The Clippers have been playing well without him
Even though their recent schedule hasn’t been too tough, the team is playing in the right way. The bench players are finally making shots, the lineup featuring Pierce at power forward has worked with a stellar offensive output, there is finally some energy and intensity, and stars like Paul, Jordan and Redick are all rising in Griffin’s absence.
Plus, a six-game win streak is a six-game win streak. That’s what really matters.
In fact, Doc himself has commented on the matter of Smith and Lance Stephenson’s low playing time lately (per Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times):
"Neither Smith nor Stephenson appears to be on the verge of receiving an appreciable uptick in playing time. “For me, I’m just worried about who I’m playing and then when someone else is not, then we’ll put Josh in or someone else in,” Rivers said. “But right now, why would you want to touch what’s going on?”"
In fairness to Doc’s comments and his often questionable decisions, you can’t really disagree here. Besides the obvious decision to bring Griffin back into the starting lineup when he returns (what a surprise that will be), the Clippers shouldn’t really be tampering with the way things are right now.
This point of the argument for Smith leaving L.A. does come with some question marks, though. For a start, the minutes Pierce has had as a stretch power forward have only looked ok because of the fact that he’s finally started making some shots. If you take away his 9.8 points in 19.6 minutes a night over his last five games, and his 43.5 percent three point shooting, his usual cold stroke from this season and poor defense makes him a total liability.
That being said, while the shooting of other role players may be inconsistent, they are at least playing with the right kind of cohesion as of late. Players are getting open and moving where they need to be in the offense, the rotations are working better, and Aldrich has helped end the small-ball experiment that did nothing but destroy leads that the starters built up.
“If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”. That old saying applies to the Clippers right now, and it makes the need for Smith pretty low.
Next: Smith could help get someone Doc will actually use