The idea of J.R. Smith wanting to become one of the leaders for the Knicks is laughable on the surface, especially when you look at some of his behavior from as recently as last season.
For starters, Smith was suspended for the first five games of the year for violating the league’s drug policy -- a penalty that only comes after testing positive for marijuana three separate times.
But as irresponsible as that was, his on-court antics were even more ridiculous.
Smith thought that untying a player’s shoes during a game was so hilarious that he did it a second time after being warned by the league to stop. That offense resulted in a $50,000 fine, and one of the team’s younger players, Tim Hardaway Jr., playfully emulating that behavior during All-Star weekend.
Now, with a potential logjam at the shooting guard position, Smith wants everyone to be mature, now matter how the minutes are distributed.
From Ian Begley of ESPN New York:Unless they make a trade, the Knicks will enter the season with three players who can make a strong case for the starting shooting guard spot: Tim Hardaway Jr., J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert. ...
Fisher can play one at shooting guard while the others sit on the bench or mix and match combinations of the three guards in the triangle offense, as GM Steve Mills suggested earlier this month.
“That’s for the coach to decide. All we’ve got to do is play,” J.R. Smith said Thursday. “Whatever they decide, we’ve got to just live with it. Hopefully everybody could put their egos aside and come together for one common goal.”
Smith is actually fairly thoughtful and honest when speaking to the media after games, so this does seem like an earnest attempt to show the beginnings of some leadership abilities with the team’s younger players.
But his actions are going to have to match before we’re sold on this 100 percent.
