Sacramento Kings: Why Trading for Josh Smith Is the Right Move

The Sacramento Kings were linked to Detroit Pistons forward Josh Smith prior to this year’s draft.

In late June, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported such trade talks. 

While discussions between the two teams seem to have cooled off, at least publicly, there’s still plenty of time left during this offseason as well as before the trade deadline for the two teams to rekindle talks that land Smith in Sacramento; and the two teams should.

Smith, who had played six straight seasons at power forward for the Atlanta Hawks, was moved to small forward after being acquired by the Pistons last season and consequently posted the worst field-goal percentage of his career.

When at his best, Smith’s strengths are his athleticism, defense and shot blocking, which, at 6'9'', have made him a productive power forward for most of his career. Smith has been in the top eight in defensive win shares three times in his career and made the NBA’s Second Team All-Defense in 2009-10.

But with Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond deservedly holding down the starting four and five positions for Detroit last season, Smith became the $13.5 million odd man out.

Some Josh Smith stats from last season: 

• Third fewest rebounds per game of his career (6.8) (the other two seasons were also years in which Smith primarily played small forward)
• Lowest win shares per 48 minutes of his career (.020)
• Most total three-point attempts of his career (265)
• Fewest total blocks of his career (110)
• Second-most field-goal attempts per game of his career (16.0)

While this might seem like an advertisement for reasons to avoid Smith, I believe the biggest factor in his less-than-stellar season was that he was out of position.

For the Kings, they face a situation in which both ownership and fans are tired of suffering through losing seasons, yet the team lacks the payroll flexibility (for this season), trade assets and free-agent draw to have yet made the big offseason splash they want to.

The Kings’ new ownership and front office have shown in their lone season in charge that they are willing to roll the dice. Most notably, they partnered with the Toronto Raptors last season to formulate a seven-player trade that landed Rudy Gay in Sacramento.

Like Smith, Gay was a big name who was thought to be an inefficient scorer who didn’t move the ball enough. Yet, after coming to the Kings last season, Gay had the most efficient stretch of his career, averaging 20 points per game while shooting over 48 percent from the field.

In trading for Smith, the Kings would be hoping to strike the same type of gold. But that's exactly the type of chance a small-market team hoping to improve sooner than later needs to make, especially when they don't have a clear-cut starting frontcourt partner for DeMarcus Cousins. 

The Kings don’t have a lot to offer the Pistons in terms of talent, but they can match salaries by sending a combination of players such as forwards Jason Thompson and Derrick Williams.

While this may not sound like much for Pistons fans, trading away Smith helps free up the logjam in the post while getting role players in return who can strengthen their bench. It frees Detroit of a big contract for a player who was out of position and shot too much, and provides the Kings with a player who could potentially thrive if put back in a situation where he can play down low and take advantage of the defensive and athletic tools that made him a star in the first place.

On July 21, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reported that Stan Van Gundy assured Smith he’d be on the Pistons for the upcoming season, but there’s only so many times you can try to squeeze a square peg into a round hole, and Detroit’s best play with Smith may be addition by subtraction.

Whether or not Smith finds himself in a white-and-purple jersey largely depends on whether or not the Pistons feel Smith can learn to be a productive small forward and play within Detroit’s system.

But my guess is both teams would benefit by giving Smith a change of scenery.

All advanced stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.