I say bring him in! STILL not signed yet. Quality vet/back up power forward. I think he would be a great addition to our squad.
Joe Smith is not a great player, but as a guy who can give quality minutes off the bench? Why not? He can stick the jumper and has acquired enough experience to know a few tricks defensively. He would be a nice upgrade at the four and even be able to provide spot minutes at the backup five in cases of foul trouble and/or injury. I'm all for signing him to a contract for a year or two. Ed O.
I agree he had some good games against us but if we can sign him for what? 1mil? don't you think they might have been the exception? Even Frye got like 2mil, didn't he? maybe GM's are just extremely clueless (even as to what gender the player is) but I have to admit, I didn't watch Smith much unless it was against Portland. I think the direction is not to have a Frye-type Power-Forward on the bench (even if better) and use the minutes behind LMA on the big lineup, the small lineup or for special occasions - the rookies.
How many backup PFs that are not great do we need? Millsap would have been a great backup PF, but between Outlaw, Piechart, and Dante we have enough backup power-forwards that are not great. I would rather keep the little bit of extra cap space for more flexibility at the trade dead-line.
There is a big difference between Joe smith and all the PF you just mentioned. Joe Smith knows how to play ball in every facet of the game, now. He knew more about playing basketball when he entered the league, than Travis Outlaw will by the end of his career. Those young guys you mentioned would do well to have a vet like that in front of them to learn from. They will get their minutes still. Smith would stick to 2 positions and be a known good quantity to bring stability.
Hubie brown knows more about basketball than what Joe Smith knows as well - but it means nothing as far as production on the court. At this stage of his career, Joe Smith is not as good a player as Travis Outlaw - so signing him in order to have a backup to the backup for a couple of minutes a game is a waste of cap-space, especially when you realize that Dante looks like he can be a nice, cheap scoring backup to the backup and Piechart looks like he can be a very nice bruising garbage man backup to the backup. The team will have a little bit of cap-space when the season comes and two assets that are going to be valuable closer to the trade-deadline in Blake and Outlaw who are productive players on expiring contracts with bird rights and small contracts. They are much better trading chips than Raef's contract ever was. Adding these guys to a little bit of cap space for an un-even trade is the kind of opportunity that should not be wasted, if it materialize, for the likes of Joe Smith - who is a nice player, but not really needed for this team.
I like the idea of having both. We all know about Travis' weaknesses, but he can still get his own shot and on nights when the half court offense is sputtering he can stick those jumpers down the stretch. Joe Smith can't do that. Other nights we may need more of a post defense & rebounding presence - not exactly Travis Outlaw's game.
Injuries happen. We'll need a backup PF other than Travis at times. He's an upgrade over Frye. Experienced, cheap, smart. Why not?
