Trade Grades: Will Josh Smith revitalize the Rockets again?
The Trade
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Jan. 22: Clippers, Rockets hit reset on Josh Smith signing
Rockets get: Forward Josh Smith, rights to center Serhiy Lishchuk, cash
Clippers get: Rights to forward Maarty Leunen
Houston: B
For all three parties involved in this trade -- the Clippers, the Rockets and Josh Smith -- this trade is essentially a reset on Smith's decision to leave for L.A. in free agency barely six months ago.
Houston can't really regret anything because the Rockets wanted to re-sign Smith and offered more money, only to see him choose an offer from the Clippers for the veteran's minimum. Still, their bench hasn't been the same without Smith this season.
With Smith on the court in 2014-15, Houston outscored opponents by 7.4 points per 100 possessions according to NBA.com/Stats. The team actually had a negative net rating with Smith on the bench after he signed with the Rockets in late December.
That difference can't be credited entirely to Smith -- other reserves like Corey Brewer also get some credit -- but a similar group hasn't been nearly as effective this season. Houston has been outscored by 2.0 points per 100 possessions when Brewer, the lone player who has had a consistent role on the Rockets' bench, is on the court.
Given all that, it's understandable that GM Daryl Morey would want to get the band back together, in his words. At the same time, the Houston roster Smith joins is not the same as the one he left, and that's where I have some concerns.
Much of Smith's success last season came playing as a small-ball center. Per NBAwowy.com, he played 470 minutes -- about a third of his total with the Rockets -- either as the biggest player on the court or next to Terrence Jones, who functioned as a power forward in those lineups. These tiny, quick groups ran and pressed like crazy, with Smith providing enough rim protection to keep them from getting dominated in the paint. They outscored opponents by 6.0 points per 100 possessions.
This season's Houston rotation is different because of the emergence of second-year center Clint Capela as one of the team's best players. The Rockets have played just 281 minutes all season without either Capela or starting center Dwight Howard on the floor. Lineups with Smith next to those traditional big men might not have enough spacing to work in a half-court setting. Capela's development also means there's simply more competition for minutes up front, even with Donatas Motiejunas continuing to deal with back problems after his surgery last spring. Barring another trade involving either Jones or Motiejunas, both impending free agents, the only obvious place to slot in Smith is in place of rookie Montrezl Harrell -- who has played just 250 minutes all season.
There's relatively little downside for Houston here. The Rockets essentially gave up nothing to get Smith, though every dollar is precious because the team is close to the hard cap it faces after using the full midlevel exception last summer. Houston now has a little more than $500,000 in wiggle room to add salary in future trades.
This was a deal worth making for the Rockets. Just don't be surprised if we find out they can't turn back the clock to last season's bench.
Los Angeles Clippers: B
The Clippers' signing of Smith certainly made sense at the time. Their alternatives were limited because they had only the veteran's minimum to offer free agents after using their taxpayer midlevel exception to sign Paul Pierce, and Doc Rivers planned to use Smith much the same way he played in Houston last season.
Alas, on a slower-paced second unit Smith's inability to shoot from the perimeter -- and his desire to keep shooting anyway -- made him unplayable. Nothing Smith provided at the defensive end could make up for his dismal .456 true shooting percentage, and the team was outscored by 8.5 points per 100 possessions with him on the court, according to NBA.com/Stats.
It's hard to make a fair comparison of Smith to replacement Cole Aldrich statistically, since Rivers also decided to play his son Austin off the ball and use Pablo Prigioni at point guard at the same time. Because of both moves, that new second unit has been far more effective (with Smith on the bench), with Aldrich posting a minus-0.9 net rating while on the court.
Even with Blake Griffin sidelined by injury, Smith couldn't find a role for the Clippers. He'd played just 49 minutes over the past month, nearly all of that when DeAndre Jordan briefly joined Griffin on the sidelines due to illness.
With Griffin scheduled to return soon, Smith wasn't needed in L.A., and trading him gives the Clippers an extra roster spot to use on a buyout candidate after the trade deadline. (In the interim, Yahoo! Sports reports the Clippers will sign center Jeff Ayres to a 10-day contract.) Because those salaries are prorated, the Clippers still figure to save about $1.2 million in luxury-tax payments by trading Smith.
As for Leunen and Lishchuk, both players are in their 30s and unlikely to ever come to the NBA.
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