Detroit Pistons: The good life without Josh Smith
By Daniel Tran
The Detroit Pistons have been one of the hottest teams in the NBA in the past month. What happened? The welcome departure of Josh Smith.
Nothing speaks more volumes about the state of Detroit Pistons basketball than a silent smile by Stan Van Gundy. Van Gundy, the head coach and president of basketball operations, has been doing nothing but smile since the Pistons have won nine of their last ten games.
He is not the only in the facility grinning from ear to ear. The entire Detroit Pistons team looks looser and playing with a joy that was not present when they started the season 5-23.
Usually in a situation where a team improves dramatically, there are a couple explanations for such a sudden turnaround. For the Detroit Pistons, however, there is only one explanation for their swift improvement: parting with enigmatic forward Josh Smith.
When the Detroit Pistons signed the versatile forward on July 13, 2013 (before the arrival of Van Gundy), to a four-year, $54 million contract, they were hoping Smith’s all-around skill set would bring them out of the Eastern Conference cellar. While Smith did deliver with 2.8 combined steals/blocks on the defensive end and 3.3 assists per game during the 2013-14 season, he also averaged his lowest rebounds per game in the last seven seasons (6.8) and shot a career-low 41.9 percent from the field for the season.
On top of that, he continued to take head scratching three-point shots, putting up enough bricks to build an Aztec pyramid with his 27.7 percent conversion rate from that range. Those percentages and effort on the boards is what doomed him in Detroit.
With Van Gundy, a noted disciplinarian, being hired to improve the struggling Detroit Pistons this season, Smith needed to adjust his game and earn the big contract he was given. To be fair to Smith, he did cut down on his three-point attempts (3.4 in 2013-14 to 1.3 in 2014-15) and he improved in nearly every other aspect, but his shooting percentages actually got worse.
During the 2014-15 season while he was with Detroit, Smith was shooting 39.1 percent from the field, 24.3 percent from three-point range, and 46.8 percent from the free-throw line; all career-lows. He also had the lowest offensive rating of all the regular rotation players (90 estimated points per 100 possession) and contributed a team-low -1.1 offensive win shares.
Rather than unfairly sitting Smith and letting him rot on the bench when no one would trade for his services, Van Gundy swallowed the remaining $26 million owed to Smith and waived him. It was a move that surprised a lot of experts in that no team in their right mind would just waive a player with that much money left on their contract and get nothing in return. As it turns out, Van Gundy knew what he was doing.
When the released Smith, the Detroit Pistons won eight straight games before losing by only three points to an equally hot Atlanta Hawks team. The offensive and defensive philosophy has stayed the same, only the personnel have changed and it should come as no surprise that Pistons have been winning without Smith.
When Smith was still on the roster in Detroit, the Pistons actually played better when he was on the bench. When Smith was on the court, the Pistons only shot an effective field goal percentage of 44.4 percent. When he was off the court, Detroit’s effective field goal percentage jumped up to 50.6 percent. The Detroit Pistons’ improvement was not just limited their shooting either.
The Pistons also improved their net rating when Smith was on the bench. When Smith was on the floor, Detroit had an offensive rating of 97.3 and defensive rating of 108.8, resulting in a net rating of -11.6 estimated points per 100 possessions. With Smith off the court, the Pistons had a net rating of +6.7. Their improvement in ratings has also manifested in the box score.
Ball movement has improved, resulting in 2.5 more assists per game after Smith was waived. In addition, the Pistons’ rebounding margin, which was -0.4 per game when Smith was on team, increased to +4.1 after Smith was released. With such a dramatic difference in the team’s performance, one question remains in a lot of people’s minds: why did they not waive him sooner?
Van Gundy admitted that winning has affected the way that he looks at the move now and he is right in doing so; if the Pistons continued to lose, he would’ve given up Smith for nothing and had the same frustrating game results. However, with Detroit and Van Gundy winning, Smith’s release looks like addition by subtraction and the Pistons have positively developed without Smith and his errant shots weighing them down.
That is all that matters to Van Gundy. As long as the Pistons continue adding to the win column, he will continue to bask in his decision to release Smith and build his young team into a consistent threat in an Eastern Conference where playoff spots are up for grabs. Keep smiling, Van Gundy. You earned it.
*Stats current as of games completed January 13th, 2014