Detroit Pistons: The end of the Josh Smith era

After several years of spending dead money on Josh Smith’s contract, the Detroit Pistons will see that come to a close after this season.

The NBA regular season is just around the corner and the Detroit Pistons will be vying for back-to-back postseason appearances for the first time in a decade (the team made the playoffs from 2002-2009). Pistons fans might see a Blake Griffin MVP campaign for the ages. Or Derrick Rose could sweep the votes for the Sixth Man of the Year award. Heck, the team could even win 50 games or more.

What fans may not realize, is that the conclusion of the 2019-2020 season will mark the end of Josh Smith’s contract with Detroit. This is something that fans have looked forward to for several years – as his contract situation did not prove to be fortuitous for the franchise. Smith hasn’t played for the team since 2014, but since then, the organization has been paying him $5.3 million a year.

During the 2013 offseason, the Detroit Pistons signed Smith to a four-year, $54 million contract.  Joe Dumars, in all his basketball glory, was on a steep decline as Detroit’s Director of Basketball Operations toward the end of his executive career, and the Smith experiment was the final straw for some. (Skip to 2:10 as the top comment points out, the whole video is a great analytical breakdown of Smith’s time in Detroit).

Smith played all of 105 games as a member of the Pistons. He lasted roughly 14 months as a member of the team, October 2013 to December 2014. He was cut after appearing in 28 games, having shooting splits of .39/.24/.46. The year prior, he averaged 16.4 points per game on splits of .41/.26/.53.

His shooting splits are quite bizarre as they are. 81 games played in 2008-2009, but only took seven three-point shots. The year before, he played 69 games and took 87 threes. The year after, he played 77 games and took 154 threes. I want to ask him why he only took seven three-pointers in 2009.

Not known as a consistent shooter, some of his percentages even stick out. 50 percent from the field the year he only took seven three-pointers, but a little over 40 percent during his time with the Pistons. His free-throw percentage is also questionable. Ranging from around 70 percent during his years with the Atlanta Hawks to barely 50 percent in the later chunk of his career.

Josh Smith’s Pistons career was short and forgetful, other than the fact that the Pistons have been paying him $5.3 million of their salary cap since he was cut for not living up to any sort of expectation.

Unfortunately in the end, Smith did not live up to any of the expectations that Pistons fans had for him, and it left a bad taste in their mouth.

Smith left Detroit almost as abruptly as he arrived, and the Pistons have been left paying him for several years, despite him not being on the team.