Clippers Trade Josh Smith Back To Rockets

By Connor Aylward
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Updated: January 22, 2016

That didn’t take long. In a trade Friday morning the Clippers unloaded Forward Josh Smith back to where he played last year, the Houston Rockets.

This season Smith has greatly underperformed for the Clippers and never looked very comfortable in Doc Rivers system. This season for Los Angeles he set new career lows in minutes per game (14.3), field goal percentage (38.3), rebounds per game (3.9), assists per game (1.3), blocks per game (1.1), steals per game (0.6) and points per game (5.7). Clearly the deal had not gone the way Rivers had hoped when he traded for the former All-Rookie.

Also Los Angeles gave Houston some cash to help them pay the remainder of Smith’s veteran minimum contract that will expire at the end of the season. In return, the Clippers acquired the rights to Maarty Leunen a former University of Oregon player who now is a player in Italy. The Clippers also received the rights to Serhhiy Lishchuk a Ukrainian who is currently a player in Spain. Leunen (30) and Lishchuck (32) will likely never play a game in the NBA, so the trading of their rights was more of a formality than anything.

In what was probably the worst kept secret in the NBA, the Clippers had been looking to unload Smith for some time and this should come as very little of a surprise to anyone who has seen the forward’s playing time dwindle to practically nothing as of late. While the Clippers seemingly couldn’t wait to get rid of the 30 year old Smith, Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey seems more than happy to get his key backup back.

Welcome back Josh Smith! #bandbacktogether

— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) January 22, 2016

Last season off the bench for Houston, Smith averaged 12 points and 6 rebounds per game while getting about 25.5 minutes per night off the bench. It remains to be seen how the Rockets will use him this season but the club likely is looking for a spark similar to what they had from him last season as the start of the season for Houston has been shaky since the firing of Head Coach Kevin McHale just 11 games into the season.

Why Rivers would trade Josh Smith back to in-conference foe Houston is a big question mark here. As we all know Smith’s shooting for the Rockets in the playoffs last season is what helped the team eliminate the Clippers, so it should be interesting to see what Doc follows this up with.

Thanks for reading along Clipper fans and come back to CaliSportsNews for all your Clipper updates!

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