Rowan Kavner
NEW YORK, NY – The Clippers brought Josh Smith in this summer with the hopes he could provide to them what he provided to a Rockets team that advanced past the Clippers in the second round of last year’s playoffs.
But things don’t always go to plan, and halfway through the 2015-16 season, Smith is going back to his old team in a trade sending Smith, the draft rights to Sergei Lishouck and cash considerations to Houston in exchange for the draft rights to Maarty Leunen.
“Obviously, I wanted Josh to work out,” said Clippers head coach Doc Rivers. “It just didn’t for us.”
Smith was considered one of the Clippers’ top signings of the offseason, as the team managed to lure in a forward with career averages of 14.8 points and 7.6 rebounds as a free agent in July 2015 despite their cap limitations.
He began in the backup rotation, averaging 5.9 points and 4.3 rebounds in 15.7 minutes per game in November. He followed that up averaging 6.3 points and 3.3 rebounds in 12.3 minutes per game in December, and it was at the end of that month when Smith saw his minutes dwindle, eventually falling out of the rotation.
Smith only played six minutes Dec. 19 against his former team in Houston, then was a “DNP” in five of the final six games of the month. After averaging 12.4 points and 6.4 rebounds in 27.7 minutes per game last season between Detroit and Houston, Smith’s numbers fell to 5.7 points and 3.9 rebounds in 14.3 minutes per game with the Clippers.
“Like I said earlier, he was very good, a good teammate and all that, but it just didn’t work,” Rivers said. “So we wanted to go in another direction.”
The Clippers found success with Cole Aldrich and Pablo Prigioni inserted into the backup rotation. Rivers said role acceptance is the “key to winning,” and the duo, friends on and off the court, had no issue with that.
“They’ve been great, both of them,” Rivers said. “When Blake (Griffin) went down, that’s when we made the change to the second unit, because we knew we had to add something…Those two guys, they play right every night. It’s really nice having that on your team.”
As wins racked up, the Clippers stuck with Aldrich and Prigioni as regulars in the backup rotation.
That meant Smith, who received only seven minutes of playing time against the 76ers to start January and then didn’t play again the next three games, stayed out of the rotation, though Rivers said Smith did a great job handling that situation.
“Cole played well and we started winning games, but Josh was great in the locker room, great in practices,” Rivers said. “So, he was a professional.”
Then, with both Griffin and DeAndre Jordan out for two games, the Clippers needed Smith’s size again. So his playing time spiked up, posting nine points and three rebounds in 20 minutes against Miami and seven points and seven rebounds in 19 minutes against Sacramento.
But he sat once again against his former Rockets team once Jordan returned, and again Smith didn’t play Thursday against the Cavaliers. The next morning, prior to playing the Knicks on Friday, Smith was sent back to Houston.
Guard Jamal Crawford said sometimes things don’t work out in the business of basketball, but he also said Smith was professional about the circumstances.
“It’s kind of kudos to Doc, as far as sending him somewhere that he’s comfortable with and somewhere that they know him and he knows them and probably will be a better fit,” Crawford said.
All of Smith’s averages, apart from a 31 percent mark from 3-point range, were career lows. It was a struggle offensively for Smith, who shot just 38.3 percent from the field, though it helped at times having his athleticism inside defensively. Among players with at least 20 Clippers games under their belt this year, Smith had the worst offensive rating but the best defensive rating on the team.
As for the other players in the deal, Leunen is a 30-year-old former 2008 second-round pick who currently plays in Italian Serie A. Lishouck is a 32-year-old power forward originally drafted by the Grizzlies with the 49th overall selection in 2004, currently playing for UCAM Murcia in Spain.