Despite being able to recover from an illness that caused him to miss out the past two ballgames, New York Knicks point guard Dennis Smith Jr. was still unable to take the floor on Friday against the Sacramento Kings. This time around, however, it was a DNP-CD for the 22-year-old, with interim head coach Mike Miller opting to keep Smith on the bench throughout the contest.
For his part, Smith seemed cordial about his recent benching, stating that he intends to keep his head up during this ordeal.
“I’m just supporting them,” said Smith, who added that he has never been in this situation in his life, via Steve Popper of Newsday. “Hope they keep playing well, and it is what it is. Be a good teammate. That’s all I can do. Control what I can control. I can’t control if I play or not. I can control if I’m a good teammate, support my guys.’’
It has been a very rough start to the season for Smith, who has been in and out of the lineup for the Knicks thus far. It now appears that the recent coaching change will make life more difficult for the 22-year-old, as he does not appear to be part of coach Miller's plans moving forward.
“He’s healthy. He’s well,” said Miller. “Everybody is available and ready to go tonight. So the strategy would be whatever we need. We’re kind of in that mode where their point guards are explosive. We’re going into it ready knowing we have confidence in three guys that we can play. We see that as an advantage.’’
That's probably a nice way of saying that Smith has fallen down the pecking order behind Elfrid Payton and Frank Ntilikina. It's a tough spot to be for Smith, and unfortunately for him, it does not seem like it's going to get better anytime soon.
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