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Josh Smith puts NBA return on hold, signs lucrative deal to play in China

Ben Rohrbach
·Senior NBA writer
Josh Smith wants to be an NBA player again. (Getty Images)
Josh Smith wants to be an NBA player again. (Getty Images)

While Josh Smith remains on an NBA payroll through the 2019-20 season, none of the league’s 30 teams were willing to open a roster spot for the once dazzling talent who will turn 31 in December.

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As a result, Smith inked a $1.5 million deal to play for the defending Chinese Basketball Association champion Sichuan Whales over the next three months, per international basketball guru David Pick.

Smith is still on Detroit’s books for $5.3 million per season through 2019-20 after the Pistons stretched the remainder of his four-year, $54 million contract in December 2014. Smith then bounced back and forth between the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Clippers on a minimum salary the past two years, enjoying a successful playoff run to the Western Conference finals in 2015, but he never could quite escape the shooting and “disposition” woes that have plagued him throughout his 12-year NBA career.

“I’m not a guy that is oblivious to my surroundings, I know that changes need to be made,” Smith told The Vertical this past September. “It’s something that I have done wrong to now be figuring out my next move and figuring out what I need to do to be better. Even yoga this summer has helped me become one with my spirit, body and mind. I’ve done things to take steps toward bettering myself, having patience.

“I have a lot left to give to this game. I’m ready to go now. I feel like I’m in the best shape, and I’ve worked extremely hard this offseason. I’m ready.”

Smith garnered interest from contenders like the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors as recently as the summer of 2015 and turned down offers from the CBA this past summer, according to Shams Charania, but after failing to find an NBA roster spot during this offseason, he’s opted to join a team that’s featured fellow NBA outcasts Metta World Peace and Hamed Haddadi in recent years.

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Smith averaged 14.6 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.9 blocks and 1.2 steals over his past 12 seasons in the NBA, including a 2011-12 campaign in which he was considered by many an All-Star snub. But his shot selection and inefficiency — most notably a career 3-point percentage of 28.5 on almost two attempts per game — often offset the freakish athletic talent that made him a 2004 McDonald’s All-American, the 2005 slam dunk champion and a Second Team All-Defensive selection in 2009-10.

Smith was a major contributor to Houston’s conference finals run two years ago, averaging 13.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists — and a career-high 57.6 true shooting percentage — in 23.3 minutes over 17 playoff games, but he could not carry that momentum onto the Clippers in 2015-16. In fact, he offered so little, they paid his salary in trading him back to Houston in January. Smith again played out the season with the Rockets, this time after his 30th birthday, but could not recreate the magic.

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“My main goal is that I am an NBA player,” Smith added to The Vertical in September. “Being able to go overseas, people are professional, but the NBA is what I have built myself to do. I’m still hungry. If I jumped to leave my NBA chances behind, I feel it would’ve been an act of desperation.

“I’m not a guy who feels like I have to start or play 30 minutes a night anymore. I wish for an opportunity to be able to contribute, to be a positive guy around the locker room. It has been missing from me. I’m not doubting it. I felt I have always showed support for my teammates, cheering for them, but I have to do a better job.

“I feel I have something to give the NBA, period.”

That goal will have to wait at least another three months, when he will surely look to join a contending team for the NBA home stretch. In the meantime, he’ll try to prove his worth in China, and do so while adding another hefty sum to the millions in salary he’s still pulling from the Pistons.

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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!