While not many consider New York Knicks guard J.R. Smith to be a tradable asset, at least one NBA executive believes Knicks president Phil Jackson could find a team to pick up Smith's contract.
Smith's lack of production - a poor season last year and just 9.6 points per game this season - and his myriad behavioral problems would be a deterrent for most teams looking to upgrade at the 2-3 position, but not according to a league executive who spoke with ESPN.
"J.R. has had a lot of issues but he can be a big-time scorer when he's doing the right things," the anonymous high-ranking league executive told ESPN. "There's always a team out there willing to take a chance on somebody if they feel he can put them over the top, and there's no doubt J.R. can play. People are going to be concerned about chemistry issues in the locker room, so it would have to be a strong leadership and coaching staff that take him in."
It would need to be a team with very strong leadership in place. Already this season Smith has been suspended one game for striking another player in the groin, adding to his list of past transgressions. Some of his past behavioral problems include: an elbow to Jason Terry's face in the 2013 playoffs that got him suspended, a five-game suspension for violating the league's drug policy, accruing more than $100,000 in fines, untying an opponent's shoelace and refusing to shoot in one game out of protest.
The issues were enough for Jackson to question whether Smith could ever mature.
"I don't know if that's possible or not," Jackson told the New York Post in September when asked how he'd get Smith to grow up. "He might be one of those guys that's a little bit like Dennis Rodman that has an outlier kind of side to him. But I'm gonna get to know him as we go along, and we'll find a way to either make him a very useful player on our organization, or whatever."
There'd been talks about possibly trading Smith to the Indiana Pacers for Adam Copeland, but nothing ever came of it.
