Josh Smith gets 12:01 a.m. meeting with Pistons, who’ve readied ‘substantial’ offer
By Dan Feldman
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports:
"Detroit Pistons general manager Joe Dumars met with Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Smith at 12:01 a.m. ET with a plan to make the free agent forward a substantial four-year offer, league sources told Yahoo! Sports."
"Along with re-signing point guard Jose Calderon, Smith is the Pistons’ top priority on the market, league sources told Y! Sports.The Pistons planned to make a preemptive strike on Smith, understanding that he’s a secondary priority for several teams awaiting the resolution of the Dwight Howard derby, sources said."
Oh boy. Earlier, I explained why this could happen, and now it’s happening. Oh boy.
Smith is a huge talent upgrade, but he comes with all types of attitude and fit questions that we’ll continue to get into as the night progresses.
Update: Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News:
"Just asked a source if the #Pistons will offer Josh Smith the max, the answer: "Absolutely not.""
There’s still a huge gap between a reasonable offer to Smith and a max contract, but I guess this an encouraging update.