[Woj Yahoo!] Josh Smith and the fight for his good name

Love reading this. Didn't know he was so humbled. Smith has been great for us.

 

I saw that too. Josh was very animated, encouraging his teammates. Great to see.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>@<a href="https://twitter.com/awexler">awexler</a> Here's a heatmap comparing Josh Smith on <a class="hashtag" action="hash" title="#Pistons">#Pistons</a> and on <a class="hashtag" action="hash" title="#Rockets">#Rockets</a>... <a href="http://t.co/GgVpyWo7Ux" title="http://twitter.com/darenw/status/561560453780762624/photo/1">pic.twitter.com/GgVpyWo7Ux</a></p>&mdash; Daren Willman (@darenw) <a href="https://twitter.com/darenw/status/561560453780762624" data-datetime="2015-01-31T16:23:40+00:00">January 31, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

Smith did receive a lot of over the top criticism, but this article is equally over the top. Smith has done a decent job off the bench for Houston, but people here would be screaming bloody murder if he was still getting 13.5 mill to put up his mediocre numbers.

 

I think by now many people (maybe including Josh himself) have accepted the fact he is not a max player. He has the physical gifts but not skilled enough or dominant enough to be that.

But if you take away the contract considerations, he is a valuable player to have in your rotation if he plays within himself, such as what he's been doing as a Rocket lately.

I was kind of skeptical about how much he would help when we first signed him. I have been gradually won over by the way he conducts himself here. I think he can be a high end role player worth somewhere between the max and the MLE.

 

This is a pointless comment. Smith wouldn't be here if it cost 13.5 mill.

 

You can't ever do that. A guys value is irrevocably tied to his contract in a salary cap league.

If Smith's contract is the difference between being here and not, it seems pretty relevant.

 

I don't think its entirely pointless. The article even mentions how close we were to getting him in 2013. He would have completed a "big three." Of course it would be at a lesser salary, but it would definitely be a painful amount.

 

That's the point. Of course people wouldn't be happy with Smith here if he was making 13.5 mil, but that's just not the case. He's on a bargain deal, so of course people are happy with the move. Who cares what it'd be like if he had a bad contract? You can say that about any non-superstar player in the league.

This is true, but the article says how Detroit's offer was far greater than any other offer. I wonder how much Morey was originally willing to give Smith.

 

Josh Smith has had stretches of 2 great weeks already in his career. We can't go overboard just because Woj wrote a hype piece I'm sure with Rockets' or Smith's reps, or possibly because he's not fond of new Pistons ownership/management.

The man deserves his props for being better than he was in Detroit, sure. He's really surprised me by getting acclimated fast. He brings a nice dimension when he occasionally takes over playmaking duties for us. But if we're talking about whether he's worth, say, an MLE-level extension then he's going to have to keep this up for the whole season and still improve on his shot selection. This can go really well for both parties, and he's been a blessing at a time where we were thing up front.

 

Smith is definitely worth the MLE. Are y'all serious?

 

Did someone really question whether or not smith is worth the MLE???

Good god man.

 

Always been a fan of Josh Smith...was hoping he'd come to us via trade in 2008-2009.

 

He's fitting his role perfectly. In Detroit he was expected to play SF and earn that contract thus more shots and more shots from distance. Who didn't hear of that signing and think it was a disaster waiting to happen?

At his age and receiving all of the Pistons money anyway why not come off the bench for a contender for the MLE?

Really, really hope Morey can resign both Smith and Brewer.