Joe Smith (basketball)

In the 1995 NBA draft, Smith was selected by the Golden State Warriors as the first overall pick, before fellow power forwards Kevin Garnett, Antonio McDyess and Rasheed Wallace, as well as guard Jerry Stackhouse. Smith was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team for the 1995–96 season and finished third in the Rookie of the Year voting to Damon Stoudamire and Arvydas Sabonis.

Joe Smith would play two-and-a-half years for the Warriors before being traded to the Philadelphia 76ers with Brian Shaw for Clarence Weatherspoon and Jim Jackson midway through the 1997–98 season. The trade was engineered by Golden State as Smith had made clear his desire to return to the east coast, and he was approaching free agency (halfway through the final year of his 3-year rookie contract).

Smith's statistics declined immediately after the trade, and never fully recovered.

Despite a drop in production, Smith was seen still as a hot commodity in the free agency blitz that followed the strike in late 1998. In what seemed at the time like a bizarre move, Smith signed for very little money with the Minnesota Timberwolves. For the next two years, Smith played very productively at small forward alongside All-Star Kevin Garnett.

Following the 1999–2000 season, it was discovered that Smith was involved in a salary cap-evading scandal involving Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor and general manager Kevin McHale. Smith was allegedly promised a future multimillion-dollar deal if he signed with the team for below market value, allowing the team to make some additional player moves in the short term.[3] As part of the deal, Smith signed three one-year contracts for less than $3 million apiece, allowing the Timberwolves to retain his "Bird rights" and exceed the cap to re-sign him. At the end of the last one-year contract, Smith could have signed a new long-term contract that would have paid as much as $86 million.[4][5]

The beginning of the end for the illicit deal came when Smith's agent, Andrew Miller, left the sports marketing firm helmed by Eric Fleisher and retained Smith and Garnett as clients. Fleisher sued, and details of the illegal contract came to light in discovery.[6] NBA Commissioner David Stern severely punished the Timberwolves in response. He fined the team $3.5 million and voided all three short-term contracts—and with them, Smith's "Bird rights." He also barred Taylor from having any role in the Timberwolves' operations until August 31, 2001, and forced McHale to take an unpaid leave of absence through July 31, 2001. More seriously in the long run, Stern stripped the Timberwolves of their first-round draft picks in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 (though the 2003 pick was ultimately returned).[5]

The move hurt the Timberwolves in the long run, as while the team still found success, the lack of draft picks denied them a chance to add more depth behind Garnett. This set the team up for their eventual failure in the mid-2000s, from which the franchise has never really recovered. Since advancing to the Western Conference finals in 2004, the Wolves have tallied only two winning seasons out of sixteen.

Joe Smith was released by the Timberwolves and signed with the Detroit Pistons for the 2000–01 season as a backup. Smith produced good numbers for the Pistons and, at the end of the season, he re-signed with the Timberwolves where he played for two more seasons.

Smith (left) driving against the Warriors' Chris Webber (#4) with the Bulls in 2008

For the next three seasons Smith played for the Milwaukee Bucks. Prior to the 2006–07 season, Smith moved on to the Nuggets, where he only played in 11 games before being traded, along with Andre Miller, back to the 76ers for Allen Iverson. Despite being considered an add-in on the deal, Smith averaged over 25 minutes per game with the 76ers, during the team's ultimately unsuccessful second-half battle to make the playoffs. For the 2007–08 season, Smith signed with the Chicago Bulls.[7] Smith averaged over 11 points and 5 rebounds per game for the Bulls, but the team managed only 33 wins the whole season. Smith was traded in a three-team deal at the trade deadline to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Smith as a Cleveland Cavalier

On August 13, 2008, Smith was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder in a three-team, six-player deal involving the Thunder, the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Cleveland Cavaliers that sent Milwaukee's Mo Williams to Cleveland, Smith and Milwaukee's Desmond Mason to Oklahoma City, and Cleveland's Damon Jones and Oklahoma City's Luke Ridnour and Adrian Griffin to Milwaukee.[8]

The Thunder traded Smith to the New Orleans Hornets along with Chris Wilcox and draft rights to DeVon Hardin on February 17, 2009 for Tyson Chandler but on February 18, 2009 the trade was rescinded after Chandler failed a physical with Oklahoma City.[9]

On March 1, 2009, the Thunder bought out the remainder of Smith's contract and released him. Two nights later, he agreed to terms to rejoin the Cavaliers.

On August 25, 2009, he signed a one-year contract with the Atlanta Hawks.[10] On March 17, 2010, Smith became the 92nd player in NBA history to reach 1,000 games played, in a victory over the New Jersey Nets.

On September 10, 2010, Smith signed a deal with the New Jersey Nets.[11]

On December 15, 2010, Smith was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in a three-team trade involving the Nets and Houston Rockets.[12][13] On January 2, 2011, Smith made his debut for the Lakers. Two days later, he scored his first points as a member of the team.[14]