Denver scoring star's being sidelined for at least three weeks. The latter related to a Monmouth County (N.J.) grand jury's decision not to indict Smith on a vehicular homicide charge for the fatal crash that killed his friend Andre Bell in June 2007. Smith, a New Jersey native, still is scheduled to appear in municipal court next Tuesday to face traffic summonses stemming from the deadly crash.

The two topics -- one about fun and games, the other all life and death -- were linked because Smith, more than any of the other available Nuggets, seems best equipped to ease Anthony's absence from the rotation. Like Anthony, Smith is a potent scorer, supremely talented, explosive as a slasher and in transition, and dangerous as a perimeter shooter. Unlike Anthony, however, Smith hasn't done the above on a consistent basis. Nor has he journeyed as far in maturity, shouldering responsibility the way Anthony has.

That's what this apparent Nuggets setback, and chance to grow up, means (or at least ought to mean) to both Smith and his team.

"Deep down inside, you're worried,'' coach George Karl told reporters about losing Anthony. "Yet in the same sense, things like this happen. My feeling is the team is in a good place and, with the home court, if there's an injury, it comes at a good time with the schedule.'' After beating Miami on Wednesday, the Nuggets are atop the Northwest Division at 24-12 and have seven of 10 games at home through the end of January.

Karl stressed the side benefits of Anthony's resting in general and recuperating from lingering right elbow pain while his hand heals. What the Nuggets' leading scorer (21.1 points) comes back to, however, hinges on contributions from others, notably Smith.

Linas Kleiza started in Anthony's place against the Heat, but Smith could get some opportunities, too. Moving Smith into the starting lineup wouldn't be without risk. Over Denver's 100 games or so since the start of 2007-08, Smith has settled into a nice reserve niche, turning the offensive abandon with which he frequently plays into more asset than liability. It facilitates a rotation that generally lets defensive-minded Dahntay Jones focus on the other guys' top scorer. It maintained a pecking order that was challenged enough when Allen Iverson was around. And it allowed Smith, even if he hadn't completed it, to take a few big strides along his maturity arc.

That was job No. 1 when Smith showed up for training camp, a sign that the 23-year-old finally was taking seriously a heart-to-heart with his parents.

"They told me it's time for me to grow up. It's time to be mature as a man,'' Smith told the Rocky Mountain News in September. "At a certain point in time, it hurts because you feel as though you've been playing around a lot and people tend not to take you serious -- especially when it's your parents telling you. You have to realize that it's time.''

Smith, averaging 13.7 points and 25.9 minutes, has navigated uneven minutes -- as many as 36 two weeks ago against Philadelphia, as few as seven in a November game at Minnesota. He has put up 21 shots at times, a third of that on other nights. After a slow start to the season, he rebounded in December to average 15.7 points and shoot 48.4 percent from the field in 15 games.

Now Smith has to attend to the intangibles and the adult world. That means manning up to whatever he faces before a Jersey judge. It means accumulating points on the stats sheet, not on his driver's license. It means proving day by day, in a hundred ways, that his bad decision to pull his SUV around another vehicle, into the path of an oncoming car, was indeed 18 months ago.

If Smith can't move toward all that in a hurry, for however long as Anthony is out, he might stay stuck on a path taken by other skilled scorers who never quite got it, tantalizing fans, aggravating coaches and repeatedly changing teams. Ricky Davis, for one, comes to mind. If Smith does step up, he could be so much better for it, and forever be grateful for the non-displaced third metacarpal fracture in his teammate's right hand.

Steve Aschburner covered the Minnesota Timberwolves and the NBA for 13 seasons for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He has served as president or vice president of the Professional Basketball Writers Association since 2005.