The Detroit Pistons made a deal that had to happen, trading Derrick Rose to the New York Knicks on Sunday in exchange for Dennis Smith Jr. and a 2021 second-round draft pick. Rose’s departure opens the door for competition between the young guards on this roster, but it also gives Smith a new lease on life.
Smith was the ninth pick in the 2017 NBA draft, selected by the Dallas Mavericks. He was drafted ahead of players like Donovan Mitchell, Bam Adebayo, John Collins and Jarrett Allen, and he simply never realized the promise of that pedigree.
Dennis Smith Jr. is the latest reclamation project for the Detroit Pistons
Unfortunately, Smith has been a disappointment thus far in his career. He played about a season and a half with the Mavs before being shipped off to the New York Knicks in the Kristaps Porzingis trade, has battled injuries and grief after losing his step-mother and has played for a cavalcade of head coaches in his brief time in the NBA.
The unstable situations he’s found himself in can’t help matters, but they can’t be an excuse either. However, head coach Dwane Casey has shown himself to be something of a mastermind when it comes to young reclamation projects, and new Pistons general manager Troy Weaver seems intent on proving him with them.
A season ago, Casey presided over Christian Wood’s ascent from end-of-bench fringe NBA player to fringe NBA star. Of course, Casey can’t get all the credit for this, but you can’t ignore the role he played. This season, Weaver signed Smith’s fellow 2017 NBA draft classmate, Josh Jackson, who was the fourth overall pick that year.
Jackson was already trending upwards when the Pistons signed him after reaching rock-bottom with the Memphis Grizzlies G League squad and realizing that it was now or never if he wanted to save his career. Smith is at rock bottom now, himself. He’s played a total of just 28 minutes in three appearances this season and hasn’t looked like an NBA player in years.
Still, Smith has the pedigree of a top pick and given Weaver’s decisions this season, that seems to mean something. As The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie states, this fits into the pattern of his decisions as general manager of the Pistons:
This is an important point from @Sam_Vecenie on the Detroit side of the Derrick Rose deal. pic.twitter.com/JDcIFFgapF
— Duncan Smith (@DuncanSmithNBA) February 8, 2021
In the vein of taking cheap fliers on high-level prospects at the wrong time or place in their careers, Dennis Smith Jr. absolutely fits.
The Pistons find themselves in a favorable situation here. They avoided risking losing Derrick Rose for nothing either because he inevitably injured himself or his play deteriorated and they couldn’t find a trade partner, and they got a draft pick that could end up in the low 40s or high 30s. Ending up with Smith as a sweetener in the whole deal is a bonus.
Maybe he salvages his career in the final 49 games of the season with the Pistons and is able to earn a make-good contract next season to prove he can keep up his production. Or maybe he doesn’t and Casey and Weaver finally miss on a project. In the end, it cost them very little, and it could benefit both the Detroit Pistons and Dennis Smith Jr. very much.