Grading free agency pickups: Howard, Iguodala, Smith.

Howard to Houston

Houston was the best destination for Dwight for a number of reasons. Off the court; it’s a smaller - but not too small - market with a fraction of the stifling pressure he faced in Lala land, the Rockets are a franchise with a (albeit modest) winning tradition and a history of talented big men as franchise players. It’s somewhere in the middle of Orlando and LA as an organization, with the added perks of a healthy 23 year old superstar who casts a relatively small shadow as opposed to a banged up 35 year old superstar with the biggest shadow in the league, and an extremely innovative front office. Much has been made of Dwight passing up 30 million dollars to sign in Houston rather than L.A in the name of winning, how much of this 30 million he’ll make up via the lack of tax in Texas I don’t know, but in my opinion signing an 86 million dollar contract can in no context be properly considered selfless, nor a sacrifice.

On the court; he joins a fledgling roster led by James Harden and rounded out by Parsons, Lin, Asik, Beverley, Garcia, Motiejunas, Jones and not much else. Assuming and hoping for Houston’s sake he’s healthy and is anywhere close to his 3 time defensive player of the year form in Orlando, he’ll be a nice fit with this group and their style of play. Houston aren’t bashful from beyond the arc, and with the addition of Dwight will likely be looking to fill remaining roster spots with gunners, which should give him plenty of room to display his improved post moves developed by two of the smoothest operators the game has ever seen down low – McHale and Olajuwan. Lin and Harden are both brilliant running the pick and roll, giving Howard plenty of easy buckets on dishes and misses at the rim. He’ll need to get in shape to fit in and take advantage of the fast pace McHale likes, but once he does that he’ll be a pest for defenses on quick paint pins and transition pick and rolls. Not to mention his impact on defense, as one of the best interior defenders of all time he should quickly make the paint an unattractive prospect for the opposition, and when he gets in foul trouble (which he will - regularly) Asik can step in, bang, and eat up the glass.

A lot of this is subject to an unchanged core group – which is looking less and less likely. Asik is bummed at the Howard signing given his great season emerging as one of the better centers in the league and has asked for a trade – but Houston are keen to hang onto him, and there are rumours flying around that Lin is being aggressively shopped. Regardless – the core of Howard, Harden and Parsons (best contract in the league from a GM’s standpoint) looks safe.

Dwight made a great decision (finally), but he’s fresh out of excuses now as long as he’s healthy. He’s got a tailor made coach who will concoct a tailor made offence for him, a front office who moved mountains (and bucketloads of young talent) to get him, with probably the most valuable young superstar in the league at his side, in a city that loves him – and we all know how much Dwight needs the love.

I’m not expecting a ring this year or even next, everyone (even superman) has to pay their dues. But the foundational pieces are in place - Howard’s fate rests on his own gigantic (but fragile) shoulders.

Pickup Grade – A

Iguodala to Golden State

In a league dominated by superstar wings, perimeter defenders are a rare commodity that the Warriors rightly weren’t prepared to pass up on when Andre became a possibility. Iggy is a top 5 perimeter defender in the league, but importantly also does everything else well (except foul shooting weirdly – which has declined the last 4 years to a horrible 57% last season?), he’s a reliable shooter and has improved from three in recent years (Mark Jackson is desperate for more 3 point shooting on the roster…), he’s a very good passer, a strong rebounder, he’s dynamite in transition, is selfless, extremely low maintenance and will provide some welcome leadership and experience to a young Warrior roster.

Golden States front office did well to create cap space for his 48 million dollar contract by dumping Rush, Jefferson and Biedrins on Utah – who took the salary hit in order to snag 2 first round picks. A lot of people are tagging Jack and Landry onto this list, who the Warriors lost to free agency in the wake of the Iguodala move. But I reckon GS were resigned to losing both those guys anyway, who earnt themselves a payday with last season’s stellar play (Jack 25 million over 4, Landry 26 million over 4). GS saw this coming, picking up young point guard Nemanja Nedovic in the draft, and now adding the gritty Marreese Speights for frontcourt depth – who brings a defensive pedigree earned during 2 seasons (11-12, 12-13) in Memphis and an underrated offensive game – a nice pickup.

There are questions for the new look Warriors though – someones going to lose minutes in the frontcourt – that someone absolutely should not be Harrison Barnes – who was arguably Mark Jackson’s most consistent playoff performer last year in a ridiculously promising rookie season. That leaves David Lee. Plan A is to trade him, but his 3 year 44 million dollar contract makes that a hard sell, meaning he’ll likely have to take a cut on playing time. The new minutes split will likely be built around one of if not the scariest small ball units in the league of Curry, Thompson, Barnes, Iguodala + 1 big. Andre and his previous employer, the Denver Nuggets, witnessed firsthand how devastating the Warriors can be in a run and gun style in the first round of last season’s playoffs. That series probably had a lot to do with Iggy signing on with Golden State – from both sides of the fence. From the Warriors perspective the Nuggets series was a turning point in a commitment to high octane small ball – as they beat the Nuggets at their own furious paced game. An injury to David Lee in Game 1 forced Jackson to fully commit to the trending small ball philosophy, using a combination of Barnes, Green and Landry in lieu of Lee – which turned out to be a major success, and a tantalizing taste of the potential of sizing down long term. From Iguodala’s side the series was quite possibly a catalyst for the idea of relocating his talents to the Bay area and a system perfectly suited to his game.

The pickup will improve an already highly capable (when focused) defense, as Iguodala instantly becomes the Warriors best defender, if they can put an exclamation point on this defensive leap by losing their weakest defensive link in David Lee then the move will have a huge impact on that end of the floor. With the assumption of a small ball master plan motivating the move, and no negative impact on Harrison Barnes’ time on the floor – I love the pickup.

If Steph Curry can keep his ankles healthy, watch out for the Warriors next year.

Pickup Grade – A

Josh Smith to Detroit

Josh Smith, who averaged 18 points, 8 boards, 4 dimes, 2 blocks and a steal last year, was looking for a max deal this summer. His stat line would indicate that this was a reasonable-ish expectation. There is a reason however, why he had to settle for a not insignificant – but not max – deal of 56 million over 4 years with the Detroit Pistons.  It’s the same reason he’s yet to make an all star appearance in his career, why Atlanta let him walk, and why Detroit were the only team seriously considering signing him for (relatively) big money – that reason is his shooting. It’s not just that he can’t shoot, it’s that he loves to jack it up, it’s that for 8 out of his 9 years in the league he lacked the discipline not to do the thing that he sucks at. That one year 09/10 that Mike Woodson somehow incepted some discipline into Smith – he took 7 threes, played within his offensive limitations (5 feet of the rim) and put up then career highs in rebounds, assists and steals (since that year he’s taken 154, 109 and a career high 201 3 balls last season). That year, 09/10, he finished 2^nd to Howard in Defensive Player of the Year voting and shot 50% from the floor. That’s how good he can be; and in the right situation he could - with a coach that can keep him focused, a stretch 5 with a mid range game to give him paint space (but saying that he’s had Al Horford all these years) and a locker room where he doesn’t have to be a leader – conceivably find that discipline again.

Unfortunately Detroit is categorically not that utopian situation.

Playing the 4 emphasizes Smith’s strengths.  Extreme athleticism, paint protection, defensive rebounding, clinical finishing at the rim, more than adequate and surprisingly selfless distribution, and a nose for the ball on the defensive end. Unfortunately, the Pistons already have the 4 and 5 spots filled with the young duo of Drummond and Monroe. That means Pistons coach Mo Cheeks will either have to cut one of this promising duo’s minutes – stifling development and preventing chemistry between the two growing; or, ram a Josh Smith shaped peg into a floor spacing wing shaped hole. At the 3 his feet are a step slow and his body a few pounds too heavy to stay in front of quicker small forwards on defense, and his shooting a bit too heinously woeful for him to even remotely space the floor and keep defenders honest on offence.

The Detroit faithful are going to have to endure a painfully steady dose of 1 of 3 scenarios; 1) Smith, Monroe, and Drummond bumping heads and competing for space that doesn’t exist in the paint, 2) That horrible, apocalyptic moment when Smith squares up and his defender steps back a couple of meters or 3) Andre Drummond, one of the most intriguing prospects in the league, with a seemingly unlimited ceiling, sitting on the bench.

Off the court Smith’s not exactly low maintenance either, he’s not an absolute knucklehead, but he’s a potential problem – he left Atlanta after they neglected to give him the max deal he publicly pronounced he was worth, and isn’t the type of guy to patiently knuckle down in an uncomfortable role and potentially lose a few games as his team adjusts to his presence, especially if an impatient fan base are getting on his case in search of a return on a 56 million dollar investment.

So J Smoove could be a pretty rough fit in Detroit; one (pretty expensive) positional project too far on a roster with Knight learning the 1 and Stuckey learning the 2. The Smith/Drummond/Monroe positional quandary is slightly similar to the Iguodala/Barnes situation in Golden State – except Joe Dumars probably doesn’t have a “Big Ball” revolution in mind… at least I hope he doesn’t.

The Pistons won’t be terrible next year, Smith’s still one of the best players in the league not to be an All Star yet, they’ll win 35-40 games (up from 29 last year) and are an outside bet for the 8^th spot in the East. Smiths defense should win them those extra 6+ games. But I feel like it’s a case of 1 step forward and 2 steps backward with this move in the longer term – being a 40 win team is a bad place to be in the NBA, with many teams finding themselves stuck in perpetual mediocrity – unable to improve drastically through the draft and unable to attract major talent to a contending franchise.

Not a good fit.

Pickup Grade – C