I’m sure the Detroit Pistons have enjoyed having Ish Smith on their team, and I’m sure that Ish Smith has enjoyed playing for the Detroit Pistons. He has definitely forged a better legacy in Detroit than that other Smith guy who we all like to forget about (but is difficult to forget about given that he’s still, somehow, collecting checks from the team).
Despite the mutually beneficial relationship, the Pishtons pairing, as I have taken to calling it, might be over once this season ends. Smith is in the last year of his contract and, while he’s played for many different teams over his career, there’s still a lot of teams that he hasn’t played for. If he wants to reach the magic number of fifteen teams played for in a career, he can’t just stick around in Detroit. Since a lot of teams are eager to find a competent, savvy backup point guard who can start in a pinch, he should have no problem getting a nice offer from somebody.
Once the Pistons have Smith off the roster, which is a bittersweet but necessary parting of the ways, they can start Luke Kennard at point guard and move Reggie Jackson to a backup role because that is unironically what a subset of Pistons fans want to see happen.