This past offseason Josh Smith had a choice of returning to the Houston Rockets where he had great success last year or signing with the Los Angeles Clippers. Smith chose to sign with the Clippers because he felt it was the best opportunity for him and gave him the best chance to win. Smith's season in L.A. has not gone as well as he had hoped and now he is headed back to the Rockets, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
The Clippers will also reportedly be sending cash to the Rockets with Smith to cover the remainder of this year's salary. Smith is on a one year, minimum contract. In return for Smith the Rockets are reportedly sending cash to the Clippers along with the rights to foreign players Maarty Leunen and Sergei Lischouk. By making this trade the Clippers will save almost $2 million in luxury taxes while the Rockets will take on another $1.4 million in taxes.
Smith's time with the Clippers was tumultuous to say the least as he was reportedly not great in the locker room and also didn't play all that well on the court. Smith's role wasn't as big as he had hoped and he wasn't happy about it as he reportedly got into a verbal altercation with a coach because of it. Recently Smith was completely out of the rotation because he didn't play within the system like the team wanted.
Now Smith will head back to Houston where he had a lot of success last season. Smith was a big part of the Rockets' run to the Western Conference Finals and they are hoping to catch lightning in a bottle again as they are currently a .500 basketball team (22-22). In 55 games with the Rockets last season Smith averaged 12 points and 6 rebounds per game while shooting 44 percent from the field and a career high tying 33 percent from three.
