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I can see the two cases.
1. The team failed to supply the NAME Smith and that is required. Therefore, you now need to ADD "Smith #20" to the book and remove "Jones #20" from the book. Agree with JR's ruling that by the book this is a T.
2. What gives me pause is that the scorer needs to transfer all of the stats for Jones to Smith. That makes me believe that we have been recording the correct information for the correct numbered player all alone, we simply have misnamed him. It would certainly be more expedient for the scorer to just CHANGE the name from Jones to Smith instead of starting a whole new line in the book. If this was caught just prior to the opening jump however this wouldn't be the case and it would be clear that the focus is on the name being wrong.
In the end, I can't get past the fact that the team didn't supply the name Smith in the beginning and the rules are quite clear in stating that this is required. The opposing coach could look at the book and think, "Hey Smith isn't playing today, maybe he's sick or injured." The coach then adjusts his defensive assignments. That is why this is a problem. It could well be misleading to the opponents and that would be considered unsporting. But is it really unsporting even if it was unintentional? For the sake of consistency, I think that we have to say yeah. Otherwise, teams could get away with all kinds of stuff by claiming that it was unintentional. The officials can't be expected to be mindreaders. So my ruling is that they definitely broke a clear rule and should be penalized by a team T and the book should be corrected.
Would I charge the T? Absolutely. This is one of the tough decisions that referees are there to handle. I believe that the rules which both teams agreed to abide by have to be enforced in order to have a fair contest.
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