Zhaire Smith suffers knee injury, will not travel to Orlando
Is there anyone in the NBA with worse luck than Zhaire Smith?
After missing the majority of his rookie season due to a foot injury and serious allergic reaction, Smith will now miss the remainder of this season due to a bone bruise in his left knee. The injury is not severe and Smith is expected to make a full recovery, but this is another stroke of bad luck for a young player who’s career has been plagued with misfortune.
Playing almost exclusively with the Blue Coats this season, Smith made some impressive strides. Smith averaged 13.5 points per game, nearly twice his 7.2 points per game average as a rookie, and shot 37.6% from three, a huge improvement on his 19.2 three point percentage from a year ago. His three point shot is where he saw the most growth this season. From the month of December to the end of the season, Smith shot 40.4% from three on about 4.3 attempts per game. Promising stuff from a player who just turned 21.
It’s unlikely Smith would’ve played often with the Sixers in Orlando, but this feels like a missed opportunity. Getting to live and practice with the rest of his Sixers teammates would have been helpful for Smith, who is the youngest player on the Sixers’ roster and hasn’t spent much time with the NBA squad. Smith has spent the majority of his career with the Blue Coats, so much so that he’s previously said he feels more like a Blue Coat than a Sixer. Orlando would have been a great opportunity for Smith to spend time with the team that drafted him and for the Sixers to show they still have plans for the former first-round pick, but c’est la vie.
Honestly, it might be for the best Smith isn’t traveling to Orlando. Knowing his luck, Mickey Mouse would probably bust his knee cap or he’d end up drowning on Splash Mountain.
