Menace Smith Jr. Passes Young Test In Nets Big Win Over Hawks

BrooklynNets.com

Hawks Head Coach Quinn Snyder was seething at the podium following his club’s wild 114-113 defeat to the visiting Nets on Wednesday. Snyder said he thought his star point guard Trae Young “was pushed” in the act of his buzzer-beating attempt that did not go down.

We’ll have to see whether Thursday’s NBA Last 2-Minute Report confirms Snyder’s assertion, but after my careful and unbiased review of the sequence, I’m predicting a correct non-call. Any contact was marginal, and Young’s instinct is to embellish such plays with neck snaps and off-balance deliveries. The flopping often fools officials Just not this time. Too bad.

The man guarding Young at the time, whom Snyder thought got away with putting his hands in the cookie jar, was backup point guard Dennis Smith Jr., Brooklyn’s first free agent signing this past summer. After the game, Nets rising star Mikal Bridges, who led the way with 32 points, including the tough fadeaway jumper with 4.5 seconds to go for the final and NBA record (since they started tracking it in 1996-97) 43^rd lead change of the game, said that the team brass asked for his opinion on Smith beforehand and, “I was like, ‘hell yeah.’”  

No matter your opinion of Smith’s culpability, that possession was exactly why the Nets (11-9) prioritized him. To be, well… a menace.

As evidenced by how he handled Young throughout the night, the one thing you can count on with Smith is that he will be 100% committed to physical basketball every time he steps on the court. He is a relentless defender, probably Brooklyn’s best at navigating screens. Sure, Young got the better of him on a bunch of Wednesday’s possessions, including a step-back three-pointer with 17 seconds remaining to put Atlanta up by one point, but, for a change, not the last one.

As the NBA’s third-highest foul drawer this season, Young is a tough cover for anyone. A pair of Smith fouls put him on the line three times at the tail end of the first quarter. Young had zero free throw attempts thereafter. Overall, Young went a respectable 3-for-6 from the field, including 2-of-4 on 3s, when Smith was the nearest defender, per NBA.com tracking, but he was also hounded into four turnovers.  

Injuries have limited Smith to 13 games this season. with Wednesday’s run only his second since returning from a lower back injury. One of his missed games was the first meeting between the two clubs on November 22. The Nets had no answer then for Young, who poured in 43 points and made all the big shots in the Hawks’ 147-145 overtime win in Atlanta. I’d like to think that Smith would have been a difference-maker.

That last sentence isn’t one I had on my Nets 2023-24 Bingo card, as I had very low expectations for Smith, a poor shooter from the perimeter on a team that already had to work its halfcourt offense around too many of them. I wouldn’t say my initial concerns (I was apoplectic that Nets Head Coach Jacque Vauighn didn’t immediately call for a timeout following Young’s shot. From my perspective, having Smith on the floor when the Nets need a defensive stop is a no-brainer. Leaving him in when they need a bucket? Gross negligence. Fortunately, Bridges made the point moot.) have been completely assuaged, but I have to cop to the possibility that they will eventually be proven way overblown.

Specifically, I wondered if Vaughn saw a bit too much of his former playing self in Smith, a tough, undersized point guard with a high basketball IQ but one who couldn’t shoot straight. I had flashbacks to those horrific Vaughn minutes during his two seasons in New Jersey as Jason Kidd’s backup. Care to know Vaughn’s offensive rating per NBA.com when he averaged over 15 minutes over 80 games played in 2005-06? It was 91.4, or 11 points per 100 possessions lower than the team average.

Smith can have a similar drag effect (he has posted the lowest offensive rating of any Nets regular this season, seven points per 100 possessions lower than the team average), but he brings certain positive attributes that Vaughn never had, like being significantly faster and more athletic, which makes him more of an offensive threat. When Smith plays under control, he can be effective despite his lousy 31.8% efficiency from three-point territories.

In these last two games, he has provided 23 points off the bench on 64% shooting on his 2s. Against the Hawks, he made 4-of-7 shots from the floor, including a mid-range jumper, and knocked down all five of his shots from the foul line.

With Ben Simmons out for the foreseeable future while tending to a back impingement, the Nets have needed a pure point guard to get them into their offense. Smith brings value here as well, as he leads Brooklyn with a 3.75 assist-to-turnover ratio. Take away one outlier stinker against Washington when he committed four turnovers and that number would shoot up to 4.88.

The most important thing Smith brings is juice. He exudes energy. Though he’s had a C.J. Watson-esque aborted dunk or two, he’ll rise up for the hammer at every opportunity to get his teammates going. He gets into his defensive assignment, leading the Nets in deflections per 36 minutes, per NBA.com. When Saturday’s contest required a gang rebounding commitment against taller Orlando, he grabbed 11 boards, ten off the defensive glass, in 21 minutes.

Many folks are surprised when told that Smith just turned 26 last month since it seems like he’s been around forever. Only seven other active players have played more regular season games than Smith without tasting the playoffs, according to basketball-reference.com. I don’t think he’s been forgiven for the 58 games he played for New York from 2018-2020.

The timeline for the maturity of an NBA player, however, varies. I hope it pops for Smith in Brooklyn. How he stayed composed to defend Young without fouling on Wednesday’s last play certainly was a step in that direction.