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Wolves plan to sign Greg Smith to 10-day contract

Chris Reichert reports that the Wolves have finally used their 15th roster spot, made available by waiving Andre Miller last week, to sign Raptors 905 center Greg Smith.

By John Meyer
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Chris Reichert does an excellent job covering the D-League for Upside & Motor. Whenever I have questions about D-League players, or I'm wondering about financial details of 10-day contracts, I never hesitate to ask him and he always responds promptly.

Today, Reichert had the news plenty of Wolves fans have been speculating about since Andre Miller was waived, at his request, five days ago.

Greg Smith, formally of the Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks, come on down! You're the next contestant on "The Wolves once again need another body in the frontcourt because KG and Pekovic are hurt."

(Don't tell me you've already forgotten about Justin Hamilton, Jeff Adrien, Miroslav Raduljica, and Arinze Onuaku)

My initial reaction was "Damn, I wanted to give Jarnell Stokes a test run." My next thought was, "Oh, yeah, I remember Greg Smith when he was in Houston. He was kind of intriguing to me."

Then, I went to his basketball reference page to check him out, as basketbloggers do, which resulted in this tweet...

Indeed, Smith was intriguing to me two years ago and now he's a member of the Wolves.

While he's unlikely to stick with the squad more than 20 days—teams can only sign players to two 10-day contracts before they must sign them for the rest of the season, and odds are he won't blow the organization away with his play—it's not completely unrealistic given the opportunity he may be afforded with the current state of the frontcourt.

According to the FAQ link that Reichert sent me, Smith will make approximately $59,730.65 with his four years of NBA experience. Here are his advanced stats... This was the first video that popped up on YouTube when I typed in Greg Smith (well, the first one that had to do with this particular Greg Smith).

My last thought is that it's nice to have another healthy body that can log minutes at power forward and center. Smith looks like a pretty decent guy to give the 10-day contract to at this point. Again, while it's highly unlikely, we'll see if he can stick in Minneapolis past his first contract and beyond.

Every player on the fringe is merely looking for an opportunity in the Association, underneath the bright lights, and it's up to them to take advantage of the moment.

Late Edition: Notes on Greg Smith from our very own, Suspicious Sal

  • Smith has played 97 games with the Rockets and 42 games with the Mavericks.
  • Undrafted after two years at Fresno State, played in Mexico during the lockout season, and signed with Houston the next year.
  • One month younger than Adreian Payne.
  • His multiyear RAPM is -1.04.
  • Appears to have taken three shots beyond 10 feet in his NBA career.
  • 73% of his shots are between 0-3 feet.
  • 13% usage in the NBA.
  • Averages six fouls per 36 minutes in his NBA career.
  • Draft combine measurements: 6’8" height, 7’3" wingspan, 8’10.5 standing reach, 36 inch max vertical, 29 inch no step vertical.
  • He has the largest hand width ever measured at the draft combine at 12 inches—Kawhi Leonard’s was 11.25
  • An old article from SB Nation's "The Dream Shake" says that he’s a good roll man and has good hands. He doesn’t have a back to the basket game besides a rarely used jump hook.
  • He’s going to outperform Payne and probably going to become a fan favorite.
  • Chances of him sticking around beyond this season: 15%