Shine Is Returning to Josh Smith's Game with Houston Rockets

In Game 2 of the Houston Rockets' series with the Dallas Mavericks, Josh Smith had a much-earned moment in the sun. After he set up Dwight Howard with lob after lob, he topped it off by posterizing Tyson Chandler.

Following his dunk, he walked back to the other end of the court, revving his imaginary motorcycle and waving to the crowd. At that moment, it was impossible not to feel good for the man—well, unless you’re a Detroit Pistons or Dallas Mavericks fan, anyway.

The gesture was the consummation of a beautiful game by Smith. In some ways it might have been the best he'd ever played. And it came on the heels of a turbulent season, or even  career.  Smith had spent all his multifaceted talents trying to find the right place and fit. And right there, right then, he was at home.

It was a rare moment when the invisible line between the NBA player and ordinary person merged. Smith, suddenly, was just a human being—one who had been vilified, ostracized, waived, redeemed and appreciated.

To say that Smith has had a rough time the last several of years would be to put things mildly. During his time with the Atlanta Hawks, he wore out his welcome near the end, a proclivity for three-point shots without a corresponding talent wore on the fans. 

He signed a contract with the Pistons on July 11, 2013, and immediately there were questions of how he would fit with Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond.

None of the big men were very good outside of 15 feet from the basket, but of the three, Smith had the most flexible game. While his three-point shooting has been the subject of many jokes, he has made 409 of them in his career. That’s 408 more than Drummond and Monroe have combined.

So he was slotted to play small forward instead of his more natural power forward, and he looked like someone playing out of position. But the fans and the world were less concerned with the process than the result—which was predictably horrible.

Smith’s career in Detroit involved chucking up 2.9 threes per game, more than double the 1.4 he attempted when he was an Atlanta Hawk. And they were going in only 26.2 percent of the time. The lousy rate and excessive attempts landed him the worst three-point season ever in 2013-14.

And that incurred the wrath of the fanbase, though the blame wasn’t really directed where it should have been. If the square peg doesn’t fit into a round hole, you don’t blame the peg for being the wrong shape. The onus is on the knucklehead trying to smash it in there. And, in this case, that would be Joe Dumars, who signed Smith in the first place.

But such cool logic is lost on a fanatic. So Smith became the scapegoat for all of Detroit’s woes. He was booed by his own team’s fans with regularity. He was attacked on social media. He absorbed the brunt of the blame.

Stan Van Gundy became the new general manager and coach. In December, he decided it was time to part ways with Smith, waiving him. Twitter celebrated.

"

Aint no one spoiling my day. Josh Smith got waived. #iAINTgotNOworries AND I got tomorrow off work PAID! I’m dancing like Diddy tonight!

— #beUPDATED by UPDATE (@updatedceo) December 23, 2014"

Kyle Singler, an actual small forward, slid over into the starting spot. Jodie Meeks came back from injury. And the Pistons went on a run, winning their first eight games without Smith, “proving” he was the real problem. Twitter went bananas.  

"

I was struggling at work till i waived Josh Smith. Now I'm dominating every meeting with my PowerPoint presentations.

— #BecauseBaseball (@TigersSouthpaw) January 8, 2015"

It wasn't just social media. The national media was fully in on the blame game. Matt Dollinger wrote for Sports Illustrated:

"

The results are undeniable. Detroit has gone 7-0 since outright releasing the talented but tumultuous big man. The Pistons lead the NBA in net rating (17.2) over their last seven games, rank No. 2 in defensive efficiency (94.3) and No. 3 in offensive efficiency (111.5). Brandon Jennings has been liberated. Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe have room to operate. They’ve knocked off the likes of the Mavericks, the reigning champion Spurs and the Cavaliers (with LeBron James). The Pistons’ latest victory prompted Dallas head coach Rick Carlisle to declare them “one of the best basketball teams in the NBA."

"

And then of Smith, Dollinger said:

"Smith’s arrival in Houston hasn’t been nearly as world-altering as his departure from Detroit. After beating the hapless Knicks 120-96 on Thursday, the Rockets improved to 5-4 since signing Smith and reuniting him with former AAU teammate Dwight Howard."

The word “improved” is being used ironically here. It’s a jab. The Rockets’ record prior to Smiths’ arrival was 20-6. Dollinger added this dig:

"Nor are there signs of Smith drastically altering his game. His field-goal percentage has gone up (39.1 percent to 44.6), but so too have his three-point attempts and turnover rate. He took 21 shots in his Rockets debut and has induced plenty of groans since then."

People were salivating to see Detroit improve now that they were without the black hole known as Josh Smith: The Destroyer of Possessions. And, oh, what a train wreck Houston was going to become with their affection for three-point shooting and Smith’s willingness to throw them up with reckless abandon.

But the masses were wrong. As time elapsed, Smith adapted to his new bench role and the Rockets became a better team because of him. Per NBA.com/Stats, Houston is 7.4 points better than their competition when he’s on the court and 1.2 points worse when he’s not.

He brought an array of skills they needed. He’s someone other than James Harden who can drive the ball. He’s the second-best passer on the team. He's terrific on either end of the fast break, dishing or finishing. 

He’s able to guard both the post and the perimeter. Houston’s defense gives up 5.8 fewer points per 100 possessions when he’s on the court—in part because opponents shot 4.7 percentage points below their season averages when he guarded them.

Smith turned the bench around. He started coming off it on Jan. 3, allegedly at his own request. Up to that date, the Rockets' second unit was outscored by 1.4 points per game, 20th in the league. Since then, it is plus-2.0, third-best.

Smith was embraced by the Space City fans, his new teammates and his new coach. It changed everything, even his outlook.

For us, it was a narrative. For him, it was his life. Smith divulged this is an interview with Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports:

"

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.

"

There’s a lot to be said about the basketball fit in Houston being better, but there’s something more profound at work here. Empty platitudes about “Do your job!” aside, professional athletes are still human beings. While they may get paid millions of dollars for their ability to hoop, they don’t sell their souls to do so.

Yet we often behave as though they have none. Smith was treated with disdain when his worst crime was not having a very good jump shot. As Wojnarowski notes:

"

Smith is no victim, but there have been few players so harshly judged in recent NBA seasons. For the extensive work Smith had done with "My Sister's House," domestic abuse shelter, and elsewhere in the Atlanta community, the NBA chose Smith as a finalist for its Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award. He's never made much of a deal about his charity work, because he always figured that's what he was supposed to do.

"

Whether a man will stretch himself as a human being doesn’t matter if he can’t stretch the court, though. The vitriol poured out, and all that negative energy created a downward spiral for Smith in Detroit. It’s little wonder a good man found himself in a dark place.

When the Pistons waived him, they freed him. When the Rockets acquired him, they redeemed him—or at least gave him the opportunity to redeem himself. And that’s exactly what he’s done.

The best part of Smith’s celebration in Game 2 was that it—and all the good things that led up to it—happened. After all he’s been through, he earned a moment to be celebrated, to be happy.