Detroit Pistons see winning way without Josh Smith

Jan 6, 2015; San Antonio, TX, USA; Detroit Detroit Pistons point guard Brandon Jennings (7) celebrates his game-winning shot with teammates against the San Antonio Spurs at AT&T Center. The Pistons won 105-104. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports

Did you ever start at a new school and when you’re just finding your way, you see this one kid who is popular and you think to yourself, “I think that person is cool, I want to be friends with that person”. So you try as much as possible to get them to notice you and say you succeeded and then you think “life is going to be great now, I have this awesome friend”.

Yet then a month or so into your friendship you realize that person you once thought was so cool was actually not, and maybe not that great of a person.

Dec 13, 2014; Sacramento, CA, USA; Detroit Pistons forward Josh Smith (6) goes up for the shot against the Sacramento Kings during the first quarter at Sleep Train Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports

Well that little example above is how I see trades and signings in professional sports. There is a 50-50 chance that you get a good experience or a bad experience out of the whole ordeal. When it comes to Josh Smith and the Detroit Pistons, it was bad.

The Detroit Pistons are on a season high 6 game win streak. Their recent win was against the defending champion San Antonio Spurs in which they came back to win on a Brandon Jennings buzzer beater that gave them a 105-104 win.

This win streak is the longest they have had in the past 6 seasons. This team looks like a completely different team than the one that had Josh Smith.

So why was it that the Detroit Pistons and Josh Smith “friendship” didn’t work out? A combination of things really.

However, probably the biggest contributor to Smith not working out was the fact that he played little to no defense. At one point in his career Smith was actually good and highly talked about for his defense. So when the Pistons signed him fans had at least his skill there to be happy about.

However, when Smith got here, the defense was left in Atlanta. He showed up with very little and would make watching games beyond terrible. He would miss plays to cover players, he would get beat off the dribble, defending the pick and roll and sometimes would just miss plays because he was standing around didn’t look like he was into it whatsoever.

No one will probably ever know what exactly was the case with Smith coming over and forgetting to play defense. Maybe not even Smith knows exactly why he stopped being good at one thing he was actually good at. Maybe he wasn’t happy, and just stopped trying.

I don’t know if there was ever been a player that has ruined their team as badly as Josh Smith did to the Detroit Pistons. Maybe that is because basketball is different, of the four major sports in the United States, basketball has the smallest rosters.

So with Smith’s bad play on the court, we would see the effect more on the whole team because you couldn’t just send him down to the minors or replace the guy because he is supposed to be a player who is supposed to help you.

Now that the Pistons and Smith are in this not so fun friendship anymore what was there to do? Well if you hang out with someone that you at one time thought was cool only to find out they suck, you kind of just cut ties with them. You stop hanging around them and you move on with your life.

With the Detroit Pistons waiving Smith that was basically them cutting that once cool friend out for the rest of their lives. Now the Detroit Pistons can go on and hopefully get their lives back on track. In the midst of their 6 game win streak I would say they are headed into the right direction.

Don’t feel bad for Smith though, he signed a contract with the Houston Rockets and maybe they can work a friendship out that won’t end as terrible as Smith’s prior one.