Zhaire Smith
By: Stuart London
The biggest thing Zhaire Smith could get this new year is confidence. After all his medical problems last season, least of which was losing 40 pounds to take him out of game shape, Smith did play eight games at the end of the Sixers season.
The thing is, he did not look bad in those games. The first shot he took was a three-pointer – which he made. That is the kind of confident play Smith has to regain.
On a team so deficient of good wing defenders as last year’s Sixers, coach Brett Brown should have thrown Smith against D’Angelo Russell or Kawhi Leonard in the playoffs to give Ben Simmons a break and see what happened.
Could not have been worse than Jonathan Simmons! However, with new wings who can play some defense now on the squad, Brown has declared this Smith’s real rookie year and shipped him to the Blue Coats of the G-League.
His season in the G-League, hasn’t gone that well so far. He is averaging just around 13 points and hasn’t impressed. Maybe it is a reaction to being sent down after working so hard the previous year to play for the big club.
Smith is more athletic than virtually anyone he is playing against, is great in 1-on-1 defense and can shoot from outside. All he may be missing is the mindset of the confident guy who jacked up a ‘three’ in the first minute of his NBA career – and sank it.