This is just the second “good” game from Dennis Smith Jr. this season, and that’s with my bar for a “good” game adjusted to be much lower for him that it is for many other young players of his pedigree. Maybe we’ll look back on this game as the beginning of DSJ’s redemption tour, or we’ll just look back on it as one of the brief flashes of potential that he displayed in this tire fire of a season for the Knicks.
I seem to recall some trade rumors floating in the air around DSJ’s head and following him around wherever he goes, but now I don’t remember which teams were the ones who were allegedly interested. I’m not going to interrupt my description-writing flow by finding out which team or teams that was, but whoever the GM of that team is, you have to wonder what they’re thinking targeting a guy who’s shooting 33% from the field. Maybe they want to be hailed as a genius who rescued an underperforming high draft pick from a bad situation, sort of like what the Magic did with Markelle Fultz.
At this point, I think the Knicks should take anything they can get for this guy. New York hasn’t worked out for him. It would suck to immediately trade away the major piece they got in return from Dallas after they gifted them Porzingis, but you have to think about Frank Ntilikina here. It seems like he has a better chance of being an impact player in the league than DSJ. Forget about the stigma of giving up on DSJ. It’s not even their fault, for once. They’re not the ones who drafted him.