JUST LIKE STARTING OVER
Nets guard Smith Jr. has reinvented himself in Brooklyn
Dennis Smith Jr. plopped onto a vacant seat toward the end of the bench, to the left of injured guard Lonnie Walker IV. Smith slouched forward, each elbow resting on a knee, overcome with disappointment. He gazed at the court with frustration, with embarrassment, with disbelief in his eyes. He shook his head slowly while clutching his black warm up top, squeezing it more forcefully with each passing second.
The new year was still fresh on that Tuesday night inside Smoothie King Center but this scene was old and tired for Brooklyn. The Nets were on the verge of their fourth straight loss, trailing the Pelicans 101-75 with four minutes left in regulation. They lost by 27 points to start 2024. And losses have continued to pile up since.
Head coach Jacque Vaughn cleared his bench four minutes earlier, the latest white flag in an unsettling trend of waning competitiveness. In the game’s final minutes, the YES Network broadcast crew caught Smith talking with Walker, wearing a red beanie and a similar stare of incredulity. The guards were clearly trying to make sense of the team’s futility. Their conversation was inaudible but Smith’s body language spoke volumes.
His annoyance emanated through the lens. He took it personally.
Smith leaves everything on the court. At this point in his career, the 26-year-old in his seventh season knows nothing else but to pour his soul onto the hardwood. The 6-2 guard has been labeled Brooklyn’s octane this season.
So the Nets’ uninspired brand of basketball, from start to finish against New Orleans, bothered him. Offended him. The first person he blamed was himself.
“We weren’t playing hard enough and I felt it,” Smith told the Daily News. “People say that I’m supposed to be the energy-giver on this team and that falls on me. There was just a lack of effort and it was felt that night.”
Smith’s influence is needed now more than ever given Brooklyn’s recent slump. He has transformed himself into a leader, a prominent voice within the Nets’ locker room and one of the only players on the roster Vaughn can depend on each night. But this was not always the case.
The Nets locked in on Smith early in free agency even though he wasn’t a hot commodity. He was supposed to serve as depth behind Ben Simmons and Spencer Dinwiddie, a cheap insurance policy. They signed him to a one-year, veteran minimum deal in July and got much more than just a journeyman point guard.
Brooklyn’s coaching staff never has to worry about which version of Smith will show up. His stats do not reveal the value in his reliable effort, tenacity and selflessness, especially on a team and in a season defined by inconsistency. His contributions are among the lone constants. Fans, thirsty for a jolt in this fading season, clamor for Smith in the starting lineup because his intangibles are evident.
Vaughn’s decision to lean on him more heavily at the end of games recently is validated by the Nets being a more competitive team at both ends when Smith is out there. And when the vibes are off, he is the first one to take accountability.
While Smith’s quickness and athleticism will always be his most attractive assets, he has learned in his roller coaster NBA career how those features are not enough to carve out a consistent role on a team. This version of Smith was forged through setbacks and doubt. The pressure of expectations, the depths of failing to meet them, the motivation to reclaim the potential that once made him a polarizing prospect — most in the league have not felt that kind of weight.
That is why his teammates listen when he speaks. They respect what he has been through. He would not tell them to do anything he would not do himself. And no matter what he says they know he is built to back it up.
“Everything he says is the stuff he does,” Cam Johnson told The News. “He plays hard every second he’s out there. He brings energy to the room but it’s not like a dull energy. He can joke about something but he also knows when it’s serious and when it’s time to lock in. He’s kind of like the voice of reason for the team.”
Rock bottom was the 2020-21 season. Smith could not find minutes with the Knicks, his second NBA team. So much so he asked to play for the Westchester Knicks in the G League bubble. A former lottery pick was reduced to the development league.
But he never made it to the G League because he was traded the day before action started in the bubble. He was shipped to Detroit for Derrick Rose. Smith played just 23 games that season, just 420 minutes. Both career lows. He scored 154 points all season. He topped that in a month as a rookie.
Lows like that can shake up a player’s value system. That type of fall from grace tests a man’s mettle. The change in Smith is evident in his game, his demeanor, his focus.
While Smith will still throw down vicious dunks from time to time, the greatest lesson he has learned throughout his NBA journey so far is how to impact the game beyond flashy plays and scoring. He is not afraid to guard an opposing team’s best perimeter player. He embraces the dirty work, like crashing the glass, diving for loose balls, hunting for deflections and playing with a level of physicality uncommon for players of his height.
Teammate Dorian Finney-Smith appreciates the tenacity Smith plays with today because he is built the same way. They take great pride in their Southern roots and it is reflected in their hard-nosed, dog-like approach to the game.
“It’s like that pitbull you leave out,” Finney-Smith said. “Dogs tend to be outside in the South. They’re friendly with the kids until the wrong person tries to come pet them. In the South we grew up with dogs that sleep outside. They have to get out and get it. They have to hop the fence. You have to get it out the mud.”
Smith, drafted ninth overall by the Dallas Mavericks in 2017, was not always reputed for being reliable. He was always known for his physical attributes much more than his impact on culture and chemistry. He first entered the league as one of its youngest players at 19 years old whose physical gifts and skillset drew comparisons to guys like Rose and Steve Francis. Two future All-Stars in Donovan Mitchell and Bam Adebayo were still waiting to hear their names called after the Mavericks took Smith off the board.
Many in Dallas had high expectations for Smith entering his rookie season. While no one expected the Mavs to immediately contend for an NBA championship coming off a lousy 33-49 season, Smith, paired with an aging Dirk Nowitzki and a host of solid role players, was supposed to be the spark that reignited the franchise.
But the Mavericks took a significant step back and ended the 201718 season with a 24-58 record. Smith at least looked the part. He averaged a career-best 15.2 points,
3.8 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game while shooting 39.5% from the field during his first NBA season — rookie averages that were comparable to Rose, Francis, Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul. Dallas was still years away from sniffing championship contention but the future was still seemingly bright. Smith was supposed to be a major part of that vision.
The Mavericks landed the No. 5 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft and that is when Smith’s outlook with the franchise began to sour. Deandre Ayton went off the board first to Phoenix. The Hawks took a chance on Luka Doncic, one of the best international prospects in years, at No. 3. Then Dallas selected Trae Young at No. 5.
As we know now, what happened next changed the trajectory of numerous players and franchises across the league. The Hawks and Mavericks struck a deal that sent Doncic to Dallas and Young to Atlanta. The rest is history.
Doncic was a revelation, proving to be one of the best allaround players in the NBA from the moment he first stepped on the court. It obviously left Smith in an uncomfortable situation. While he welcomed his new teammate with open arms, it meant that he would have to adjust his game to play with another young, ball-dominant star.
The backcourt pairing of Smith and Doncic did not seem ideal on paper. There was only one basketball and both guards were high-usage players. But they quickly formed a bond committed to making it work. But former head coach Rick Carlisle and the Mavericks organization reportedly had other plans.
“I had every intention of being a Dallas Maverick for good,” Smith said.
It was no secret that Doncic needed the ball in his hands to maximize his offensive potential. That obviously conflicted with Smith’s point guard role. According to an ESPN story from 2021, Carlisle placed all of his focus on Doncic and wanted Smith off the team. The article said Carlisle, now coaching the Indiana Pacers, did everything he could to diminish Smith’s sense of worth. He wanted to tear apart Smith’s relationship with Doncic. Smith even confirmed those reports on social media when the story was first published.
Carlisle ultimately got what he wanted. Smith was traded to the Knicks just 51 games into his injury-riddled second season in Dallas, starting his journey around the league that eventually led him to Detroit, Portland, Charlotte and now Brooklyn.
“They ended up creating a narrative about me and then they moved me,” Smith said. “Now there’s a lot of dirt on my name. But I just kept working. I didn’t let it faze me. I started leaning heavily into my work.”
The Nets recently took a trip to Paris to play the Cleveland Cavaliers. One of the first bits of media the team shared on their social channels was a photo of Smith huddled up with Finney-Smith in front of the Eiffel Tower, a glimpse at just how close the two have become since their early years with the Mavs. Those who know them best understand the gravity of their friendship. “To be honest I barely like the guy,” Finney-Smith joked to The News. Finney-Smith was in his second NBA season with the Mavericks when Smith was drafted in 2017. He was with him through all the drama, supporting his brother at his lowest moments. And he believes Smith would not be the player he is today without those early trials.
“Honestly, he handled it well,” Finney-Smith said. “There’s no way I’m going to be tight with Luka and he’s not cool with Dennis. I don’t know why the media or whoever made it seem like there was some beef or something going on with them but those two actually loved to play with each other… Luka was a pro so he knew how to adjust to being out there by himself. You could tell by the way he carried himself that he’d been in funny situations that can make or break a player. You could tell Luka had been through that. And that was the first time I think Dennis had that experience.”
“It didn’t work out just because Dennis got traded. It wasn’t anything Dennis could control, really. I think [the media] was going to put those two against each other regardless. Dennis was still playing good basketball. We were losing, but I would say more of that was probably because we still had Dirk on the court and he could barely move, and that’s no disrespect to Dirk. He’s the GOAT, don’t get me wrong. But in those years I would say he was on the decline… I learned a lot about the league through that situation. I was able to learn through my brother’s experiences and he learned, too. I think that’s the reason why he is who he is today, just by going through that.”
Smith, who has averaged 7.2 points, 3.3 rebounds and 4.2 assists across 26 games for the Nets this season, is thankful to finally be part of a franchise that embraces him for everything he is. How long it lasts is the question. He is scheduled to hit free agency this summer.
Smith views Brooklyn as a place where his career can potentially blossom, finally. But no one can predict the future. He understands what comes next is out of his control. But his value to the team this season is undeniable. And those negative narratives that haunted him in his early NBA years have been effectively erased.
“They tried to act like I was a bad person,” Smith said. “I don’t think it was ever too much about ability. They tried to paint me as a bad guy. Now I get praised for being myself, so that’s just how life works. It is what it is. I couldn’t do anything about it then. I can’t do anything about it now but just keep being me.”
Given everything that Smith has been through, it is important to remember that he has never been banished from the league. No G League minutes. No stints overseas.
While he is not the sharpest of shooters or the most prolific scorer, he has always found a job somewhere in the NBA. That matters and it is more difficult than it sounds, regardless of a player’s skill level. And if teams did not see his value before, they definitely do now.
“I think it’s a great story that needs to be told,” Vaughn said. “A lot of guys that are currently in the league, thinking about being in the NBA, they think it’s just a linear path that you take and you just get better and everything is great every year. It’s not that way. There’s scaffolding. It’s ups and downs and how you handle it.”