Dennis Smith Jr. Has Higher To Climb For Knicks

NEW YORK — Dennis Smith Jr.'s mood was almost giddy as he faced reporters in front of his locker Thursday night, following a 106-103 win for his New York Knicks over the Dallas Mavericks, his former team.

No, the chance to face Dallas hadn't added to his motivation, he said. And that was believable: Smith Jr. knows he has a lot of work to do that extends well beyond showing anything to a former employer. His current employer needs a point guard, and Smith Jr. has to start showing signs that he can be a building block for a team in need of cornerstones.

One game will not alter the decisions of a franchise that has two potential point guards out of the same draft, Smith Jr. and Frank Ntilikina, and seemingly only one spot. But production like what Smith Jr. put up against Dallas — 13 points, eight assists and six rebounds — reflect the primary question facing his career, which is how much he can convert the ample tools he has into skills.

First things first, though: he exuded a sense of calm, back on the court, his time away from the team to mourn now behind him.

"I'm just grateful," Smith Jr. said. "Just grateful. Glad to be playing."

The Knicks were grateful, too. On a night when Ntilikina struggled to initiate the offense, amid a group still too willing to settle for the iso option in a halfcourt possession, Smith Jr.'s ability to penetrate opened lanes and added wrinkles to how Dallas defended the Knicks all night. Mitchell Robinson's five separate lob opportunities — essentially matching his season production on the highest of high-percentage shots — simply don't happen without Smith Jr. As David Fizdale put it in the postgame, Smith Jr. "gets the game ball."

And then there was this, his penetration and emphatic dunk.

Simply put: other Knicks guards cannot do this.

It remains to be seen whether Smith Jr. can consistently provide this level of production, finding teammates, hitting open shots, supplementing his athleticism with the kind of NBA game management required at the position of point guard.

But off of a game like this, as the centerpiece to a trade that the franchise decision-makers desperately want to work, he'll get more of an opportunity. He seconded Fizdale's comment after the game about how comfortable players are walking into his office and communicating with him. Smith Jr. said he'd done so earlier this week.

If his time away did nothing more than provide Smith Jr. with the confidence that his current team believes in him, that might be enough to spur a necessary breakthrough.

Thursday night, he didn't sound like he thought he'd reached his apex, either. He was asked about his putback dunk, and smiled once more — a reaction in short supply for Dennis Smith Jr. this season, but plentiful Thursday night.

"Yeah, I didn't really get up on it," Smith Jr. said. "I've got to get my legs back. I've got to get my legs all the way back. I didn't really have too much bounce on it."

The Knicks need more games like Thursday. Smith Jr. and the team both have higher to climb.