The Knicks are bringing in a familiar point guard.
Approaching five years since his last stint in New York ended, Dennis Smith Jr. is working out for his former team this week with hopes of an NBA comeback, The Post has learned.
Smith, 27, played last season in Spain, for Real Madrid, but left the team early after an injury.
It essentially became a year off from competitive basketball for him.
The Knicks are also working out free agent frontcourt players, sources told The Post, including Alex Len and Trey Jemison III.
NBA teams can bring as many as 21 players into training camp, and the Knicks have only 12 on guaranteed contracts.
The Knicks, as constructed, have only the cap space to keep one more veteran player for the regular season.
However, they’re carrying at least three players into camp on nonguaranteed deals with extensive NBA experience — Malcolm Brogdon, Landry Shamet and Garrison Mathews.
It’s why people around the league anticipate the Knicks will make a trade to free up the space to keep two of them.
Smith wants to enter the mix.
Prior to his abbreviated Real Madrid experience, Smith played seven seasons in the NBA — including three with the Knicks — as a high-flying 2017 lottery pick.
Looking at times like a potential star with the Mavericks, Smith became a centerpiece in the 2019 Mavericks-Knicks swap involving Kristaps Porzingis.
But his Knicks career never got off the ground, plagued by an injured back and bruised psyche.
The defining moment was probably getting booed by a Garden crowd that preferred backup Frank Ntilikina.
Smith’s stepmother unexpectedly died soon after the crowd’s negative reaction, and he never regained his confidence or shot.
In 2020, Smith was out of Tom Thibodeau’s rotation when he requested to play in the G-League.
Then he was traded to the Pistons for Derrick Rose.
“A lot of that stuff beyond my control. Fans’ reaction. Stepmom passed. Slipped disc in my back. Just random s–t that I can’t control,” Smith said after resurfacing with the Hornets. “Only thing that matters to me is how I react to it. Bounce back, take the punches and keep rolling. S–t it got me where I’m at right now so I’m thankful for it all.”
Smith, whose greatest trait was always athleticism, reinvented himself as a defensive specialist, riding that through a couple of campaigns in Charlotte and Brooklyn.
Now he’s working out for a reunion with the Knicks.
Credit: Source link
