last Friday\u2019s loss to the Atlanta Hawks<\/a>, when he scored 15 points and went 4-for-5 from deep in just under 17 minutes, tying the franchise record for 3-pointers made in a game by an undrafted rookie. He also set a career high with 18 points against Sacramento on March 22.<\/p>\nThis story, though, isn\u2019t only about shot-making. It\u2019s also about timing and health. Smith said injuries in his first two years slowed his momentum, including one during Summer League last year that kept him out in September and limited his window to show teams he was ready.<\/p>\n
Now healthy, Smith said the next step is proving he can do what he\u2019s already shown at a higher level, more consistently, especially on defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just always was like, I know I can do this,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI just have to be healthy to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
The path to this deal ran through Long Island. Smith spent the previous two seasons in the G League with the Rip City Remix, Wisconsin Herd and Memphis Hustle before joining the Long Island Nets this season and then getting his call-up. He credited the Long Island staff for staying on him even when he wasn\u2019t playing early.<\/p>\n
Nets head coach Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez framed Smith\u2019s rise as part of a bigger pattern with players coming from the organization\u2019s G League pipeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe type of person he is,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cA lot of our guys that played in Long Island\u2026 they\u2019re the same person. They\u2019re not there trying to be or do something and then coming here and trying to be somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a personal connection in the locker room. Smith and E.J. Liddell won an Illinois state championship together at Belleville West High School in 2018, and they\u2019re teammates again with Liddell on a two-way contract. Liddell said the news didn\u2019t feel real when he first saw it.<\/p>\n
\u201cCrazy,\u201d Liddell said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t even \u2014 I\u2019m not going to lie \u2014 it didn\u2019t look real.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Smith, the moment landed hardest because his mother was there for it. He said her first reaction was to think about what it took just to keep giving him chances to chase it.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe just was just like all the traveling on AAU trips and all that stuff\u2026 all the stuff she sacrificed to just try to give me an opportunity,\u201d Smith said. \u201cSo, I was just telling her how much I appreciate her.\u201d<\/p>\n
And when Smith tried to explain why the timing felt fitting, he didn\u2019t reach for a basketball answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it happening on [Easter], just my journey, it took God to get here,\u201d Smith said. \u201cAnd with me and my mom, she was with me the whole entire time, so it was only right for her to be here when it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Malachi Smith\u2019s NBA breakthrough didn\u2019t arrive all at once. It came in stages: a strong March, one 10-day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,248,17606,6,671],"class_list":{"0":"post-703479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn-nets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-brooklynnets","12":"tag-jordi-fernandez","13":"tag-malachi-smith","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116364010073310062","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}