There were less than two minutes remaining in the third quarter when Dennis Smith Jr. finally got off the bench on Wednesday night, but his first appearance in nearly one month didn’t last very long.
Smith was on the court for only 3 minutes and 36 seconds bridging the final two quarters of the Knicks’ 100-92 loss to the Lakers, and they were outscored by nine points during his first game action since suffering an oblique injury Dec. 23 against Washington.
With two weeks left before the Feb. 6 trade deadline, the 22-year-old Smith remains behind Elfrid Payton and Frank Ntilikina in the Knicks’ point-guard rotation. The 22-year-old former lottery pick potentially could be moved for the second consecutive year, but doing so would represent an admitted mistake by the Knicks’ front office after Smith was obtained from Dallas in last year’s Kristaps Porzingis blockbuster.
“Everything happens for a reason, you know what I’m saying?” Smith said after Thursday’s practice in Tarrytown. “It was already written, God’s plan, I just gotta execute my part, put my work in and everything will work out.
“It’s a business. I’m here, playing for the New York Knicks, that’s my job right now, so that’s what I’m focused on. You realized [last year] anything can happen, so you just gotta be the best version of yourself.”
Smith was drafted ninth overall by the Mavericks in 2017, one pick after the Knicks selected Ntilikina. After averaging 14.7 points and 5.2 assists in 21 games (18 starts) following the trade to the Knicks last February, Smith is posting just 5.0 points and shooting 32 percent from the field over 14.5 minutes per game in 21 appearances, all but one off the bench. He has dealt with multiple injuries and also missed time due to the death of his stepmother.
“Dennis has been a professional,” Knicks interim coach Mike Miller said. “We’ve maintained communication all the way through. He continues to work on the things that he needs to do. It’s the same thing — can we just keep working to get better every day?
“Part of it, he goes through an injury where he can’t do a lot because of the nature of the injury. He had to look at doing some other things. Now he just needs some of that game experience to get his legs back underneath him. I should say game minutes instead of game experience because he has experience. He just needs those minutes to build his stamina back up.”
Smith added that he “felt no pain” in his brief turn on the court Wednesday night, although he missed both of his shot attempts and scored zero points.
Payton has started all but one of the Knicks’ past 16 games; he likely will do so again Friday against Toronto at the Garden. Payton logged 32 minutes against the Lakers, while Ntilikina missed all eight of his field-goal attempts over 12 minutes off the bench.
“I think the answer is we have confidence in all the guys,” Miller said. “We see the positives in all the guys. But the minutes in the game dictate what we will do. They all have different talents and play the same position. We try to utilize their talents with what we need at that point in the game.”