"Joe Smith" the NBA player

His complate name is Joseph Leynard Smith (born July 26, 1975, in Norfolk, Virginia) is an American professional basketball player for the New Jersey Nets in the NBA.

Smith was the College Player of the Year at Maryland in 1995 and taken with the No. 1 pick of that season's NBA Draft. He was named to the 1995–96 All-Rookie team.

NBA career

Golden State Warriors (1995–1998)
Smith attended Maury High School and played at the University of Maryland. In the 1995 NBA Draft, Smith was selected by the Golden State Warriors as the first overall pick, before fellow power forwards Kevin Garnett, Antonio McDyess and Rasheed Wallace, as well as guard Jerry Stackhouse. Smith was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team for the 1995–96 season and finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting to Damon Stoudamire.

Joe Smith would play two-and-a-half years for the Warriors before being traded to the Philadelphia 76ers midway through the 1997–98 season. Smith's statistics declined immediately after the trade, and have never fully recovered.

Minnesota Timberwolves (1998–2003)
Despite a drop in production, Smith was seen still as a hot commodity in the free agency blitz[citation needed] that followed the strike in late 1998. In what seemed at the time like a bizarre move, Smith signed for very little money with the Minnesota Timberwolves. For the next two years, Smith played very productively at small forward alongside All-Star Kevin Garnett.
Timberwolves salary cap scandal

Following the 1999–2000 season, it was discovered that Smith was involved in a salary cap-tampering scandal involving Timberwolves executive Kevin McHale. Smith was allegedly promised a future multi-million dollar deal if he signed with the team for below market value, allowing the team to make some additional player moves in the short term. The league later found out about this violation and voided the last year of the contract, also severely punishing the Timberwolves by taking away five first-round draft picks (though two of the picks were ultimately returned) and fining the team $3.5 million.. The move hurt the Timberwolves in the long run, as while the team still found success, the lack of draft picks set the team up for their eventual failure in the mid-2000s.

Detroit Pistons (2000–2001)
Joe Smith was released by the Timberwolves and signed with the Detroit Pistons for the 2000–2001 season as a backup. Smith produced very good numbers for the Pistons and, at the end of the season, he re-signed with the Timberwolves where he played for two more seasons.

NBA journeyman (2003–present)For the next three seasons Smith played for the Milwaukee Bucks. Prior to the 2006–07 season, Smith moved on to the Nuggets, where he only played in 11 games before being traded, along with Andre Miller, back to the 76ers for Allen Iverson. Despite being considered an add-in on the deal, Smith averaged over 25 minutes per game with the 76ers, during the team's ultimately unsuccessful second half battle to make the playoffs.

For the 2007–08 season, Smith signed with the Chicago Bulls. Smith averaged over 11 points and 5 rebounds per game for the Bulls, but the team managed only 33 wins the whole season. Smith was traded in a three team deal at the trade deadline to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

On August 13, 2008, Smith was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder in a three-team, six-player deal involving the Thunder, the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Cleveland Cavaliers that sent Milwaukee's Mo Williams to Cleveland, Smith and Milwaukee's Desmond Mason to Oklahoma City, and Cleveland's Damon Jones and Oklahoma City's Luke Ridnour and Adrian Griffin to Milwaukee.

The Thunder traded Smith to the New Orleans Hornets along with Chris Wilcox and draft rights to Devon Hardin on February 17, 2009 for Tyson Chandler but on February 18, 2009 the trade was rescinded after Tyson Chandler failed a physical with Oklahoma City.

On March 1, 2009, the Thunder bought out the remainder of Smith's contract and released him. Two nights later, he agreed to terms to return to Cleveland and rejoin the Cavaliers.

On August 25, 2009, he signed a one year contract with the Atlanta Hawks.[6] On March 17, 2010, Smith became the 92nd player in NBA history to reach 1000 games played, in a victory over the New Jersey Nets.

On September 10, 2010, Smith signed a deal with the New Jersey Nets.

Regular season

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
1995–96	Golden State	82	82	34.4	.458	.357	.773	8.7	1.0	1.0	1.6	15.3
1996–97	Golden State	80	80	38.6	.454	.261	.814	8.5	1.6	.9	1.1	18.7
1997–98	Golden State	49	49	33.6	.429	.000	.769	6.9	1.4	.9	.8	17.3
1997–98	Philadelphia	30	6	23.3	.448	.000	.788	4.4	.9	.6	.4	10.3
1998–99	Minnesota	43	42	33.0	.427	.000	.755	8.2	1.6	.7	1.5	13.7
1999–00	Minnesota	78	9	25.3	.464	1.000	.756	6.2	1.1	.6	1.1	9.9
2000–01	Detroit	69	59	28.1	.403	.000	.805	7.1	1.1	.7	.7	12.3
2001–02	Minnesota	72	63	26.7	.511	.667	.830	6.3	1.1	.5	.8	10.7
2002–03	Minnesota	54	21	20.7	.460	.000	.779	5.0	.7	.3	1.0	7.5
2003–04	Milwaukee	76	76	29.7	.439	.200	.859	8.5	1.0	.6	1.2	10.9
2004–05	Milwaukee	74	73	30.6	.514	.000	.768	7.3	.9	.6	.5	11.0
2005–06	Milwaukee	44	5	20.2	.475	.000	.774	5.2	.7	.6	.3	8.6
2006–07	Denver	11	0	13.5	.479	.000	.833	3.6	.3	.6	.6	5.1
2006–07	Philadelphia	54	11	25.1	.445	.000	.846	6.7	.9	.6	.4	9.2
2007–08	Chicago	50	35	22.9	.466	.000	.807	5.3	.9	.5	.6	11.2
2007–08	Cleveland	27	1	21.5	.512	.000	.652	5.0	.7	.3	.6	8.1
2008–09	Oklahoma City	36	3	19.1	.454	.500	.704	4.6	.7	.3	.7	6.6
2008–09	Cleveland	21	0	19.5	.496	.333	.750	4.7	.8	.3	.7	6.5
2009-10	Atlanta	64	1	9.3	.399	.143	.813	2.5	.3	.1	.3	3.0
Career		1,014	616	26.6	.455	.238	.790	6.5	1.0	.6	.8	11.0

Playoffs

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
1998–99	Minnesota	4	4	30.0	.297	.000	.727	6.5	1.3	.5	2.0	7.5
1999–00	Minnesota	4	0	19.8	.471	.000	1.000	3.0	.3	.8	.2	4.5
2001–02	Minnesota	3	1	14.3	.429	.000	.875	3.7	.0	.0	.3	4.3
2002–03	Minnesota	5	1	8.0	.667	.000	1.000	1.2	.0	.2	.2	2.8
2003–04	Milwaukee	5	5	35.0	.491	.000	.923	10.0	.4	.8	2.0	13.2
2005–06	Milwaukee	5	0	21.2	.485	.000	.667	5.4	.6	.4	.4	7.6
2007–08	Cleveland	13	0	20.2	.486	.000	.636	4.6	.5	.4	.5	6.6
2008–09	Cleveland	13	0	16.8	.460	.600	.793	3.7	.2	.5	.5	5.5
2009–10	Atlanta	5	0	4.8	.000	.000	.000	.4	.0	.0	.2	.0
Career		57	11	18.7	.454	.375	.780	4.2	.4	.4	.7	5.9