First off, Happy Holidays — in case you’re not having a great time, NBA’s Christmas Day Special is just around the corner so it should get better.
Another person that might be having one hell of a Christmas is Josh Smith since, as of Monday he became one of the most-talked about players of the season as a result of getting waived by the Detroit Pistons.
Smith, a once overall exciting and smart basketball player has seen a decline in his basketball abilities for the year, however, somehow he’s still coveted inside NBA’s inner circles.
According to reports, NBA contenders such as the Memphis Grizzlies, Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks were hopeful to land J-Smoove. Nevertheless, after a short-negotiation with a handful of teams, the Rockets have landed the Georgia native.
Josh Smith has committed to signing with the Houston Rockets, league sources tell Yahoo Sports. He clears waivers at 5 PM today.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 24, 2014
Getting Smith had a lot to do with Dwight Howard being one of his best friends in the league, nevertheless, in a team that has shown the depth and chemistry that the Rockets have, it would be dumb for management to make a decision solely on the former. So there had to be something else.
Here’s two things that Smith’s addition would bring to the Houston Rockets.
Shot Selection
Smith has been, for the better part of his 11-year career and the 2014-15 season, an all-over-the-place shooter. Still, even though he’s used to taking shots from wherever he wants, kind of, he still is a pretty solid space-oriented guy.
* LOOK AT THE CORNERS!
As you can see from the previous shot chart, even though he’s not the best shooter in the league — in fact he’s 343rd in the league in field goal percentage with 39.1 percent — he seems inclined to shoot mostly inside the paint. Out of his 321 field goal attempts for the season, 232 have come from inside the paint (72 percent).
With 72 percent of his shots from what seems to be the one in which he excels on the floor (without taking into account any floor location with less than 10 shots), Josh Smith may be one of the smartest shooters in the game.
The Houston Rockets lead the league in smart shot selection (yes, I just made this up) averaging only 8.9 mid-range jump-shots per game — more on that here.
As a result, subjecting Smith, an overall smart shooter (when he feels like it), to Daryl Morey’s “Morey-Ball” system that has taken the Rockets thus far, could turn Smith into one of the smartest and most efficient shooters in the league, further improving the Rockets’ efficient basketball play.
Depth
The Rockets have played, for most of the 2014-15 season, with some of their starters and/or younger rising-stars sidelined by injuries. However, during that stretch, their bench has performed at a high level that’s proved enough to keep opponents at the gate for the time needed for their healthy starting roster to come back to the floor again.
Adding Smith to their already deep roster improves their rotation and their starter’s rest minutes, turning them into arguably one of the top-three deepest teams in the league. A 2013-14 San Antonio Spurs of sorts.
Come playoff time, an experienced player like Smith will enable the Rockets to overcome any kind of major injury just as Donatas Motiejunas and Tarik Black have already done by replacing Terrence Jones.
Also, by adding J-Smoove, the Rockets’ forwards for the season would be the following:
| Rk | Player | G | MP | FG% | 3P% | 2P% | FT% | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Trevor Ariza | 27 | 38.3 | .363 | .332 | .412 | .826 | 6.2 | 2.0 | 1.7 | 0.1 | 13.8 |
| 2 | Terrence Jones | 4 | 29.3 | .521 | .429 | .537 | .750 | 7.5 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 1.8 | 14.0 |
| 3 | Donatas Motiejunas | 27 | 27.5 | .490 | .283 | .539 | .613 | 6.1 | 1.4 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 10.6 |
| 4 | Kostas Papanikolaou | 22 | 24.6 | .359 | .292 | .429 | .688 | 3.9 | 2.9 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 6.1 |
| 5 | Josh Smith | 28 | 32.0 | .391 | .243 | .407 | .468 | 7.2 | 4.7 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 13.1 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/24/2014.
In a power move that further reinforces their contention chances and cements their already strong reputation as one of the teams that could run the league come playoff time, the Houston Rockets keep getting deeper and scarier out of the Western Conference.