OT - Pistons just cut Josh Smith

Submitted by I Like Burgers on

In non-Harbaugh news, the Pistons just told Josh Smith to GTFO.  Flat out cut from the team with $26M left on his contract.  Odd move.

Padog

December 22nd, 2014 at 12:03 PM ^

Finally.
He is a stretch four that the Pistons have no room for. When he plays the three he is useless. He is inefficient and takes a lot of shots.
Good move

MGoChippewa

December 22nd, 2014 at 12:15 PM ^

but it shouldn't screw the cap up too badly.  Pistons used the stretch provision, so it'll break down in the following way:

2014-15 $13.5M (full hit), 15-16 $5.4M, 16-17 $5.4M, 17-18 $5.4M, 18-19 $5.4M, 19-20 $5.4M.  

He still gets all his money and the team still takes the full cap hit, but it won't be as restrictive as flat-out taking the full hit in the next two years.  Seeing as the cap appears to be on track to skyrocket, it's like paying some bench veteran to hang around and basically do nothing (for reference, Joel Anthony is making $3.8M this season).  

MGoChippewa

December 22nd, 2014 at 12:32 PM ^

be sitting on his ass, I can nearly guarantee that.  Per the CBA, if ANY pro team signs him (European, Asian, South American, anywhere), the Pistons can reduce their obligation and (this next part I'm not positive of) I believe, their cap hit by a certain amount.  It's not the full amount of his next contract, but the value of his deal, minus the veteran's minimum, divided by two.  For anybody curious how the CBA and the cap work in the NBA, Larry Coon is a damn evil genius and has just about every question answered HERE.

FWIW, a lot of people think Smith will clear waivers and sign with the Kings, which is a reasonable guess considering how hard they pursued a trade for him.  

I Like Burgers

December 22nd, 2014 at 12:29 PM ^

I forgot about the cap exploding mitigating some of the damage from this contract.  So they really just take a beating this year when it doesn't matter and then with more cap room in the future its not that big of a deal.  Really like the move now.

Now SVG just needs to find a warmed over corpse to play SG because Caldwell-Pope is a giant turd masquerading as an NBA player.

Can we refire Dumars?  Can someone be so bad at something that you can unretire their jersey?

MGoChippewa

December 22nd, 2014 at 12:35 PM ^

about finding a SF and a starting PG.  Meeks will be fine at SG for the next few years, but there's not a single SF on the roster you could even mistake for a starter.  MIght need a PF after this year too.  Good news (or bad if you've been scarred by recent off-seasons) is, they'll have plenty of cap room to reconstruct the roster.

Tater

December 22nd, 2014 at 2:16 PM ^

Joe Dumars had a direct hand in all three of the Pistons' NBA Championships.  I am still pissed at him for not taking Melo and probably costing the Pistons one or even two more NBA Championships, but I still respect how he rebuilt the team out of nothing into NBA Champions.

In a way, Joe was a victim of his own success.  He got the best of a lot of trades leading to the Pistons winning it all in 2004.  Ever since then, nobody has made a bona fide offer to the Pistons, preferring to lowball them in fear of being on the losing end.  

Dumars was horrible in the draft.  That was really his downfall in Detroit.  The Darko Debacle is still possibly the worst pick of all time.  He was never really able to draft well.  Combine that with Detroit not exactly being a preferred destination for free agents and it doesn't add up to championship caliber basketball.

I will always appreciate what Joe Dumars did, both on the court and in the office.  I just wish time could have frozen for the Pistons in the summer of 2004.

Michigan4Life

December 22nd, 2014 at 3:02 PM ^

right pick for the Pistons. They have zero need for Melo with the current starting 5 and Melo is a ball stopper which doesn't mesh with the team concept. 

Beside, a lot of people would villfied Joe D for passing up Darko at the time. Darko was at one time considered to be equal to LBJ at draft day.

I Like Burgers

December 22nd, 2014 at 4:41 PM ^

Darko was also the only guy that fit a need for the Pistons and made any sense given the team makeup.  They had Rip and Chauncey so they didn't need someone like Wade.  They thought Prince was going to be good and so they didn't need Melo -- plus they had 6th man of the year Corliss Williamson off the bench, where was Melo going to get minutes?  

What they needed was a good big man to compliment Wallace.  The thinking was that Darko was more NBA ready than a beanpole like Bosh.  With his reported nasty streak he and Wallace were going to create a defensive force.  So they took Darko.

I Like Burgers

December 22nd, 2014 at 4:34 PM ^

I'm not sure how much of Dumars' success was him, and how much was John Hammond's.  I used to be plugged into NBA circles a lot more than I am now, but I remember talking to a scout once who said Hammond was the brains of the operation.  And if you look at the timeline, things went to shit right about the time Hammond left for the Bucks in 2008.  The Pistons went from 59 wins to 39 wins and haven't had a winning season since.

Lou MacAdoo

December 22nd, 2014 at 12:11 PM ^

I've been hoping they would trade him and Jennings as both of them are hard to watch and root for. Then I came to peace with the fact that no GM in their right mind would want either player for the amount of money they're getting except Joe Dumars. This was really the only option. He clearly was a bad signing and probably wasn't listening to his coach. He usually has like the worst three point shooting percentage in the league yet he continues to chuck them up. I cant believe he's being told to do that, actually probably the opposite. Now please cut Jennings as well and draft Trey Burke.

TheLastHarbaugh

December 22nd, 2014 at 1:03 PM ^

That's simply not true. From what Woj is now reporting the trade that was kicked around would have been Carl Landry and Jason Thompson for Smith.

Landry is signed through 2017 at $6.5 million per year. Thompson is also signed through 2017, making $6 million next year, then $6.4, and finally $6.8. There was never any Josh Smith for expiring deals offer on the table.

Waiving Josh Smith actually gives them greater cap flexibility compared to that trade.

SanDiegoWolverine

December 22nd, 2014 at 1:32 PM ^

From this article my Lowe it looks like they were willing to give up Derrick Williams who is on an expiring contract. I'm sure Jason Thompson could have been traded too seeing as half the league is looking to upgrade or increase depth in the their big man rotation. Point being, the Pistons got greedy and now they are stuck with all that dead money. I'm very curious to see where Smith ends up now.

TheLastHarbaugh

December 22nd, 2014 at 1:42 PM ^

Adrian Wojnarowski, who is basically the word of God when it comes to NBA information, says it was Carl Landry and Jason Thompson for Josh Smith.

https://twitter.com/WojYahooNBA/status/547076735817494528

Zach Lowe has merely reasserted what Woj reported.

https://twitter.com/ZachLowe_NBA/status/547077541602029569

Also, did you read that article? Because it doesn't report anything. It merely suggests some names that were being kicked around (Thompson, Landry, and Williams).

ChosenOne

December 22nd, 2014 at 1:01 PM ^

Not sure how you're taking it as a jab to him personally. It was the play calling that was cringeworthy. I'm sure he would agree. He is a great guy, no doubt about that, but when you're not built to pound the rock and the OC repeatedly asks you to. That's cringeworthy.