J.R. Smith signs deal with Chinese team
Former Nuggets sharpshooter J.R. Smith signed a one-year deal with a team in the Zhejiang province of China, following former Denver teammate Wilson Chandler by signing with a team in that country. Both deals do not have opt-out clauses if the NBA lockout ends, meaning Smith and Chandler won’t be able to return to play in the NBA until the end of the Chinese season in March.
“J.R. really wants to play basketball this season,” Smith’s agent Leon Rose told the AP.
Had Smith not signed in China, he would have been a free agent attractive to teams like the Celtics, who are looking to get younger and add more scoring punch around their core four players of Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen. As the lockout drags on, more players with uncertain futures like Smith and Chandler may opt to play overseas, diluting the talent pool should their eventually be a 2011-12 NBA season.
Smith admittedly would not have been a perfect fit in Boston, nor is it clear that the Celtics could have afforded him. But the Celtics aren’t getting any younger, and more and more of the younger are going abroad.
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