I am just one of the commenters on this site who would like to see the Pistons make a run for Smoove, so obviously I can’t speak for all of them. But I would not want Dumars to offer Smith a max contract. Something more in the range of $12M/yr seems reasonable, but not the max. Also, it is worth keeping in mind that either with max dollars or around what I proposed, under the current CBA, the deal would only run 4 years. If I were a betting man, I’d put money on Smith starting to decline in the last year of that deal, but that his production would not fall off a cliff for another season or three.

As for the positional concerns, I wouldn’t get too hung up on those. You need at least three guys in your frontcourt rotation anyway. I do believe that Smith could play well as a SF. But he is best suited to the PF. It would seem that you believe his contributions would suffer more than I believe they would by spending much time at the SF. But that is immaterial, because, even if he is spending just 10 min/gm there (and if he were on the Pistons, I’d expect him to play SF 10-20 min/gm), that already allows Monroe, Drummond, and Smith to each get over 35 minutes. And that is if everyone stays healthy. If one of them is injured, the roles of the other two expand further.

Also, I love what I’m seeing from Drummond. But, as I have yet to see it in the regular season, I’m not yet quite ready to call him a sure thing to be a long-term part of the core. But let’s say he is. And for some strange reason Smith, Monroe, and Drummond don’t mesh well. Guess what? All three guys would have plenty of interest around the league and I’m sure a trade could be struck.

Finally, if the Pistons need another big time piece for their core, who do you recommend? Obviously, if the Pistons threw max deals at Howard and Paul and one of them took it, that’s be awesome. But short of those two, the FA crop isn’t overwhelmingly strong. Millsap and Jefferson probably have more compatibility issues than Smoove. Iguodala would be nice but he seems less likely to move than Smith. Most other good FAs will be RFAs meaning Dumars would definitely have to overpay to get them (as opposed to guys like Smith who he might have to overpay to get). Of those RFAs, the ones with much interest to Pistons fans tend to be Harden (who Houston would definitely match any offer to) and Paul George. I don’t think George is worth a max deal, but I wouldn’t be enraged about his being extended one (again because of the just 4 years). I also don’t know if Indiana would match that, but I’m leaning toward the idea that they would. So that leaves the hope that financial distress forces Memphis or Indiana to dump Gay or Granger and that they get no better offers than just expiring contracts and maybe Jerebko/first round pick.