Washington Wizards Agree To 3-Year, $16 Million Deal With Jason Smith
The Washington Wizards upgraded their backcourt after missing out on Kevin Durant. How does Jason Smith fit in Washington, and was he a good signing?
The Washington Wizards entered the offseason knowing they were starting with Plan B.
For the past two years, Kevin Durant’s pending free agency was linked with the Washington Wizards. A D.C. area native, Durant potentially following in the path of LeBron James and “returning home” stirred up excitement in the hearts and imaginations of Wizards fans.
The Wizards prepared for this summer by lining up the needed cap space. They held off on a Bradley Beal extension to keep his small cap hold on the books, and acquired veteran role players whose contracts expired this offseason. They had enough space to sign Durant.
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But the Wizards faltered in two ways. The first was with a disappointing season, missing the playoffs entirely amidst injuries and questionable coaching. The second was in assuming Durant was the sort of person who wanted to return home. Ultimately this kept the Wizards out of the equation entirely, and Washington failed to even get a meeting with their hometown star.
With Kevin Durant signing in Golden State, the Wizards had to make use of their cap space in other ways. With only five rotation players signed for 2016-17, Washington had a lot of space to fill.
As far as Plan B’s go, the Wizards’ started out strong. Ian Mahinmi, Andrew Nicholson and Tomas Satoransky were all signed to good contracts, pieces that filled needed roles on the Wizards and were being paid at reasonable rates, especially in the current cap environment. Their trade for point guard Trey Burke was a great move to add a young, cost-controlled player with room to grow.
With less than $7 million in space remaining, the Wizards had two remaining needs — a defensive-minded wing, and an athletic rim-protector to serve as their fifth big. The Wizards decided to go after neither.
Instead, Washington signed Jason Smith to a three-year, $18 million contract. Smith, a 30-year-old journeyman center, averaged 15 minutes per game last season for the Orlando Magic. On defense, the seven-footer has never averaged even one block per game, nor half a steal, in his entire eight-year career.
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His career high for rebounds is 5.8 per game, and last season he couldn’t even gather in three a night. He is too slow to guard power forwards, but with Mahinmi and Gortat being paid a combined $27 million, that is almost certainly where Smith will need to play.
On offense, Smith’s best contribution is his jumper. But he doesn’t have the range to stretch the floor past the arc, shooting 4-for-16 from distance last year. Two steps closer he becomes more of a weapon, but not an efficient one.
His true shooting percentage of 51.3 percent last year was a major step up from the last two years, and still fell below league-average. Smith can execute only the most perfunctory of passes, and around the rim he lacks the power to finish in traffic.
In short, Smith is the definition of a replacement-level player. Paying that sort of player $6 million over the next three years is a bad enough misstep. But where the Wizards erred even more was not recognizing the inefficiencies in the market.
Even with the cap soaring this offseason, the market was flooded with big men. This helped the Wizards, as they added Mahinmi and Nicholson. It also meant that other teams filled their needs, and left a number of talented big men still on the market. Big men who were not only better than Smith, but could be signed for less money.
Nene is the most glaring example. Rather than re-signing with the Wizards, he signed for $2.9 million to be the backup center in Houston. Could the Wizards have kept him for the $6 million they gave Jason Smith?
Festus Ezeli signed for only $1.4 million more than Jason Smith, and he is four years younger with far more upside. Ezeli has already proven he can protect the rim — something that was missing on Washington’s roster.
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Donatas Motiejunas can play either backcourt position and offers shooting out past the arc. Marreese Speights is at least as good of an outside shooter as Smith. Brandon Bass likewise can hit a jumper. Jared Sullinger and Tyler Zeller are young with upside. All were still available and either better or cheaper than Smith.
The Wizards were sitting on a plethora of cap space, and needed to spend it. But the money started flowing too quickly, and they caught themselves paying too much for a replaceable player. Jason Smith could be exactly what the Wizards want, hitting long two-pointers at an above-average clip and giving effort on defense. And he still won’t be worth even $6 million, especially when Nene or Motiejunas is making even less.
That is the problem here. Jason Smith isn’t going to help the Wizards win games this year, and he will only be getting older over the life of this contract. Overpaying someone at $6 million, in this market, is not going to kill Washington. But for a team already on its Plan B, it needed to do better with its space. It accomplished that with Mahinmi, with Nicholson, with Satoransky.
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But Washington tripped when they signed Jason Smith. Good teams trip now and then. Great teams? They evaluate the market and make smart decisions almost every time. The results of this season will determine whether Jason Smith’s contract is forgotten in a year, or stands out as yet more evidence that the Wizards aren’t ready to be a great team.