AOL Fanhouse master-blogger Tom Ziller is currently counting down his list of the NBA's top-50 players. He is up to #30 today (Baron Davis), but Atlanta's own Josh Smith checked in yesterday at #32. Ziller has some high praise for Smoove (as well as somewhat of a backhanded compliment to the Hawks for signing him to such a reasonable contract), and foresees big things for him in the future.

His biggest point about Josh's transition into superstar is that he needs someone to help get him easy buckets the way the Suns do for Amare Stoudemire. I couldn't agree more, and I hope that the Mike Bibby/Acie Law/Speedy Claxton combo will make this a priority this season and beyond.

The more easy baskets Josh is getting, the easier it will be for everyone else on the team (and the less jumpers he'll need to take).

#32 is a pretty solid placing for Josh, but I'll be interested to see where and if Joe Johnson and Al Horford fall on this list, as neither has been named so far. My guess is that JJ will be one of the next few selections, but I wonder about Al. I'd place him in the league's top-50 for sure, but it's possible he will need one more year before everyone else catches on to how good he is.