Josh Smith Is Slowly Saving His Season and More with Houston Rockets

When Josh Smith first went to the Houston Rockets, all the stories were about how much better the Detroit Pistons were without him. But Smith has been better on his new team, too, as he’s slowly salvaging his season and image.

The courtship of the Pistons and Smith was doomed from the start. Sharing a crowded frontcourt with Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond just didn’t make sense. Smith, being the only one of the three with any range at all, was compelled to be the small forward, and that forced him into taking too many jump shots.

Granted, that played into Smith’s predilection for taking them. But the fault was not entirely on him. It was an unsustainable marriage.

And thus, it eventually led to a divorce. The Pistons waived Smith. And they got better. The Pistons reeled off seven straight wins. They won 11-of-14 (though, since they've returned to earth). 

The world celebrated it, wrote about it and had a good old belly laugh. Smith was the villain and the butt of the jokes. He was the flaw. He was the one who was obstructing the offense. Or so the narrative went.

Smith admits the criticism in Detroit got to him, telling Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports:

"

You know, I’m not a guy walking around with DUIs on my record, or bar fights. I think they expect that out of me. I mean, I understand criticism comes with this, but ... I feel sometimes like I did something harmful to somebody’s kid.

I have thick skin. But when analysts talk, including NBA analysts who played the game, they act like they didn’t have any flaws in their game. They played perfect, and no one criticized their game.

"

As soon as they could, the Rockets signed Smith as a free agent on Christmas Eve—an early gift to Rockets fans. And quietly, he’s turned his game around. And what has gone understated is that the separation has been as good as, if not better, for Smith than it has for the Pistons.

In Houston, Smith has a pair of teammates who can deflect, or at least appreciate, the unwarranted scorn social media can hurl about. James Harden and Dwight Howard are also vilified for petty reasons.

Harden is also the frequent recipient of vitriolic rants (NSFW language). Mostly they are for having the audacity to draw fouls. Sure, they’re legitimate fouls by the rules, but critics seem to feel that calling them “flops” makes them into a moral wrong.

Howard gets scorned for not fighting when he’s insulted by, or engaged in trash talk with, celebrated stars like Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant. Howard’s appropriate reluctance to throw fists “validates” the assessment of the accusers in the eyes of social media. Even players got in on the action:

Smith’s first game with the Rockets was very solid: He accrued 21 points, eight rebounds and three assists. But his next four games were varying degrees of awful. ESPN Stats and Info was quick to point out how bad he was, and Twitter was quick to dogpile on him:

But coach Kevin McHale took the heat and came to Smith’s defense, telling Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle:

"

The biggest thing is about getting him comfortable. You can’t play basketball when you’re thinking and funky. He has to get where he’s comfortable. He felt more comfortable with that second team.

I didn’t know Josh. Really, honestly, he’s been great. I’ve really enjoyed him. He has a high basketball IQ, talking to him. He’s done everything I’ve asked him to do. I’ve sat him down and said, “Ok, are you more comfortable coming off the bench? Are you more comfortable starting? Where are you at, because this is about you being comfortable, not me being comfortable?’ I just sit ... over on that bench. I don’t have to be comfortable.”

"

Perhaps it’s because of that Smith has developed a camaraderie with his new teammates. He told Wojnarowski:

"

I feel like the emotions and fire is back for me. I had a lot of fun in Atlanta. We were winning and successful for a majority of years that I was there. Then I fell into a dark hole, because when you’re a player in this league, and you see the journey and road it takes to have success, become part of a pretty good team, and then you go back down ... Well, you appreciate this more.

"

Having teammates who can understand him and a coach that protects him has proven to be the panacea to Smith’s problems. In safer grounds, Smith has turned his season—and the Rockets’ bench—around.

Prior to Smith’s move to the bench, Houston’s second unit was one of the weakest in the league. It was 22nd at minus-4.4 points per 100 possessions, according to NBA.com. It was scoring just 73.9 points, last in the league.

With Smith, though, the reserves are 12th-best, at plus-1.2 points, per NBA.com. Their scoring is up to 84.3 points.

And it’s not hard to draw a straight line from that improvement to Smith. Since the “demotion,” among all bench players, Smith is fourth in points (379), second in rebounds (201), eighth in assists (88), first in blocks (42) and 13th in steals (26).

In other words, he’s arguably been the best sixth man in the league.

And a look at the chart above at his game log by game score, (a single-number metric developed by John Hollinger to evaluate individual games provided by Basketball-Reference.com) reveals he’s getting better. The blue line indicates his game score from each game; the black line is a “trend line,” which indicates the trajectory of his performance.

BBALLBREAKDOWN.com

And the above GIF shows his shot chart, shot frequency and success rate over the last 20 games. (For the static charts, as well as more detail, see BBALLBREAKDOWN.com.)

What’s compelling is that he’s average or above average in areas he’s frequently shooting from over the span. He’s not just chucking shots anymore, he’s making them and becoming efficient. 

What's more compelling are his plus/minus numbers. With Smith coming off the bench, the Rockets have outscored their opponents with him on the court 23 times in 32 games. They have won all but three of the games where he's had a positive number. 

That's partly because he's been much more efficient. His effective field-goal percentage has jumped from 40.1 in Detroit to 48.3 in Houston. It's also because he's meshing so well with his teammates, particularly Corey Brewer, as evidenced by the video below. 

Jenny Dial Creech of the Houston Chronicle reported that even Stan Van Gundy, Smith’s old coach in Detroit, has noticed. Prior to the Rockets’ game against the Pistons on Mar. 6, Van Gundy said:

"

I think when they moved him to the bench, he has played very well in that role for them. Coming off the bench, he is helping them offensively and rebounding the ball. His shooting percentage has gone up.

He has been a lot more efficient and initially helped them get through the Terrence Jones injury and now is helping them with the Dwight injury. It is a great pick up and I think he has helped them.

"

As the idiom goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Smith may have been thrown away by Detroit, but he’s been appreciated in Houston. And he’s arguably the biggest reason that the Rockets have quietly built one of the deepest benches in the league during the season.

It’s easy to snipe from afar and talk about how players making millions of dollars should be immune to such things as “feelings.” But Smith’s turnaround indicates how much difference a positive vibe can have. No matter how successful they are, you can’t separate the person from the player.