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The Detroit Pistons Can Finally Cut Josh Smith Off Their Payroll, After Having Still Paid Him For Six Inactive Years
It seems like yesterday that we were watching a young, athletic, exciting prospect in Josh Smith fly through the air and electrify the Slam Dunk Contest. However, sadly and surprisingly those days are far behind him. Coming into the league with expectation and potential, Josh Smith’s fall from grace has been as dismal as we could have imagined.
After being selected 17th overall by the Atlanta Hawks, Smith was projected as being a cornerstone for the franchise for many years to come, and after starting off promisingly, it went downhill from that point. Ever since leaving Atlanta, he has bounced around the league, with stints in Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, and New Orleans.
With things not working out in Atlanta, Smith entered the power struggle of patrolling the front court in Detroit alongside monster centre Andre Drummond. The Pistons had one of the biggest and most intimidating front courts in the league, however, many felt that Smith was hurting Drummond’s potential growth, by suffocating him in the paint. There wasn’t enough room for the both of them, which was the eventual reason the Pistons opted to stick with the upside of Drummond and offload Smith, a move which had improved the Pistons dramatically.
After Detroit, there was murmurs Smith was a detriment to the locker room, and NBA teams feared that his lack of direction and erratic playing style would hurt franchises. He ended up transforming into one of the worst three point shooters the league has ever seen, but continued to take them anyway. He was stuck, with time evaporating, Smith was already becoming an unwanted man. After the Pistons waived him in 2014, J-Smoove bounced around the league for a little longer, without finding any success.
But Smith, who has not played in the league since the 2017-2018 season (it was only for three games that year), was still getting some fat cheddar from the Pistons, just until recently.
Last season alone, the franchise was due to pay him $5.3 million, followed by another $5.3 million this season. With the end of the 2019-20 season, the Pistons finally are ‘Josh Smith-free’.
