[Woj] Josh Smith's partnership with Dwight Howard flourishing as Rajon Rondo unravels

abigwreck · Apr 22, 2015

Spacemoth said: ↑

Do you mean "players who look most like cancer patients"? Maybe then Villanueva applies.
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Not his fault he has alopecia universalis. AKA, the inability to grow any hair.

Liberon · Apr 22, 2015

oogie boogie said: ↑

Interesting read. We should worry about Smith's free agency during free agency though. No guarantee he will come back although this does seem like a great home for him.

Also, some of you may not feel the same way as me, but I do feel a little bad for Rondo. Never wanted him on the team, and I know he's a jerk but he just doesn't seem to fit in anywhere in the league. It makes sense why someone like Kobe would attempt to recruit him though.
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Smith is being paid millions by Detroit. He can afford to take a veteran's discount to remain with the Rockets.

J Sizzle · Apr 22, 2015

Smoove is perfect for the Rockets. Really hope he comes back.

sabesque · Apr 22, 2015

First of all, I'm not afraid to admit that this story gave me chills.

Secondly, it reminds me of what codman has been saying for months about brothers coming together and finding a home.

joeson332 · Apr 22, 2015

J Sizzle said: ↑

Smoove is perfect for the Rockets. Really hope he comes back.
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he wants to come back and Morey wants him back. Gonna be intereseting summer but for now, game 3.

RedRedemption · Apr 22, 2015

oogie boogie said: ↑

Interesting read. We should worry about Smith's free agency during free agency though. No guarantee he will come back although this does seem like a great home for him.

Also, some of you may not feel the same way as me, but I do feel a little bad for Rondo. Never wanted him on the team, and I know he's a jerk but he just doesn't seem to fit in anywhere in the league. It makes sense why someone like Kobe would attempt to recruit him though.
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He doesn't fit in anywhere because he is an *******.

Hippieloser · Apr 22, 2015

There's being a bad fit, and then there's showing absolutely no interest in trying. Rondo has crashed and burned spectacularly. I guess it's possible to come back from that -- see Josh Smith. But who the hell is going to want to invest big money and responsibility in Rajon Rondo next season?

YOLO · Apr 22, 2015

Hippieloser said: ↑

There's being a bad fit, and then there's showing absolutely no interest in trying. Rondo has crashed and burned spectacularly. I guess it's possible to come back from that -- see Josh Smith. But who the hell is going to want to invest big money and responsibility in Rajon Rondo next season?
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NY or LA to start

HouStu_Rocket · Apr 22, 2015

i3artow i3aller said: ↑

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Where is my sauce?

Nimo · Apr 22, 2015

Right when they signed him, I kept thinking about the Rasheed Wallace trade to the Pistons. A lot of similarities between both players and the stage in their careers. If the Rockets make it to the Finals, Josh will be a key factor; and he'll probably get the $$ that would have gone to Patrick Beverley.

CrazyDave · Apr 22, 2015

I didn't realize Villa's look was health related. Great, now I feel bad for singing "Pink isn't well, he stayed back at the hotel" when he came in.

Rocket River · Apr 22, 2015

Funny thing is .. ... if things were reversed .. . we got Rondo and they got Josh
I expect Rondo would be fine and Josh my be bristling with his coach

I think our organization and our coach are more accepting of letting people play their game
just in our framework
Carlise seems more his way or the high way than McHale

Does anyone thing that McHale would not have allowed Rondo to run the offense . . . .as long as it got results McHale would not give a d*mn

Rocket River

Andy Sheets · Apr 22, 2015

Rocket River said: ↑

I think our organization and our coach are more accepting of letting people play their game
just in our framework
Carlise seems more his way or the high way than McHale
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Hasn't the knock on Carlisle always been that he's prone to alienating his players? Obviously winning a championship caused a lot of old criticisms to fall away but he still seems to be a dictator.

J.R. · May 2, 2015

On Rondo, Brewer, Smith [and the December that was]

Under deadline in December, Rockets change roster landscape

The Rockets worked the phones, made their pitches, even resisted temptation. But when the deals were done and the roster transformed, they did not celebrate, not the way they would have had they known how those seven days in December would change everything.

When their shopping was done, they had landed guard-forward Corey Brewer, backed away from their pursuit of guard Rajon Rondo and added forward Josh Smith, decisions that would have far greater impact on their run into the second round of the playoffs than they could have imagined.

"If we don't have Brew and Josh come to our team, we're not here right now, doing this," coach Kevin McHale said. "Those two guys have been fantastic for us."

Those moves seven days apart - with the team announcing the contract extension for McHale in between - have been essential.

To the Rockets, Dec. 19 was a de facto trade deadline because players acquired after that date cannot be dealt again.

That brought the usual time crunch to the talks, but the Rockets had been trying to get Brewer, 6-9, since the summer. When the Timberwolves were struggling, they upped their offer.

"We were looking to trade for Corey before the season," Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said. "We had talked to the Timberwolves about it. They were pretty cool to the idea. Even if they were potentially interested, they wanted to wait until they saw how the season was going. When they took injuries and their season wasn't going as well as they hoped, we thought that would open up an opportunity, but frankly, they loved Corey. They didn't want to move him. It took a good while."

While talking with Timberwolves president and coach Flip Saunders, the Rockets also were in talks with Celtics general manager Danny Ainge about Rondo.

Unsure of Rondo

The Rockets were not convinced Rondo would be an ideal fit, with concerns about taking the ball out of James Harden's hands and whether Rondo would recapture the level of defense he had played before his knee injury. The Rockets made an offer and made sure they could complete the deal for Brewer but refused to add the Pelicans' first-round pick to the deal.

"Similar to Dallas, we felt he's a talented, talented guy," Morey said. "We do feel like in our environment, like they feel in theirs, we can add guys that are very good players like him (Rondo) and make it work. It's (unpredictable) to know how it would have worked out here. We did feel like he could help us under the right conditions.

"We decided what ways we could acquire him that would have been beneficial to us. Boston preferred the Dallas situation."

As the week moved toward the Rockets' Dec. 19 deadline, Dallas moved in position to get Rondo, and the Rockets knew it. The Rockets had concerns about Rondo but believed the Mavericks were making a good move for them, potentially making it more difficult not to up the ante.

"It was tough when you know a division rival is going to end up with a piece that can help them," Rockets vice president Gersson Rosas said. "But we had evaluated internally. We knew what we were willing to do. And it was December. There were two, three months before the trade deadline. We knew how much our assets were valued. We were willing to pay a price we were comfortable with. If not, we had the flexibility to do other things.

Long-term plans

"I think that discipline is critical for us and it played out a lot for us, not only in December but last (summer), like do you match certain contracts in free agency."

By Dec. 18, the Rockets knew Rondo would be heading to Dallas and focused their attention on completing the trade for Brewer, 29.

...

Days later, Morey was on the phone again, this time on the receiving end.

"I was in Florida on a mini-vacation," Morey said. "I got calls from Dwight and James because the news had hit that Josh was being released.

"I calmed both of them down. I said, 'Yeah, he would be a great addition. We would definitely be interested. He's a guy we always wanted.' I told both Dwight and James this, but I said, 'Look, I'm not going to believe it until I see his name on an official waiver.' I've just never seen it before. I had to calm them both down that it was actually going to happen because I didn't think it was."

Pistons release Smith

On Dec. 23, not quite two months into Smith's second season of a four-year, $56 million contract, the Pistons released him. The Rockets wanted him but again would have to compete with Dallas.

"When there was a press release from Detroit, it was, 'OK, this is happening,' " Morey said. "Then we had to wait until he was actually released to start engaging. Dwight, James, coach McHale and myself, (assistant coach) J.B. Bickerstaff - that was a really good group effort. He was very close to choosing Dallas. He's extremely good friends with Rondo who had gone there."

Howard and Harden called. McHale explained how he thought Smith, 6-9, could be used. By Christmas Eve, Morey was in Detroit, making his pitch.

"Dwight and James were very positive about his ability to help the team," Morey said. "Coach McHale and I agreed. This was a rapid-response thing, not a plan. That's why we always caution the owner and everybody.

"I thought we had a good chance because we saved our biannual (exception). We thought that gave us a leg up on a lot of teams. We generally save our biannual. It often doesn't work because the year before, we were saving it for a couple guys. It went unspent. We saved it again this year for someone that might get released. That gave us a leg up money-wise versus every team he was considering. Plus, he loves Houston. We thought we had a good shot."

Competing pressure

But Rondo was putting on a hard sell. Smith wanted to decide quickly but was struggling.

"It was a whirlwind, a lot of calls being made," Smith, 29, said. "I looked at my options. I looked at this team from top to bottom. It was the most attractive. I felt it was the best opportunity for me to try to win a championship this year.

"It was close. My friend Rondo called me. It was a lot of pressure. I wanted to play with both of those guys. It wouldn't happen because he was with Dallas and Dwight was with Houston. But I prayed on it, and I feel like I made the right decision."

As with Brewer, the work done years before helped make the acquisition for Smith happen.

"We did try to acquire Josh when we got Dwight," Morey said of the 2013 free-agency period. "We thought they could be a good fit. We always admired his game on defense. We just felt it would work. We have a lot of confidence in coach McHale and his ability to take good players, even if the fit in the past or on paper isn't perfect, and make it work. He's got a lot of strengths. That one may be his best."

McHale's extension

While the Rockets waited for Smith to choose, they announced McHale had agreed to a three-year contract extension. The moves were not related. Rockets owner Leslie Alexander had initiated talks two weeks before Smith was released. But hours after the Rockets announced the extension on Dec. 24., Smith's agents told them he had chosen the Rockets. The deal became official Dec. 26.

The Rockets' offseason decisions paid off. Had they matched Chandler Parsons' offer sheet and made the move for Jason Terry, they would have been far enough over the luxury tax that they would have lost the exception they used to get Smith and the trade exception they used for Brewer, or they would have had to pass on using their mid-level exception to sign forward Kostas Papanikolaou.

"Obviously, people were a little critical of our offseason," Morey said. "I told Dwight and James, 'be patient.' They were. They had a lot of faith in our ability to upgrade the team. I said, 'We have the exception. We have ways to upgrade the team. But if we force it now, it's going to be tough.' "

Instead, they kept their exceptions and rebuilt their bench - and maybe their season.

Always a gamble

"You never know at the time how things are going to work out or not work out," Morey said. "It really was a very important time. We knew that time would be important, but we actually thought it would maybe set up more improvements in February. February ended up less important than December this year.

"You never know. You just work hard and pounce on the good opportunities that come. They came in December."
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Deckard · May 2, 2015

Feigen doesn't always bowl me over, but great job by Jonathan on this one. The comments by Morey are a trip. A lot of this we already knew, but Daryl offered some more insight into what went down. I had no idea Smith was as close to Rondo as Morey revealed. The friendship he has with Dwight and Rondo seems to be on a similar level, and before this, I would have thought that was not the case. Also, interesting comments about McHale.

Thanks, J.R.

Scarface281 · May 3, 2015

ScriboErgoSum said: ↑

That's not funny. He's got alopecia, which is a disease which blocks hair growth. He certainly deserves a lot of knocks for his attitude and play (although not for Dumars being a stupid enough to shell out a massive contract for him), but lobbing cancer jokes at a guy for a health issue isn't cool.
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He is referencing what KG said about Charlie V. Not trying to be funny.

cmellon · May 3, 2015

J.R. article deserves a new thread for that... great read, thanks J.R.

Rocket River · May 3, 2015

Interest that Dwight AND JAMES called Morey . . ON HIS VACATION!

Rocket River

saleem · May 3, 2015

Rocket River said: ↑

Interest that Dwight AND JAMES called Morey . . ON HIS VACATION!

Rocket River
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Morey jokingly called them the GM's of the team last year.

bobloblaw · May 3, 2015

It's been said before... Morey should have gotten more executive of the year votes for acquiring Brewer and Smith and passing on Rondo. Allow Dallas to implode in pursuit of a pipe dream.

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