Josh Smith Returns To Rockets

Josh Smith traded from Clippers to Rockets - Depth was a problem that the Los Angeles Clippers aimed to fix last offseason, particularly with the signings of Josh Smith and Lance Stephenson.

In return, the Clippers pick up the draft rights to Marty Leunen and Sergei Lishouk.

Smith was traded from the Clippers to the Rockets early Friday morning after an inauspicious 32 games in an LAC uniform.

With the Clippers, Smith didn't even score at a league-average clip inside the restricted area.

Smith joins a growing list of puzzling acquisitions Doc has made during his stint in Los Angeles.

An 11-year National Basketball Association veteran, the 30-year-old Smith averaged 12.0 points and 6.0 rebounds per game after being acquired by the Rockets last season in a trade with the Detroit Pistons. After just one season with Los Angeles, Josh Smith will be leaving the team. Most of the chatter around the Rockets lately though has been about players they might trade away like Dwight Howard and Ty Lawson among others.

In the previous year, two teams decided they had no use for Josh Smith, except one of them is bringing him back.

He will likely challenge Clint Capela for the Rockets' starting job and should get more playing time with Donatas Motiejunas' lingering back injury.

Then, with both Griffin and DeAndre Jordan out for two games, the Clippers needed Smith's size again. 456 true shooting percentage, and the team was outscored by 8.5 points per 100 possessions with him on the court, according to NBA.com/Stats. He's far behind everyone in the rotation including defensive liabilities like Crawford and Paul Pierce, and has now received a DNP in six of the last nine games.