Josh Smith is one of those players whose praise is always qualified.
You know how it goes: “He’s unbelievably talented, but…”, “He’s a matchup problem at both ends, but…”, “He’s a phenomenal finisher at the rim, but…”.
The “but” is always the same: he’s not a good outside shooter, and he takes way too many outside shots.
There’s one word that comes up more than any other these days when people talk about how the NBA’s best teams win: efficiency. Teams can win with several different styles, whether it’s Memphis’ grit and grind, the Warriors’ raining threes, or the Clippers’ Lob City uptempo offense. What doesn’t work, though, is inefficiency, whether it’s through missing shots, on the individual level, or playing the wrong scheme, on the team level.
Perhaps nothing fit both of those descriptions better than Josh Smith on the Pistons.
You’ve got a player who tends to take too many outside shots (and too many shots in general), and you have your two best players playing inside. So you can either play Smith at a position he’s really not well-suited for, or you can sit Greg Monroe or Andre Drummond to play Smith. Neither is particularly good.
That’s why you can see why simply jettisoning Smith could end up as a win-win for both Smith and the Pistons.
It’s too early to tell, of course, but signs aren’t discouraging, writes Jesus Gomez of SB Nation:
Smith played at power forward full time and with Trevor Ariza starting and Corey Brewer coming off the bench at small forward, it looks like he will exclusively play there. At that spot he still has a quickness advantage over most players he goes up against and even when the Grizzlies, who were without Zach Randolph, decided to go small and put Vince Carter on him, he made some plays and used his size to crash the boards. The fit isn’t perfect. Smith still took six shots outside of the paint, which is not a good idea based on his history. Since the Rockets encourage three-point attempts, the possibility of him chucking up outside shots looms. Yet at least in his debut, Smith looked like a good, cost-effective gamble for the Rockets.
While Houston was beating the Grizzlies in Memphis, the Pistons were dispatching of the Pacers in Detroit. Smith’s departure cleared the way for Stan Van Gundy to give plenty of minutes to Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe together. Drummond and Monroe are now backed up by Jonas Jerebko and Anthony Tolliver, after the team traded forward Tony Mitchell to the Suns for the latter. The Pistons now have a big man rotation that fits the talent of their two starting big men more seamlessly than Smith ever did.
How greatly Smith being waived will affect the Pistons’ chances of retaining Monroe remains unclear. Monroe is playing on the qualifying offer after failing to reach an agreement on an extension with the Pistons this past summer. He reportedly wanted Smith off of the team. It’s possible the trust issues between franchise and player are too big to be mended, in which case Monroe will leave as an unrestricted free agent this upcoming summer. The Pistons can still offer him the most money, however, and Van Gundy will have the entire season to evaluate how well he fits with Detroit’s long term plans and to repair the strained relationship.
The rest of the latest news from around the NBA:
LEBRON: CONFRONTATION WITH HARRIS SPURRED COMEBACK
O folly, Tobias Harris. O hubris!
Chris Haynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Orlando Magic forward Tobias Harris was having a nice game. He was scoring at will as he mixed it up on his defender, Cavaliers All-Star LeBron James.
He even played some defense, swatting one of James’ layup attempts into the front row. The fourth-year small forward had it going and his team was in control.
James looked out of sorts. Disinterested. He had three turnovers in the first 10 minutes.
Orlando was up 64-62 in the third quarter and a coasting James was 5-of-13 from the field. The Magic was on pace to steal one. Harris, acting as the catalyst, had 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting.
Then things suddenly changed.
Midway through the third, Harris was facing up James on the baseline and to create some separation; he flung his elbows around in the vicinity of James’ face. James backed up to avoid the connection, but he took exception and said something to Harris.
The two jawed back and forth at one another and had to be separated. While walking away, Harris yelled, “Stop flopping.”
“He barked up the wrong tree,” the Cavs’ Dion Waiters said of Harris after the game.
A sleeping giant was awakening.
KEVIN GARNETT PRAISES MARCUS SMART
There’s tons of good stuff in this piece from CSNNE.com’s Sherrod Blakely on KG’s return to Boston, but this stood out to me:
We have seen Kevin Garnett turn young players into a big old pile of mental goo with his in-game commentary which has drawn more than its share of players into a war of words they had no shot at winning.
So when Boston’s Marcus Smart was able to corral a loose ball that had him and Garnett tangled at one point, you knew Garnett would say something.
The words spoken by Garnett caught Smart off guard, to say the least.
“He (Garnett) started laughing,” Smart said. “He said, ‘good job,’ kind of joking around with me. It was crazy.”
And to see Garnett and the word crazy in the same sentence?
Nah.
That’s not crazy.
But that exchange speaks to how Smart, while still learning how to navigate his way through the NBA, is quickly gaining the respect of his NBA elders.
“I admire the guy,” Garnett said after Brooklyn’s 109-107 win over Boston. “I admire the young guy (Smart) for … how hard he plays. They brought him in here and Danny (Ainge, Boston’s president of basketball operations) knows talent; just a good hustle play. A little pat on the back, ‘good play.’ Nothing more, nothing less than that.”
ROCKETS PRAISE JUST-RELEASED TARIK BLACK
The undrafted rookie has to find a landing spot somewhere. For the story, if nothing else.
Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle:
“Tarik did a great job,” Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. “I told him he’ll be picked up in our league. I told him in preseason, I said ‘Tarik, you have to go out and open people’s eyes. You didn’t get drafted.’ But he came in and had (15) rebounds in a (preseason) game. Everybody around the league is saying, ‘Dang, what did we miss on Tarik Black?’
…
With the Rockets in Memphis, Black’s hometown, Howard had dinner on Christmas with Black and his family, not hearing about the Rockets decision until the next morning.
“Personally, it was very tough for me,” Howard said. “Tarik was my guy. We spent a lot of time with him away from basketball, went to Church a lot together, bible studies, all that stuff. Tarik is like a little brother to me. I was very sad today when I heard the news, but I understand this is a business.
“As a teammate, he worked very hard every day in practice. He battled. It’s tough to see him go. He’s a really good teammate, a really good guy.”