National Basketball Association

J.R. Smith and the balance of power in the NBA

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Ti Windisch is a writer and host of the Timeout with Ti podcast. He enjoys longform articles and NBA bromances. You can find the bulk of his work at Behind the Buck Pass and pretty much everything he writes (plus tons of idiotic hot takes) on his Twitter @TiWindisch.

J.R. Smith often finds himself in unusual situations. After all, he was part of an NBA fashion show, he infamously inquired about “the pipe” and he was told by the sitting President of the United States to put his shirt back on.

The situation Smith now finds himself in, then, is practically boring in how normal it is: He’s an unrestricted free agent, free to sign with any team in the NBA. So why is it assumed he’s bound to re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers, despite the reigning NBA champions reportedly not wanting to pay him his desired annual salary?

Smith is expected to return to Cleveland for some of the same reasons that Kevin Durant was vilified for leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder — despite the actual rules of NBA free agency, fans continue to hold players to a higher standard. Oscar Robertson and the NBA Players Association fought for free agency back in the 1970s, and won the fight. Now NBA players have the right to go work somewhere else, the same right any American (or Canadian) has in their career.

While Durant joining the Warriors was de jure acceptable, it was not de facto acceptable. He didn’t break any written rules by leaving Russell Westbrook and Oklahoma City, but he violated the unwritten rules that fans and even writers tend to hold dear.

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It’s only OK to leave a team if they trade you or if you have a good reason. It was fine when Kevin Garnett left the Minnesota Timberwolves, for example, because he spent 11 years toiling on subpar Timberwolves teams. Apparently the nine seasons Durant spent with his prior franchise (eight with the Thunder, one with the Seattle Supersonics) fell short of the decade requirement presented in these unwritten rules.

And so we come to J.R. Smith. Here’s Smith’s potentially-former head coach, Ty Lue, talking about him last week, according to Cleveland.com:

“He’s our starting two guard, and when you look at what he’s brought to the team the last two years, it means a lot. He’s an outside shooter, obviously, and I believe he’s our best defender at guard position.”

Notice the verb tense there. Smith is not the Cavaliers’ starting two guard — he’s an unrestricted free agent who can sign with any team. He could ink a veteran minimum deal with the Philadelphia 76ers tomorrow if he so desired, and be gone from Cleveland for the season.

Despite Cleveland having absolutely no control over Smith, nearly everyone around the NBA assumes it’s only a matter of time before he acquiesces and re-joins the team. That’s not because of any real verbiage in the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement. It’s instead due to these hidden rules that state players should stay put unless their teams feel like they can leave.

It’s outdated, ancient thinking that needs to end. If Smith really wants to stay in Cleveland and he’s willing to forgo some extra annual salary that he’s certainly entitled to negotiate for, then good for him. If Smith decides he won’t have too many big contracts left coming to him and takes $45 million from another team to spend the next three years there, then also good for him. One decision is not more right than the other — the entire point of free agency is for the players to get the right to do what they want to do.

Is it great that Giannis Antetokounmpo left millions on the table and declared he wants to stay with the Milwaukee Bucks for his entire career? It sure is. Does it make him a better person than Durant, or Al Horford, or any of the other free agents that switched teams this offseason? Not inherently.

The thing to remember — that almost never is — is that the NBA is not strictly entertainment for NBA players. It’s a career. NBA players don’t root for teams, they work for them. It’s their job. And it’s their right to choose which employer they wish to work for. The NBAPA successfully wrestled the control of players’ destinies back into their own hands, just to have it impaired by hordes of voices eager to condemn the use of that freedom of choice.

It’s confounding that fans seem more likely to sympathize with franchises than players. How does it make sense that an NBA player is selfish for wanting a few million dollars more, but a billionaire owner is simply doing business by refusing to pay it out?

Half of that statement is logical — it is “just business” that’s preventing Dan Gilbert from paying Smith the money he’s asking for. It’s also “just business” that’s causing Smith to negotiate for those millions in the first place.

Smith has the power to go to whatever team he wants to go to. Just because people won’t like it doesn’t make it selfish or wrong. The power does rest with the players right now, but they know full well they’ll be lambasted for making an unpopular choice. So good on Durant for leaving anyway. And good on Antetokounmpo for staying. This has been a fantastic offseason for the NBA in that players seem to be doing what they want to do, which is the entire point of free agency existing in the first place.

That makes the league better because it forces the teams to be better. If you assemble a better roster and a better culture, you’ll get better free agents. Players like to win, and they like to have fun.

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