Waiving Smith was a stupid decision

I didn’t have time to write my assessment of this move immediately after it happened. If I did, it may well have been more positive. But the initial optimism of “Ooh, something happened for a change” has passed. And it is pretty clear that from a basketball and team management perspective, waiving Smith was really dumb.

But let’s start with the positives. This move took massive cojones. I think it was stupid, but I am pleased that SVG has the willingness to swing hard. I’m sick and tired of a conservative approach to team building. That can work, but its success rate is no better than a risky approach. And the risky approach is simply more fun. The Pistons have been bad for a while and probably will continue to be for a while. And, as a fan, I prefer fun bad to boring bad.

Now, with the good out of the way, here’s why Van Gundy made a serious error: all he did was make the person go away. Smith wasn’t a problem because of his identity or his existence. He was a problem because of his massive contract, his poor play, and possibly by being a toxic presence. Those were the things Van Gundy should have been addressing.

Worst-case scenario, Van Gundy could have just asked Smith to stop showing up to practices or games and just stay home cashing checks. In that scenario, there is flexibility, there are options. Smith could still be bought out, traded, or welcomed back.

Maybe you don’t want to see Smith ever come back. But what if Greg Monroe or Andre Drummond suddenly has a season-ending injury. What if they both do. Maybe there’s a chance Smith can rebuild some value and be traded for a less-bad contract than he would fetch right now. Maybe something crazy happens in his life and he gets straightened out and starts playing really well. These are unlikely scenarios, but there’s no reason to throw away the possibility unless there is something, anything in return.

Smith could be bought out. Someone will sign Smith. He had to believe he could fetch at least a couple million dollars over the remainder of this season and the next two by signing with another team. So Van Gundy could have called him in and asked what he thought he could get. $5M? $10M? $3M? Whatever the number, take about 75% of that off of what he is still owed and buy him out and then Smith gets a win (extra money after signing with another team) and the Pistons don’t owe quite so much.

What if Smith wouldn’t take a buy out? Smith could be traded. It may take a while and would probably be for an equally bad contract or a set of bad contracts that are, in total equally bad. But a change of scenery can sometimes help a player. It’s a long shot, but again, why give up a long shot for nothing. If nothing else, the Pistons could keep Smith or whoever he is traded for, ban them from all Pistons facilities, and keep them around in case their expiring contracts might help facilitate some deal in a couple years. Now, that contract can’t be traded because it is no longer attached to a person, it’s just floating out there, clogging the cap sheet.

So that brings us to the one option that is created by waiving Smith instead of banning him and turning him into nothing more than a contract that could be traded at some indefinite point. Now the Pistons can use the stretch provision and space his cap hit over five years instead of two. But using the stretch provision is a terrible idea. Take the cap hits as condensed as possible and get them over with. The Pistons won’t be contending in the next two seasons anyway. Why take some of the pain in season that could matter? The stretch provision is designed to sacrifice the future for the present. The Pistons’ present isn’t worth sacrificing anything for, though. So this is a way of taking a mistake and making it much, much worse.

But here’s a final positive. This massively increases the (probably still small) chances that Monroe remains a Piston. Also, it makes that more likely a good thing. Maybe the Pistons will be able to keep him long enough to get some value either out of his play or a trade. But of course, that goal could just as easily have been accomplished by banishing Smith, trading him, or buying him out. So this was still a terrible decision.