Josh Smith wasn’t that bad, even while being SO BAD

Josh Smith was an expensive Hail Mary whose uninspired, occasionally hilarious and reliably uneven play defined the nearly unwatchable Detroit Pistons on-court product over the past season plus.

But before you read further here, I feel the need to point out the following about how I watch the NBA these days:

• How much guys get paid is meaningless to me. Good for you for getting all of that Tom Gores money, Josh. I hope there is another near-max contract from Sacramento in your future. There is nothing less interesting to me than debates among fans about who the most overpaid players are. I long for the day when I’m overpaid to do my job. We all should. Let’s celebrate guys having financial success. Josh Smith’s victory is our victory.
• Undisciplined play is entertaining. I watch sports to be entertained. I don’t have any pathological need for the Pistons to win — I don’t own them or run them or have any vested interest in their success. The fact is, they were probably always going to be lousy these last two seasons, so I’d like to thank Josh Smith for being lousy with some flair. Give me a team with Josh Smith or Lance Stephenson or J.R. Smith on League Pass and there is a 100 percent chance I’ll watch.

At some point, writing about the NBA on a daily basis lost its appeal to me not because the league itself is not worth writing about — on the contrary, I find the quality of basketball, the insanity of some of the characters, the competitiveness and the storylines as compelling as ever. It’s hard to write about simply because you can’t turn anywhere on the internet without someone wanting to shove their interpretation of how the game should be enjoyed in everyone else’s face. I reached a point where I legitimately felt bad about adding to that noise, and Smith is the perfect example to highlight that.

You don’t have to look hard to find criticisms of Smith’s game. There are great writers at national and local sites who have produced in-depth pieces showing through a mix of sound statistical analysis and watching extensive film why, exactly, Smith’s presence on the court hurt the Pistons so much. There are real-time reactions during games on Twitter where you can instantly feel (virtually) simultaneous facepalms from fans reacting to Smith’s latest blunder in unison. You may have even read quotes from Smith himself collected by beat writers (at least the ones who haven’t blocked me for being hilarious) suggesting that Smith had no ability to fix what was going wrong with his game.

I consumed (and largely agreed with) all of that negativity surrounding Smith, and reached a pretty basic conclusion — what could I possibly add of value? He played really poorly. Did anyone need deep statistical analysis to reach the conclusion that it wasn’t working, it would never work and it was pretty insane for Joe Dumars to even think it would work in the first place?

And beyond the obvious (really obvious) flaws in his game, I still appreciated his unwillingness to be influenced by the deluge of unsolicited advice that could be found for him on the internet on a daily basis. He had a highly successful career, one that netted him a huge contract that should have him set for life. He reached levels of professional success that a tiny fraction of the people who aspire to be NBA players will ever realize. And he’s supposed to listen to a bunch of people on their couches who think he shoots 3-pointers too much? Would you pass up those open looks(sweet, sweet open looks) if they were offered in your rec league game? Get outta here.

I certainly recognize Smith’s (large) role in making the team that geographical convenience determined I root for terrible, and I’m hopeful that his lack of presence on said team gives them more avenues to be compelling in a way that isn’t compellingly awful. But I also don’t harbor any resentment for his tenure as a Piston. I wish him the best, and certainly think that he’d be an intriguing fit as designated cherry-picker in that innovative offense Sacramento is crafting.

His presence was a needed attention-getting example of Joe Dumars’ complete inability to put together a competitive roster. At least Smith didn’t insult me with boringness. That’s a better accomplishment than a lot of other Pistons players over the last six years.