Dennis Smith, Jr. Thread

[Nazrmohamed]

When did Dennis quit? I don't recall that action.

Read on Twitter

he apparently blew off the media a few times in NC state, but that's what I heard

also:

https://www.greensboro.com/sports/college/accxtra/ed-hardin-wolfpack-shows-little-fight-in-loss-to-demon/article_98bebbbc-72a7-5ee1-ad43-03d724fa19f6.html

With 2:27 left in what would ultimately become an 88-58 blowout loss to Wake Forest, freshmen Dennis Smith Jr. motioned to his coach.

He wanted out.

Mark Gottfried probably feels the same way.

I think his coach got fired after the game.

College players dont get thier coaches fired. That's a huge stretch. What college player in history has had that much pull that because of his actions or words the coach gets fired outside of maybe Bob Knight after attacking a kid on camera and if I remember correctly that wasnt even the final straw and Knight had a ridiculous ego.

Dennis Smith Jr just isnt that important. Asking to be pulled from a 30pt blowout with 2 minutes left? I probably wouldve liked to see him stick it out for his team and play but it's more symbolic than anything else. You know the result of that game. I didnt see the game but he probably wasnt playing well so I'd focus more on that than a reporters concocted opinion. You guys get too caught up in what reporters say. They are opinions and now that it's been shown that he blew off some interviews it all makes sense. "Oh you wont talk to me and give me the ammunition I need to write my story? Enjoy your new public perception cuz I'm bout to ruin it"

I've seen so much of that in my life I know what to ignore. Meanwhile the best interviewer I've ever known told me to stay woke and go F myself. But listen. I'm about to put this subject down because at the same time I dont wanna come off as DSJs biggest fan. I could easily root against him like I do Mudiay because my hidden agenda is to see Frank break out of his coma and take his hype back. More so I'm just of the belief that we gotta stop killing guys who are 19 and 20 yrs old, not even fully developed because we wanna nitpick everything. There are stars that have had worse rookie and sophmore years. There are bums who have had way better rookie and sophmore years. We are a rebuilding team and I support making players better at this age. Not looking for reasons to trade them all.

[Thugger HBC]

Dennis really hasn't given me the vibe that some are portraying.

I don't see a player that would sulk coming off the bench with a star player in front of him. I also don't see a player that thinks he's so good he doesn't have to improve his game. I just don't see those things from him.

Does he have confidence in himself? Absolutely. I would hope any player would. Does he believe he belongs? Of course, as he should.

[Nazrmohamed]

that's all he has lol.

dsj is living proof that you can be very athletic and throw down rim rocking dunks, yet still be a mediocre basketball player.

Mediocre is pretty solid for a sophmore who was the youngest player in his draft class.

no it’s not.

he can’t shoot, he’s bad at almost every offensive category.

inefficient basketball is not winning basketball.

You dont have to be efficient in your sophmore year in the NBA at 20yrs old. There are guys who wanna draft a player wholl be 22 his rookie year named DeAndre Hunter. Age matters.

What exactly are you trying to prove to anybody by telling us that hes inefficient at 20yrs old dude. So? Hes learning. What's the point of rebuilding a team if we're gonna use thier sophmore efficiency as proof of what theyll be at full potential. You find a few things he can do well and build off that. Not to mention, he shot .428 and .322. I'm not gonna sit here and call him a good shooter. Me and you go at it sometimes and usually we're not that polar so I wanna be fair and not give the impression that hes a good shooter, but he ain't a broken shooter and those percentages can definitely be fixed. And ad I said above despite all that drama about his position and whatever happened there if you look his efficiency was at his best in 2018 before getting traded. Then he comes here and hurt his back. I think you just gotta have alittle patience bro. With him, with Knox.

Besides Robinson who only scores on lobs and dunks all the players we have that people feel really got it together....Trier, Dotson. People gotta remember we drafted those guys at 22yrs old. Low risk, low ceiling. They were drafted to be NBA ready. And dont get me started on 26yr old Kadeem.

Dennis is gonna learn from Kyrie and Knox is gonna learn from Durant.....so long as they arent all traded for AD.

[Dantares]

So what you guys are saying is that if we were to get Kyrie Irving then theres no room for backups who couldve themselves been developed into talented starting PGs, and that instead we should trade him and then have Frank Ntilikina be the backup?

You guys are never satisfied. Way too caught up with the side stories rather than assets

frank is probably gone too. Trading dsjr would be doing him a favor. if he plays 15 minutes as kyrie's backup he's going to shoot even worse without those rhythm dribbles. dsjr cant play with kyrie at the same time. his standing reach and wingspan is like the same as DJ augustine. also Dsjr development as a playmaker would take a backseat to RJ Barrett. If dennis goes to another team I can see him getting 15+ ppg and getting a nice deal after year 4. maybe the midlevel.

this team is going to need spot up shooters if we are really getting who we think we are getting in the draft and free agency, goodbye frank and dennis.

[Nazrmohamed]

What do adding spot shooters have to do with backup point guard? We need spot shooter whether you keep them or not. You're not drafting a spot shooter at backup point guard because spot shooters need other players to pass them the ball.

Or are you simply stating that your use Dennis as a trade chip for said shooters. Look at the end of the day we need a backup PG so why not a cost effective player on a rookie deal with once held primary PG potential? What's wrong with depth?

[Nazrmohamed]

It just dawned on me that we're having these discussions in part based on a future signing of a point guard who quit on two title contending teams, has known issues with sharing spotlight and authority, dont get along with teammates and isolates incessantly.

And he believes the world is flat. Maybe we ARE doing him a favor Dantares

[Dantares]

What do adding spot shooters have to do with backup point guard? We need spot shooter whether you keep them or not. You're not drafting a spot shooter at backup point guard because spot shooters need other players to pass them the ball.

Or are you simply stating that your use Dennis as a trade chip for said shooters. Look at the end of the day we need a backup PG so why not a cost effective player on a rookie deal with once held primary PG potential? What's wrong with depth?

yes I would do it now. its harder for streak shooters to shoot in limited minutes. dennis isnt automatic like dotson was the first half of the year. he's a streaky rhythm shooter. asking dennis to catch and shoot and play without the ball in his hands is setting him up for failure IMO. If dennis asks for a trade later then we are going to get so little value for him down the line, because that will be the second time he does it in 2 years. i bet we could get an FRP for him right now. if you have barrett, kd and kyrie and we all know Trier doesnt like to pass, its not going to be a good fit for dennis.

[malik959]

Wait wait wait, soooo people want to get rid of a kid who has shown to have a lot of potential because he quit on a sorry team with a sorry coach who got fired that year, to pick up a player that quit on two teams that were playoff teams and is also injury prone?

Look I'm not a Kyrie fan, if we get him I'm not mad, but I'm also not ecstatic. But he's actually the opposite of what we've been trying to build here. I still feel that the better player for Durant (not the overall better player) would be the home town kid in Kimba.

[Phish Tank]

When did Dennis quit? I don't recall that action.

Read on Twitter

he apparently blew off the media a few times in NC state, but that's what I heard

also:

https://www.greensboro.com/sports/college/accxtra/ed-hardin-wolfpack-shows-little-fight-in-loss-to-demon/article_98bebbbc-72a7-5ee1-ad43-03d724fa19f6.html

With 2:27 left in what would ultimately become an 88-58 blowout loss to Wake Forest, freshmen Dennis Smith Jr. motioned to his coach.

He wanted out.

Mark Gottfried probably feels the same way.

I think his coach got fired after the game.

College players dont get thier coaches fired. That's a huge stretch. What college player in history has had that much pull that because of his actions or words the coach gets fired outside of maybe Bob Knight after attacking a kid on camera and if I remember correctly that wasnt even the final straw and Knight had a ridiculous ego.

Dennis Smith Jr just isnt that important. Asking to be pulled from a 30pt blowout with 2 minutes left? I probably wouldve liked to see him stick it out for his team and play but it's more symbolic than anything else. You know the result of that game. I didnt see the game but he probably wasnt playing well so I'd focus more on that than a reporters concocted opinion. You guys get too caught up in what reporters say. They are opinions and now that it's been shown that he blew off some interviews it all makes sense. "Oh you wont talk to me and give me the ammunition I need to write my story? Enjoy your new public perception cuz I'm bout to ruin it"

I've seen so much of that in my life I know what to ignore. Meanwhile the best interviewer I've ever known told me to stay woke and go F myself. But listen. I'm about to put this subject down because at the same time I dont wanna come off as DSJs biggest fan. I could easily root against him like I do Mudiay because my hidden agenda is to see Frank break out of his coma and take his hype back. More so I'm just of the belief that we gotta stop killing guys who are 19 and 20 yrs old, not even fully developed because we wanna nitpick everything. There are stars that have had worse rookie and sophmore years. There are bums who have had way better rookie and sophmore years. We are a rebuilding team and I support making players better at this age. Not looking for reasons to trade them all.

jeez, I never said he got his coach fired. I just said that after that blowout loss, his coach was fired.

[Nazrmohamed]

Yeah, my bad phish. I had a good time tho.

[GimmeDat]

I want to preface this by saying that I didn't watch any full Knicks games last season (apart from when they played the Bulls), so you've seen more than I have, but this is what I can tell.

DSJ is kinda fool's gold. He looks the part but his statistics have been abysmal. I thought he was making some progress towards the end of his Dallas stint with slightly improved shooting numbers and supposedly more engaged defense. I feel like the move to NY and getting the green light to shoot did not do his development any favors, and as you all know, he was horribly inefficient post-trade. You also have guys that have been able to take advantage of that volume role to the tune of better numbers in Mudiay and Burke, even though (my understanding) is they're not considered highly valuable pieces. That must speak volumes about DSJ when the only thing going for him is on-ball scoring right now.

And if a guy isn't a quality on-ball scorer within that archetype, I'm not sure what role leads towards a positive contribution. Obviously Ntilikina is another young guy that has struggled greatly so far, though I'm aware of the outstanding defensive glimpses. But at least for Frank, he can come in as a stopper, play multiple spots, and fingers crossed develop that 3 ball to respectable levels like it was being sold to us when he was a prospect. He was also known to be a rawer guy coming out than DSJ. Frank has more complimentary, non-scoring abilities that can impact a game, and especially if you think you're going to add some high profile FA's, that seems more helpful.

I do also wonder why you talk about moving on from him already though, because he is under rookie scale for a few years yet. Is the idea that you can still flip him for some value before all his 'theoretical potential' loses its shine?

[Garbagelo]

I sternly believe that DSJ's days as a Knick are already over

Great! This was a constructive post as are most of yours...

You Steve Mills burner account?

look at all the free agents and guys at the 3rd spot we are trying to bring in

all ball dominant players that we hope will be more efficient that the ball-dominant Smith

he is donezo because he cannot do anything else

[robillionaire]

one of the reasons I was never high on DSJ (or fultz) was that NC State went 15-17, they were bad when he was there, if you can't make your college team at least halfway respectable how are you going to make an nba team better

I like DSJ, I'm not giving up on him he could still develop into a good player. But he has to fix his shot. He AT LEAST has to start making more of his free throws. I really hope he's still around next season and gets an opportunity

[robillionaire]

I sternly believe that DSJ's days as a Knick are already over

Great! This was a constructive post as are most of yours...

You Steve Mills burner account?

look at all the free agents and guys at the 3rd spot we are trying to bring in

all ball dominant players that we hope will be more efficient that the ball-dominant Smith

he is donezo because he cannot do anything else

maybe so but some in the organization may like him. They did trade for him after all

[blueNorange]

there’s literally nothing dsj has shown that shows he’ll be good. having a good game followed by 5 garbage games isn’t potential, it’s called a fringe basketball player.

even frank had a good game once in awhile.

[GONYK]

It just dawned on me that we're having these discussions in part based on a future signing of a point guard who quit on two title contending teams, has known issues with sharing spotlight and authority, dont get along with teammates and isolates incessantly.

And he believes the world is flat. Maybe we ARE doing him a favor Dantares

But he's efficient

[GONYK]

Mediocre is pretty solid for a sophmore who was the youngest player in his draft class.

DSJ?

He wasn't the youngest player in his draft class

I thought it was either him or Frank and the difference was a month or so. In any case he was young. If I'm wrong who was?

Frank was the 2nd youngest player in the draft.

DSJ was 12th

[blueNorange]

It just dawned on me that we're having these discussions in part based on a future signing of a point guard who quit on two title contending teams, has known issues with sharing spotlight and authority, dont get along with teammates and isolates incessantly.

And he believes the world is flat. Maybe we ARE doing him a favor Dantares

But he's efficient

kyrie’s fg% is better than dsj’s ts%!

[Tron Carter]

one of the reasons I was never high on DSJ (or fultz) was that NC State went 15-17, they were bad when he was there, if you can't make your college team at least halfway respectable how are you going to make an nba team better

I like DSJ, I'm not giving up on him he could still develop into a good player. But he has to fix his shot. He AT LEAST has to start making more of his free throws. I really hope he's still around next season and gets an opportunity

Read on Twitter

if he has to think too much when he shoots the hitch returns. he needs the ball in his hands to get into a rhythm.

[robillionaire]

one of the reasons I was never high on DSJ (or fultz) was that NC State went 15-17, they were bad when he was there, if you can't make your college team at least halfway respectable how are you going to make an nba team better

I like DSJ, I'm not giving up on him he could still develop into a good player. But he has to fix his shot. He AT LEAST has to start making more of his free throws. I really hope he's still around next season and gets an opportunity

Read on Twitter

if he has to think too much when he shoots the hitch returns. he needs the ball in his hands to get into a rhythm.

That's a good stat, I read somewhere that he shot a decent percentage on catch and shoot 3s last season in dallas as well. He has poor shot selection and settles for bad shots too often and forces things, this is something that he can probably improve on