Josh Smith talks about his reasons for joining Clippers

Josh Smith picked the Clippers over teams that could offer him more money, something that he says will affect his family.

Smith, 29, signed with the Clippers for one year and $1.5 million earlier this month. The veteran forward, however, will make most of his salary next season from the Detroit Pistons, who will pay him $5.4 million a year through the 2019-20 season after waiving him last year.

“At the end of the day, you know, I do have a family,” Smith said at a news conference Tuesday at Staples Center. “So it is going to be a little harder on me this year. But I’m going to push through it and, you know, try to do something long term after this year. But I think this year focusing on doing something special with this group of guys.”

Smith played for the Atlanta Hawks the first nine seasons of his career, putting up All-Star-caliber numbers for the team even though he never received that honor. He signed a four-year, $54-million contract with the Pistons in 2013, but that didn’t work out.

“What did I learn?” Smith asked of playing with the Pistons. “...I learned what ‘waived’ meant.”

Smith said that the Pistons wanted him to play the three position, which he described as “foreign” to him. He said being waived by them ended up being a “blessing in disguise.”

The Houston Rockets acquired Smith in December, and he helped them knock the Clippers out of the second round of the playoffs after the Clippers had taken a 3-1 lead in the series.

He had 14 points in the fourth quarter of Game 6, and 15 points in Game 7, helping the Rockets become the ninth team in NBA history to recover from that type of a deficit to advance to the next round.

So why leave the Rockets for the Clippers?

“We did some special things in Houston but it was more of a visual, concrete type of situation-scenario for me here,” Smith said. “...When you have vision and it’s not kind of foggy on what’s your role and your purpose on the team, you got to make a decision you feel is best.”

In Houston, Smith was playing behind Donatas Motiejunas and Terrence Jones. With the Clippers, he could be Blake Griffin’s primary backup at power forward.

“My whole thing was I was looking at scenarios more so than being wowed by red-carpet layouts,” he said of free agency.

Smith has career averages of 15.1 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.2 assists, two blocks and 1.3 steals per game, while shooting 45.5%.

He said he envisions his role on the team as being multifaceted.

“Just being able to contribute on both ends of the floor, being versatile, like I’ve always been in my career,” Smith said. “Just going out there and playing in a loose offense and great defensive philosophy.”

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