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Josh Smith has agreed to a deal with the Los Angeles Clippers, according to a report from RealGM's Shams Charania.
The contract could be made official as early as Friday, according to Arash Markazi of ESPN, and is believed to be for one year at the $1.5-million veteran minimum.
The Clippers can only offer Smith the veteran minimum, which would pay him $1.5 million in the first year of a contract up to two years in length. Strapped for cap space and tight under the luxury tax, Doc Rivers and the Clippers must have sold Smith on the chance to contend for a championship rather than the opportunity to cash in.
While more money is always better - apologies to Biggie - Smith is still being paid handsomely by the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons waived Smith in December but still owe him the remaining $27 million owed to him through 2017, having used the stretch provision to spread the resultant cap hit out through 2020.
That freed Smith to sign with the Houston Rockets for the $2.1-million bi-annual exception, further lining his pockets and helping rehabilitate his market value. Or so it seemed.
Smith is far more valuable, in basketball terms, than a minimum salary, but with so few teams possessing cap space to sway him with financials, the chance to play a "defined role" for a quality team made the difference.
This, despite reportedly receiving a $2.5-million offer from Houston, because the NBA's offset protocol prevents Smith from earning more than the minimum plus the $5.4 million Detroit is paying him in each of the next five seasons. Any dollar a team pays him above the minimum is just one less dollar Detroit is on the hook for.
The departing Smith sent out a message to Rockets fans:
Over my pro career I have spent a lot of time in Houston with friends and family. Over the past year, while with the Rockets, the team, fans and people of Houston have made it a second home. I want to express my appreciation to everyone for the support and kindness they have showed me and my family while I have been here. Thank you!
The 6-foot-9 Smith will figure in as a combo-forward for L.A., and while he's better as a four, the Clippers are thin on the wings. Smith even saw spot duty as a center in smaller Houston lineups, and that type of defensive versatility was surely attractive to the Clippers.
The 29-year-old Smith remains a productive player and is an example of an exorbitant salary working to overstate how much a player's value has fallen. Smith averaged 12 points, six rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.2 blocks, and 0.9 steals in 55 games with the Rockets, and even knocked down 33 percent of his threes, a long-standing Smith weakness.
In 836 games for three teams over 11 seasons, the former Slam Dunk champion and All-Defensive Second Team member has averaged 15.1 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.2 assists, two blocks, and 1.3 steals while shooting 45.5 percent from the floor.
