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In his first serious competition since suffering a knee injury, Dennis Smith Jr. is impressing everybody. Smith is playing at the annual Adidas Nations event, which gives him an opportunity to play against other college players. His performance on Friday night earned a lot of positive remarks from media members.
One year after tearing his ACL, right here at this very camp, Dennis Smith showing he is absolutely back to 100% physically. #adidasnations
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) July 30, 2016
Buying Dennis Smith Jr. stock. All there but the jumper. NC State's gonna be a scouting destination this season.
— Luke Winn (@lukewinn) July 30, 2016
Dominating first half from Dennis Smith. Not a ton of prospects on the team he's playing against, but he's working college vets right now.
— Nate Duncan (@NateDuncanNBA) July 30, 2016
For the college hoops fans still awake, Dennis Smith Jr is killing dudes at Adidas Nations right now. Gonna be a monster at NC State
— Aaron Torres (@Aaron_Torres) July 30, 2016
Just asked Dennis Smith: On a scale of 1-100 how his knee was. His answer: "110 percent."
— Aaron Torres (@Aaron_Torres) July 30, 2016
Here is the box score from the game:
Box Score from Court 6 (Dennis Smith) from Day 1 pic.twitter.com/mvaPQWiR0C
— NBADraft.net (@nbadraftnet) July 30, 2016
DSJ played with NC State teammates Abdul-Malik Abu and Maverick Rowan in the game. Smith scored 17 points on 8-15 shooting, with four rebounds, four assists, and six steals. That’ll work.
Everybody was at least a little worried about how a major knee injury might affect Smith’s game—how could you not be—but it doesn’t look like that setback cost him much at all. He looks explosive, and by his own account, his knee is 110% good fine great tremendous. There is substantial video evidence of this.
I realize this is a dangerous sentiment in Raleigh, but man, I’m ready for basketball season to start, like, yesterday.