BREAKING: Pistons Waive Josh Smith
Forward Josh Smith of the Detroit Pistons was waived by his team on Monday morning, while still having 2 years and $26 million left on his contract.
Smith has been a solid forward in this league for a decade, and gave Detroit some nice production starting in 2013, when he came to the Motor City out of free agency. Josh has averaged 15.5 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game as a member of the Pistons.
This move came as much of a surprise to the rest of the league, as Smith has been a top-notch player over his career to this point, and could have been trade bait rather than a possible waiver pickup. On the subject of why Smith was released to waivers, Coach and President of Basketball Operations Stan Van Gundy said:
“Our team has not performed the way we had expected throughout the first third of the season and adjustments need to be made in terms of our focus and direction.”
Van Gundy then added,
“We are shifting priorities to aggressively develop our younger players while also expanding the roles of other players in the current rotation to improve performance and build for our future. As we expand certain roles, others will be reduced. In fairness to Josh, being a highly versatile 10-year veteran in this league, we feel it’s best to give him his freedom to move forward. We have full respect for Josh as a player and a person.”
Coach is right in that Smith has been a versatile player and a solid veteran in the NBA, but still, he could at least help the Pistons win games over the last 2 years of his contract with them. If Detroit had the utmost respect for J-Smitty, they would have first asked him to take a pay cut, or traded him so that he doesn’t get the humiliation of being waived by a team that signed him to a contract worth dozens of millions of dollars.
If Smith clears waivers, he will be able to sign a new contract elsewhere, but he will not get the same pay. Whoever picks Smith up will be getting a pure steal of a free agent. Josh Smith is a capable forward of starting and receiving a big role in the National Basketball Association.
We’ll see who lands Smith, or whether he gets claimed off of waivers first.
Smith’s contract will have to be paid off in a salary cap hit by Detroit, which will not help their case for rebuilding and creating a better future for their squad that Van Gundy was talking about.
Update: The Rockets and Kings are in the hunt to sign Smith after he clears waivers. Other teams are surely after Smith as well.
