NBA AM: The Race To Land Josh Smith

The Race To Land Josh Smith:  From the minute the Detroit Pistons announced that forward Josh Smith would be waived, the assumption was that Smith would finally land in Houston with life-long friend Dwight Howard and consummate a union both the Rockets and Smith pursued two summers ago.

Smith is expected to clear the NBA waiver process on Wednesday and would be eligible to sign a new deal as an unrestricted free agent with a new team sometime after that.

While Houston remains the team projected to land Smith, there is an ever growing sense that Smith may not make a quick decision and that other teams are getting a real and legitimate chance to sway Smith their way.

Here is what we know:

Cross The Knicks and Lakers Off The List

As much as fans of both the L.A. Lakers and the New York Knicks want to see some change in the way their teams are playing today, neither teams’ front office seems overly eager to make a change, let alone pursue Smith.

There is a wrinkle worth pointing out. There are some that see Smith as an enticement for his good friend Rajon Rondo in free agency and that landing Smith on what would likely be a very cheap contract could be an extra notch in the pursuit of Rondo in July.

Sources near both teams downplayed pursuit of Smith for any reason; however, until he signs with another team there is that idea hovering around both franchises that do have Rondo on their wish list of free agents.

Kings Are In The Mix

Take it for what it is, but there are rumblings coming out of Sacramento suggesting that Smith is as interested in the Kings as they are in him.

Some of that might be a little wishful thinking, but at least one Raptor player that is still close with Rudy Gay is saying Gay told him that Smith is a real possibility in Sacramento. Ryan Wolstat tweeted as much last night.

The Kings were the team trying to trade for Smith this summer, and were believed to still be at the table with an offer when the Pistons opted to waive Smith.

The Kings don’t have much more than the NBA minimum to offer Smith, but if the Kings can persuade Smith that he can play a big role in their future, maybe he does the unexpected.

The Kings are said to be pushing hard on the Smith front. We’ll see if that ends up making a difference.

Miami Trying To Free Up Some Cash

The Miami HEAT did reach out to Smith after being waived and logged their interest.

The HEAT also applied for a Disabled Player Exception on Josh McRoberts that could land them an additional $2.65 million if it is awarded.

The problem with a Disabled Player Exception is that the NBA processes them at their own pace and that could drag things out.

If the HEAT can secure the additional cash by way of the exception, that would put them in the lead in terms of cash being offered to Smith.

The problem with a deal based on a DPE is that it can only be one-year in length. It’s believed that Smith is seeking the balance of the season fully guaranteed and a player option for next year.

The HEAT would be unable to offer that kind of deal specifically, but they could always re-sign Smith next year for 120 percent of whatever they sign him for this year.

While offering more cash seems like it’s appealing, NBA contracts tend to have “set-off” language that helps the waiving team recoup some savings if a waived players signs a new deal.

Smith is eligible for a minimum contract worth $1.4 million, any difference between what he actually signs for and the minimum can be partially deducted from what the Pistons owe him.

In the case of the HEAT and an exception based deal, Smith would receive $1.2 million more than minimum; meaning 50 percent of that number gets deducted from what the Pistons owe him. So while it seems like the HEAT could offer substantially more in an exception deal, the net gain would be roughly $625,000 more than agreeing to the NBA minimum. Not an inconsequential amount, but not a landslide in the decision making process either.

Clippers Playing It Smooth

The L.A. Clippers were initially linked to Smith after being waived; however, Clippers president and head coach Doc Rivers sort of downplayed his team’s interest saying they’d look into it.

The Clippers are not playing nearly as well as they had hoped and landing Smith would be a huge upgrade at the small forward position. If anyone could reach Smith, its likely Rivers. The Clippers have only the NBA minimum ($1.4 million) to offer Smith and are not viewed as serious suitors at this point.

Mavericks Are Sort Of Luke Warm

The Dallas Mavericks have inquired about Smith as well. Rajon Rondo has sort of led the public charge to get Smith in Dallas, but their interest doesn’t seem nearly as great as some of the other suitors.

The Mavs clearly have a need for some of the things that Smith brings, especially as a shot blocker and a rebounder, but it does not seem Dallas is as genuinely interested as say in-state rival Houston.

The Mavericks, like the Clippers, can only offer the NBA minimum but that may not as big a factor as you might think.

The Rondo connection is interesting in this situation, but it may not be in the cards for the Mavericks,

Houston Leads The Pack

It continues to look like Houston is the front runner, but as chronicled above they are far from the only team with interest in the mercurial forward.

The Rockets do have a few things in their favor: Smith is life-long friends with Rockets center Dwight Howard. They grew up together in Atlanta and he is said to be leading the recruiting pitch, selling that Smith would play in Houston, that he’d have some security with the Rockets and that both he and James Harden want him there badly.

Don’t discount the appeal of being wanted badly after being waived and the importance of a friendly and safe place after the bad fit in Detroit.

Houston and Smith tried to consummate a sign-and-trade deal when Smith was a free agent two summers ago, but were unable to get Atlanta to play ball. So the two sides have had eyes for each other for some time.

The Rockets had tried a couple of times to trade for Smith, but didn’t have the contracts to get a deal done with the Pistons.

The Rockets also still have their $2 million bi-annual exception and can not only offer more than the NBA minimum, they could do so on a two-year deal, which is believed to be important to Smith.

Smith will not clear waivers until Wednesday so even though Houston is pushing hard to make something happen, other teams have a window for almost another full day.

So while the Rockets are deemed to be the leader in the club house, it’s far from decided.

Why They Waived Josh Smith:  It’s pretty common for fans and non-insiders to believe that anyone can be traded, because frankly we’ve seen some of the worst contracts in the history of basketball traded.

The problem with believing that any deal can be traded overlooks the obvious – you have to have a team on the other side willing to take the player.

The Detroit Pistons in a shocking move yesterday opted to waive forward Josh Smith. He had roughly $9.1 million remaining to be paid on his $13.5 million contract year this year and two more years worth $13.5 million apiece for a total of $36.1 million left to be paid. That’s a ton of cash to pay someone to walk away.

To the Pistons credit they tried for the last six months to trade Smith, but everything they could get any traction on either had them taking on longer term contracts or sacrificing young guys or worse yet draft picks to make a deal.

Pistons president and head coach Stan Van Gundy told reporters that he considered offers on Smith but anything they could have done would have hampered their future.

“I would rather be where we are right now than having taken back the players we were offered that would’ve sat on our cap for the next three years,” Van Gundy said to Pistons.com. “That would have slowed down our rebuilding effort. We went into the season expecting much, much better than this. To just continue on the same course and not do anything differently at 5 and 23 would be pretty bad leadership at this point. Looking back, I would rather have this situation than the opportunity we had in the summer.”

The Pistons’ struggles were part of the reason for the change and Van Gundy admitted he could have opted to downgrade Smith’s role on the team, but he was trying to be fair to what he wanted to see in terms of change for his team and what he felt was reasonable for Smith.

“Josh is the guy on our team with the highest usage rate. He’s taken the most shots. He’s a high-assists guy. He’s got the ball in his hands a lot,” Van Gundy said. “We would have had to reduce his role offensively. I don’t think he would have been happy with that at this point in his career. I don’t think it necessarily would have been fair to him. But I think it’s something we need to do to try to move on.”

The Pistons will use the “stretch provision” in the Collective Bargaining Agreement to spread out the payments and the cap impact of Smith’s contract. Because this decision was reached mid-season the current season cannot be stretched so the $9.1 million owed is paid as contracted. However, the remaining two years can be stretched using the formula of “two plus one” – two times the remaining years on his deal plus one, so Smith’s two years becomes five “stretched” years and his payout and salary cap hit drop from $13.5 million to just at $5.4 million per year.

Van Gundy rationalized the decision saying it helps the team cap position in the short-term and that with the expected increases in the salary cap in the future, the carry over impact won’t be that great.

“We gain an advantage the next two summers and then the three years after that, he sits on our cap – but with the cap going up, I think you’re looking at that being a very small percentage of the cap. It helps a great deal,” Van Gundy said.

The underlying message in this deal is that keeping the draft picks or avoiding the “throw-in” contracts that it would have taken to move Smith’s albatross of a contract was more important than carrying what can only be described as a cap penalty for three full seasons after Smith is gone.

The Pistons were not the only ones in this kind of situation. The Boston Celtics found an almost barren trade market for former All-Star Rajon Rondo. The Brooklyn Nets have been looking for homes for guard Deron Williams and Joe Johnson in an effort to make some change and clean up their roster, but they too are finding that moving money in the NBA will cost you.

There have been reports that the Sacramento Kings would take on Deron Williams but want big man Mason Plumlee as part of the deal for taking on the contract money.

While history has proven that even the worst contracts in the NBA can be traded, they often require additional inducement, and when you are a 5-23 team like the Pistons, can you really afford to give away young assets or draft picks to make change? The answer in the case was no.

While it’s easy to believe that everyone in the NBA has trade value, the truth is a lot of times they don’t, especially if they have two or three years remaining on their deal, much like Smith did with the Pistons.

On The Clock:  When the NBA awarded the Milwaukee Bucks franchise to current owners Wesley Edens and Marc Lasry they were put on the clock. If the team did not break ground on a new arena by the fall of 2017, the NBA can reclaim the team for $575 million.

At the time of the purchase Edens and Lasry committed $100 million towards construction of a new building. Outgoing owner Herb Kolh pledged an additional $100 million and it’s believed that additional investors have pledged as much as $100 million more, bringing the total committed funding to $300 million on what’s expected to be a $400 million project.

Don Walker of the Journal Sentinel is reporting that during the negotiations with the city and county Edens and Lasry have committed an additional $50 million more.

The Bucks owners have candidly said that meeting the funding requirements to keep the team is easier than losing the team back to the NBA given what the current valuations NBA teams have reached, so they continue to indicate a new building is simply a formality and a process.

The price tag on the Sacramento Kings new building is said to be roughly $477 million, so with more than $300 million already committed it does not seem like the Bucks and a new venue are all that far apart in the grand scheme, but they are still very much on the clock.

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