The Washington Wizards have agreed to sign free-agent center Jason Smith to a three-year, $16 million deal, as first reported by The Vertical's Shams Charania. Smith's agency, Priority Sports, confirmed the agreement on Twitter. CSN Mid Atlantic's J. Michael Falgoust reported that Smith has a player option on the final year of the contract.
In this market, this kind of money is reasonable for a 30-year-old backup big man. And here's the good news about Smith:
Jason Smith led the NBA in pick & pop scoring in 2016 just ahead of LaMarcus Aldridge & Karl-Anthony Towns. Made 49% of jumpers (mostly 2s).
— Synergy Sports Tech (@SynergySST) July 5, 2016
The bad news is that shooting pick-and-pop jumpers is just about all that Smith does. For a 7-footer, he is an awful rebounder, and he is not much of a rim protector, either. In an era where versatility has never been more valued, Washington is adding a specialist.
As presently constructed, the Wizards won't have much playing time available for Smith. Marcin Gortat is the incumbent starting center, and they have agreed to pay Ian Mahinmi a reported $64 million over four years to be his primary backup. Perhaps Gortat is on the trade block, but until then, it looks like the two of them will split the minutes. If Washington plans to play Smith at power forward, he'll be competing for playing time with Markieff Morris, Drew Gooden and Andrew Nicholson, who agreed to a reported four-year, $26 million deal.
Barring trades and injuries, it's unlikely that Smith makes much of an impact for the Wizards. They had to fill out their roster, though, and they could have done worse. This continues to be an underwhelming offseason, especially considering Washington was reportedly close to convincing Al Horford to team up with John Wall and Bradley Beal rather than joining the Boston Celtics.
