INDEPENDENCE, Ohio _ Cavaliers guard J.R. Smith said he hopes to be traded, but declined the front office's suggestion that he leave the team because he felt he owed it to the fans who embraced him.
"Yeah. Honestly. They know," Smith said when asked about his wish to be dealt. "They don't want me, so they obviously know."
Smith said after shootaround Thursday at Cleveland Clinic Courts that it's hard for him to put on a Cavs jersey every day, but he will help young players who seek him out even as he's been dropped from the rotation.
"They asked me if I wanted to be around the team and if I didn't I could leave and go home and do whatever," Smith said. "I can't do that to these fans, I can't do it to the city. To come from where I came from, from pretty much nothing to Cleveland and the way the city embraced me, the fans embraced me, the relationship I have with them, I can't do that to them. It's not about me, it's not about who wants me here and who doesn't want me here, for me it's all about the fans."
Smith, 33, said he didn't know why the Cavs would ask him to go home.
"There's a lot of things that's going on around here that I don't know the answer to and I don't know why it's going on, but it is and I can't control that," Smith said. "I just worry about what I can control, worry about being a good vet to these young guys who are playing. Cheer for 'em, help 'em as much as they want me to help. Other than that, I'm buying time, I guess."
Smith said he warned coach Tyronn Lue before he was fired Sunday following the Cavs' 0-6 start that he didn't want Lue to lose his job for sticking with veterans against management's wishes. Smith said he was told he was out of the rotation after the third game, but Lue used him in the next three losses.
"I had a conversation with him about it, too. I told him I don't want to put him in a position where he had to lose his job," Smith said of Lue. "This was before he got fired. He said the hell with it and did what he wanted to do and what he was comfortable with doing and I respect him for it. But at the same time, I don't think it should have cost him his job."
The Cavs (1-6) host the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night, their second game under acting coach Larry Drew.
Smith's four-year, $57 million contract carries a $13.76 million salary for 2018-19, which makes him virtually untradeable at this stage of the season. In 2019-20, he's due just $3.87 million of his $15.68 million salary if he's let go by June 30.
"Moves could've been made to prevent this situation, but of course we're in this situation now, so, it is what it is," Smith said.
Joe Vardon, then of Cleveland.com, reported that Smith's camp was told this summer he likely would not play this season. But Smith is still upset with what he perceives as a lack of communication, perhaps wanting to hear it directly from general manager Koby Altman.
"I don't mind taking a back seat or sitting down or if you don't want me to play, I don't mind that. But at least communicate that to me," he said. "To feel like you're going to play one day, and then you just don't play, coming from four Finals appearances, starting, winning a championship, and doing all these things. Sacrificing your body and injury and fighting through all of that to be, you can't even look me in my face and tell me, that's disrespectful to me."
Smith said it is tough to come to work, but he has plenty of encouragement in that regard.
"It's hard," he said. "Fortunately, I got a great crew of people, former teammates, teammates, former coaches, lot of people in my ear that's helped me to go through this process. But at the end of the day I can't take it out on my teammates. Regardless how hard it is to walk in here and actually put on, as hard as it may sound, to put on a Cavs jersey or shirt, I can't do that to my teammates. I can't do that to the fans."
But that's not to say wearing the Cavs logo will get any easier for Smith.
"It's hard to be somewhere where they know they don't want you there. You gotta go in there and put on this front and act like you're so happy, regardless," he said. "We all make a ton of money. That's not what this is about. I can't even be competitive anymore. For somebody in my shoes, that's the hardest part."
