Not an insider, but... Pelton on JSmoove to Clips http://espn.go.com/nba/insider/stor...n-pelton-breaks-all-free-agent-deals-thursday
That insider bit. ----- Josh Smith Team: L.A. Clippers Contract: 1 year, $1.5 million What it means: The Clippers' charmed past 10 days continued Thursday as they signed Smith for the veterans minimum, the most they could offer him as a taxpaying team. According to ESPN's Calvin Watkins, the Rockets offered Smith $2.5 million to return -- the highest amount possible without dipping into their midlevel exception, which would have left them vulnerable to losing restricted free agent K.J. McDaniels. From Smith's standpoint, the difference in salary was just $500,000 because half of the amount he makes above the minimum salary for a one-year veteran is taken out of what he gets from the Detroit Pistons, who waived him last December. This is a coup for the Clippers, adding to their newfound depth. L.A. has added Smith, Cole Aldrich, Wesley Johnson and Lance Stephenson to its bench this summer while subtracting Glen Davis and Hedo Turkoglu, who remain free agents. While not all of those additions will work out, they give Doc Rivers more options than he had a year ago. The downside is Smith's best position, power forward, is the same one played by Blake Griffin. We've seen the results when Smith plays small forward at this stage of his career. A better option would be occasional minutes for Griffin and Smith as a small-ball frontcourt, which could work because of Smith's rim protection and would give the Clippers a potentially devastating transition attack against second units. What's next: Having also signed second-round pick Brandon Dawson this week, the Clippers now have 13 players under guaranteed contract, along with non-guaranteed Jordan Hamilton. That gives them one, maybe two spots to fill using the veterans minimum.
My problem with TJ is that its always next year. As in TJ will be a better defender ... next year. TJ will improve his 3ball ... next year. TJ will be better than Josh Smith .... next year. It's fortunate for TJ and his fans, that there will always be a .... next year.
So just being 6'6" is enough for him to be as good as Andre Iguodala, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green? Really? Here's a 6'6" second round guy. We can be Golden State, because this guy is 6'6"! What a gamble. Make it to the West Finals. Get rid of the starting forward who got you there and rebuild!
Hi - I will help you out by highlighting passages that would have caused you to not make that post. Wrong, KJ McDaniel (with potential realized) offers the type of multi-functional, positionless type of player in small-ball lineups which Golden state (having about eleventy billion of them) just rode to the NBA title. It's a gamble that McDaniel will be more valuable in the future than Smith - and while Smith definitely offers value in spots, his net impact over the course of the season is still far from clear, and the Rockets are relatively stocked with big men who can't play beyond 4-5 spots.
It's kind of a bummer. He had some rim protection on the defensive end, was able to move the ball decently most of the time, and could also score. Best of all, he loved his role coming off the bench. It's not often that people are really good at their position will accept coming off the bench let alone actually relish it. Sure he made a few bad decisions on the court, or even for stretches, but he would have been good for this team. That's especially true if we could have gotten him for the league minimum.
But those expectations don't even make sense. Those exact same unfair expectations had people always putting D-Mo on blast, and then he broke loose last year. Broke loose just as expected. You'd hear our broadcast team help explain that usually it's around year 2 or year 3 when young talent shows you they got it or they don't. TJ & D-Mo were both year 3 last year. And both started off with break out performances. Did TJ break his back? Did he snap a leg in half or blow out a knee? No. He had a freak accident with that drop foot that nearly ended his career, and right when he gets back, he is in a flooded PF position. He then gets another unfortunate freak accident with a punctured lung. It just sucks for him but he is not injury prone. Rockets system is designed to use that 1st year to develop guys in our d-league. Both D-Mo and TJ's 2nd year was truly their rookie year on the real NBA court. Same story was being played out for Capela. It's like the GARM never learns. So many were ready to throw in the towel or cast him away to be someone else's "longterm" project, and now he's ready to beast after a near full year in our d-league system. TJ while having to restart and play back into game shape last year gave you equal points to Super Megastar Greatest EVAR Josh Smith, gave you almost twice the blocks, SHOT THE THREE BETTER, and grabbed more boards. but you know, whatever, need that J SMOOVE.
TJones has not shown me that he is a good basketball player. Since he is entering year 4, it's up to him to prove me wrong. I've eaten crow plenty of times before. Here's your chance, Jones!
I think Josh did this because of what the playing time will mean in terms of a big contract after next season. Think about it the new TV deal money is going to present teams with tons of cash. If his talent is not showcased thru secured playing time then he will not be in a position to demand a bigger contract even if a team has the cash. Josh is betting on his self to have a good year like he had with us to secure his future and overcome his past mess ups. Its real risky what he is doing but could eventually lead him back to H-town. He loves this city and the team I just don't see how he wont end up back here with us.
This. Also seems to be a lot of forgetting how good Dmo has gotten. I am infinitely more ok with Dmo shooting the 3 ball and getting post up touches then I am with Smith. I could be wrong, but sounds exactly the type of prediction you probably made last offseason. Frankly lots of the usual suspects were making the same predictions last offseason. "Morey doesn't know what he's doing, we are a fringe playoff team, Dallas has passed us up" and so on. Didn't turn out that way.
I have not forgotten but well as I said I read his ESPN interview and he is looking to ADavis and others who got paid.... He is looking to get paid a lot let's say that. (I am being lazy to search for the url) He has not performed consistently well enough in the playoffs to warrant that kind of money IMO This league is crazy with its max and near max deals.
He has a point. Spurs were out 1st round, Memphis were eliminated, Thunder did not make the playoffs......barely beat the Clippers. We got second seed only by 1 game. I do not think that is going to happen every year. What are the odds that those teams were out of the playoffs so fast every year? They got better. Spurs, Memphis and Thunder were favorites to win the West 2 years ago and not GSW
Ahmmm. Jsmoove was great but he does not get all the credit . Dmo and TJ played starting roles for that PF position that got us the second seed during the regular season right? If we were an 8th seed, we would not have sniffed the second round.
