Good Riddance, Josh Smith

The Los Angeles Clippers signed Josh Smith to be the difference maker he was in Houston. Six months later, he’s back in Houston.

Faced with a lack of salary cap flexibility and trade options, the Los Angeles Clippers had few options at addressing the depth issues that had doomed the team in the playoffs.

The Clippers chose to address those needs by acquiring talented players who had disappointed elsewhere, chief among them Josh Smith. The logic behind it being that maybe these players will find their role with the Clippers and be a steal of an acquisition.

Just six months after signing with the Clippers, Smith has been sent back to the Houston Rockets.

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The Clippers traded Smith back to the team for which he had seemed to revive his once-promising career, the Houston Rockets. The Clippers will pay the Rockets $460,000 to cover the remaining money owed to Smith. In return for Smith, the Clippers received the rights to Maarty Leunen, who isn’t expected to ever play in the NBA.

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The Clippers will save $2 million in luxury tax and opened up a roster spot, allowing the team to sign former Spurs and Pacers forward Jeff Ayres to a 10-day contract.

Smith started the season as the backup center and as a regular member of the Clippers’ bench unit before losing his spot in the rotation completely in mid-December. Smith was expected by many to see an increased role after Blake Griffin was sidelined, but that was not the case.

Smith has appeared sparingly in only four of the Clippers’ 12 games without Griffin and the team has found success in Cole Aldrich playing backup center.

Basically, the Clippers traded Smith to a Western Conference rival for almost nothing that will make a difference for them on the court. The Clippers have decided that they’re better off spending less money on someone who won’t play on most nights.

When the Clippers signed Smith, they were hoping that he’d be able to continue the success that he had in Houston as a superb role player.

It’s easy to look at the signing of Smith as a colossal failure, but that isn’t really the case. Smith was signed for a one-year deal for the veteran’s minimum, making his signing a low-risk, somewhat high-reward signing. Smith may have fallen way short of expectations, but the cost to bring him to L.A. was a rather small one and mitigates how underwhelming his stint with the Clippers was.

Below are a few of the most memorable moments of  Smith’s time with the Clippers, a telling tale of his brief tenure with the team.

Anytime that your biggest three moments with a team involve your coach yelling at you, slapboxing with Lance Stephenson, and yelling at an assistant coach, it’s probably best that both sides move on.

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The part of the trade that raised some eyebrows is that the Clippers sent Smith back to the Houston Rockets, where Smith was a crucial part of the Rockets’ miracle comeback against the Clippers last season.

The Rockets have been almost as disappointing as Smith this season. After going to the Western Conference Finals, the Rockets have fired head coach Kevin McHale and have been hovering around .500 for the majority of the season.

Still, the Rockets remain just three games out of fifth place in the Western Conference, which could line up a rematch in the first round between the Clippers and Rockets. It’s unusual that the Clippers would give away Smith to a team in which he could have the possibility to help beat the Clippers again.

If the Clippers are to pay the remainder of Smith’s contract and receive no players in return, they would’ve been wise to send him somewhere that wouldn’t involve Smith beating the team that was paying him (which you could argue is something Smith has been doing since he signed his big contract with the Pistons).

It’s worth noting that Doc Rivers had this to say about if this trade was a sign that there were more trades to come:

The Clippers immediately signed 28-year old big man Ayres to a 10-day contract after the trade of Smith opened up a roster spot.

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Ayres has played five NBA seasons with the Trail Blazers, Pacers, and Spurs. He has career averages of 3.0 points and 2.8 rebounds per game.