{"id":144541,"date":"2025-09-15T08:42:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T08:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/144541\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T08:42:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T08:42:14","slug":"knicks-working-out-dennis-smith-jr-as-guard-eyes-nba-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/144541\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks working out Dennis Smith Jr. as guard eyes NBA comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Knicks are bringing in a familiar point guard.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Smith, 27, played last season in Spain, for Real Madrid, but left the team early after an injury.<\/p>\n

It essentially became a year off from competitive basketball for him.<\/p>\n

The Knicks are also working out free agent frontcourt players, sources told The Post, including Alex Len and Trey Jemison III.<\/p>\n

NBA teams can bring as many as 21 players into training camp, and the Knicks have only 12 on guaranteed contracts.<\/p>\n

The Knicks, as constructed, have only the cap space to keep one more veteran player for the regular season.<\/p>\n

However, they\u2019re carrying at least three players into camp on nonguaranteed deals with extensive NBA experience \u2014 Malcolm Brogdon, Landry Shamet and Garrison Mathews.<\/p>\n

\"Dennis<\/p>\n

Dennis Smith Jr. spent three seasons with the Knicks. Getty Images<\/p>\n

It\u2019s why people around the league anticipate the Knicks will make a trade to free up the space to keep two of them.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Smith wants to enter the mix.<\/p>\n

Prior to his abbreviated Real Madrid experience, Smith played seven seasons in the NBA \u2014 including three with the Knicks \u2014 as a high-flying 2017 lottery pick.<\/p>\n

Looking at times like a potential star with the Mavericks, Smith became a centerpiece in the 2019 Mavericks-Knicks swap involving Kristaps Porzingis.<\/p>\n

But his Knicks career never got off the ground, plagued by an injured back and bruised psyche.<\/p>\n

The defining moment was probably getting booed by a Garden crowd that preferred backup Frank Ntilikina.<\/p>\n

\"Dennis<\/p>\n

Dennis Smith Jr. is eyeing an NBA comeback. Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s stepmother unexpectedly died soon after the crowd\u2019s negative reaction, and he never regained his confidence or shot.<\/p>\n

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In 2020, Smith was out of Tom Thibodeau\u2019s rotation when he requested to play in the G-League.<\/p>\n

Then he was traded to the Pistons for Derrick Rose.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of that stuff beyond my control. Fans\u2019 reaction. Stepmom passed. Slipped disc in my back. Just random s\u2013t that I can\u2019t control,\u201d Smith said after resurfacing with the Hornets. \u201cOnly thing that matters to me is how I react to it. Bounce back, take the punches and keep rolling. S\u2013t it got me where I\u2019m at right now so I\u2019m thankful for it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith, whose greatest trait was always athleticism, reinvented himself as a defensive specialist, riding that through a couple of campaigns in Charlotte and Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

Now he\u2019s working out for a reunion with the Knicks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Knicks are bringing in a familiar point guard. Approaching five years since his last stint in New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[98059,64,63,7187,98057,61702,98060,98058,12845,12833,16113,16096,590,22455,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-144541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-alex-len","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-brooklyn","12":"tag-dennis-smith-jr","13":"tag-derrick-rose","14":"tag-frank-ntilikina","15":"tag-garrison-mathews","16":"tag-knicks","17":"tag-kristaps-porzingis","18":"tag-landry-shamet","19":"tag-malcolm-brogdon","20":"tag-nba","21":"tag-real-madrid","22":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}