Before J.R. Smith was “that guy LeBron James is yelling at in that one meme,” Smith was still a meme, but he was also a well-respected veteran on a championship-contending team.
In Smith’s first two seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers, he averaged the most minutes per game of anyone on the team outside of their “big three” of Kyrie Irving, LeBron James and Kevin Love. When the Cavaliers won the NBA Finals in 2016, he averaged the third-most minutes on the team in the postseason, and in the seven-game series against the Golden State Warriors.