I have a rooting interest in Dennis Smith.
Was sad to things spiral out of control in NY. Loved his game when he came here in 2019-2020.
Too bad the Knicks did not have the luxury of nurturing his 2020-2021 game. Thibs had the playoffs in his viewfinder.
Your memory is playing tricks on you. Smith had a single continuous defect when he was playing here — opposing guards always played better than he did.
It's not that complicated.
Yeah, the idea was that he was young with speed and potential, and he'll eventually find his way. But he never did. He was a pretty mediocre guard on a very mediocre team. And yet even last summer, I believe you were still making noises that this year, this year would be different. But he had two seasons of opportunities with the Knicks to show what he had...and it wasn't a whole lot.
If he elevates his game with the Pistons, cool. Good for the dude. But it wasn't happening with the Knicks.
True Dat.
Hope springs eternal, fueled as it was by his strong play in the spring of 2019 when he first arrived. As you may recall, Mark Cuban was kvelling about how the Knicks left Dennis available to them at #9 when we took Frank at #8, and his rookie season was quite promising for the Mavs, though when they got wind of what Luka was capable of, well, Dennis' days were numbered.
Kam had an interesting post. Did you see it? As per Dennis first blush as a Knick, Kam noted a performance on Feburay 8, 2019, in which he tallied 31 points and 9 assists.
And whom did he rack up those stats against?
DETROIT. Someone took note, and we were lucky enough that the Pistons were in the process of tearing it all down, beginning with the Drummond trade, on to Derrick Rose, and now, they are dangling Blake Griffin.
Sometimes, you simply have to move on from a team, when you have exhausted your possibibilites, and get a fresh start. Ergo, my rooting interest in Dennis who showed potential straight out of the gate, but got stuck in a rut.
As per your analysis, no arguments, and it puts me in mind of a famous free jazz pianist, Cecil Taylor, who in his formative years, fronted a trio/quartet for like five years, where he was splitting the difference between working his way through his more in-the-tradition/derivative influences, such as Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Herbie Nichols and Horace Silver and his own post-mod inclinations, before arriving at his fully formed, frenetic, free jazz approach which became his sonic signature.
He had a drummer, name of Dennis Charles, who was kind of a next generation Art Blakey.
When CT moved on, it was to more commanding, freely inflected drummers, such as the innovative Sunny Murray who went on to tear things up with Albert Ayler, and Andrew Cyrille, a remarkably energized rhythmic force field who subsequently played with CT for eleven years.
The drummer being very akin in a jazz ensemble to how a good point guard nurtures a five man hoops ensemble.
An elder among the jazz community, my friend Irving Stone, once asked Cecil, as per my Dennie Charles/Dennis Smith metaphor, why he moved on from Brother Charles.
"I got tired of waiting." 
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