FanPost

Love requited - Greg Smith Signs with The Rockets

According to Jonathan Feigen - Rio Grande Vipers center and Xiane object of basketball desire Greg Smith will be signed by the Rockets today. Feigen cites interest from other teams in the 6'10 260lb center. His raw stats are quite good.

Smith is averaging 16.8 points, 8.3 rebounds 1.3 steals and 1.3 blocks per game in 28 minutes average with a .677 shooting percentage. Projected to 40 minutes stats those numbers would be: 22pts, 11 rbs, 1.7 blocks, 1.7 steals.

He may be raw, but he's a natural center, and for a third, possibly second, center you could do worse. Feigen notes that this signing is not related to Samuel Dalembert and Jordan Hill spending most of the Denver game glued to the bench, but I would say it's not unrelated either.

Smith is a very young player, just turning 21 in January, and it surprised some observers that he wasn't drafted. Here's the Draft Express profile.

The likely casualty here is Jeff Adrien and now I find that a shame, because the Rockets seemed to finally find someone to partly fill the Chuck Hayes role - undersized, overstrong, scrappy and great at rebounding, not a scorer.

I enjoyed seeing a Rocket swing his elbows on a rebound for what seems like the first time this season. I hope that we make a move and send Flynn or Thabeet away for valuable prizes instead.

One last note - Former Rocket Jeremy Lin seems to have found a home in New York with the Knicks. (Because any point guard is better than no point guard perhaps.) Someone projected his stats over 48 minutes and they're better than DWade's (except for the turnovers). I find this hilarious. We may regret keeping Jonny "Aaron Brooks Without The Shooting" Flynn.

Update: Adrien was in fact cut by the team today, per Feigen.

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