New York Knicks: 5 takeaways from the 2018-19 NBA season

5. Dennis Smith Jr. came to play

Dennis Smith Jr. was selected with the ninth pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, just one spot behind Frank Ntilikina. Then, about one-and-a-half years later, the Knicks and Smith were finally brought together.

In one of the biggest trades of the season, the Knicks and Dallas Mavericks mutually agreed upon a deal that would ship Kristaps Porzingis straight to Texas, with Smith taking the opposite road.

During his rookie campaign, Smith was quite impressive. His 15.2 points and 5.2 assists per game were good enough to earn All-Rookie Second Team honors. Unfortunately for him, due to the emergence of rookie Luka Doncic in Dallas, there wasn’t much room for another ball-handler without a complementary skill-set.

Since arriving in New York, Smith has shown signs of improvement when compared to his first half of the season in Dallas. Since getting traded to New York, Smith played in 21 games for the team.

During those 21 games, he surpassed his season average on 13 different occasions, including a season-high 31 points in just his third game as a New York Knick.

With so much speculation regarding potential free agency signings, Smith appears ready to prove that the point guard spot is taken and secured.