As expected, the Houston Rockets have reportedly won the Josh Smith sweepstakes.
Dwight Howard Wants Team to Pursue Josh Smith
The 29-year-old power forward is expected to pass through waivers unencumbered, after being cut by the Detroit Pistons on Monday. After clearing waivers, Smith will become free to sign with whomever he'd like as a free agent. Now Yahoo! Sports is reporting that he'll land with Houston.
Josh Smith has committed to signing with the Houston Rockets, league sources tell Yahoo Sports. He clears waivers at 5 PM today.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) December 24, 2014
This comes as no big surprise; the Rockets were already heavily favored to acquire Smith's services. For starters, they were the only team that could offer Smith a biannual exception contract north of $2 million dollars. Other teams jockeying for the forward were only able to offer a veteran minimum deal of $1.4 million.
Three Candidates for Josh Smith
Moreover, Smith is very close friends with Rockets center Dwight Howard, with Howard even having attended Smith's wedding a few years ago. The team is confident that they can corral Smith's poor shot selection and provide an infrastructure that'll highlight his strengths.
Smith is still a great rebounder, interior scorer, and passer. Should he keep his propensity for unnecessary three-pointers to a minimum, he can definitely provide a good inside-out complement to Howard's post-game.
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