Exclusive | Knicks train Dennis Smith Jr. As Guard Eyes NBA Comeback

The Knicks bring in a well -known point guard.

Dennis Smith Jr. Approach five years since his last Stint in New York finished and this week has been working for his former team with De Hoop on an NBA communback, De Post has learned.

Smith, 27, played in Spain last season, for Real Madrid, but left the team early after an injury.

It was essentially a year free of competitive basketball for him.

The Knicks also train free agent Frontcourt players, told sources, including Alex Len and Trey Jemison III.

NBA teams can bring no fewer than 21 players into a training camp and the Knicks only have 12 guaranteed contracts.

The Knicks have, as constructed, only the cap space to keep an experienced player for the regular season.

However, they wear at least three players to the camp on non -godded deals with extensive NBA experience -Malcolm Brogdon, Landry Shamet and Garrison Mathews.

That is why people in the competition anticipate that the Knicks will make an exchange to free up the space to keep two.

Smith wants to enter the mix.

Prior to his shortened Real Madrid experience, Smith played seven seasons in the NBA, including three with the Knicks-EN a high-flying lottery pick of 2017.

Sometimes as a potential star with the Mavericks, Smith became a centerpiece in the 2019 Mavericks-Knicks swap in which Kristaps Porzingis was involved.

But his career in Knicks never got off the ground, plagued by an injured back and bruised psyche.

The determining moment was probably booed by a garden audience that preferred Back -Up Frank Ntilikina.

Smith’s stepmother unexpectedly died shortly after the negative reaction of the crowd, and he never regained his confidence or shot.

In 2020, Smith was out of the rotation of Tom Thibodeau when he asked to play in the G-League.

Then he was traded to the pistons for Derrick Rose.

“Much of that stuff outside of my control. The reaction of fans. Stepm has passed. Slipped disc in my back. Just random S – T that I can’t control,” said Smith after re -popping up with the Hornets. “The only thing that is important to me is how I respond. Bunkeer back, take the punches and keep rolling. S – t It has brought me where I am now, so I am grateful for it.”

Smith, whose greatest feature was always athletics, once again invented himself as a defense specialist and drove it through a few campaigns in Charlotte and Brooklyn.

Now he works for a reunion with the Knicks.