Philadelphia 76ers: Zhaire Smith is swiftly falling out of favor

With Matisse Thybulle locked in as the team’s new defensive sixth man, Zhaire Smith looks to have fallen out of favor with the Philadelphia 76ers.

When Brett Brown – in his to this point lone summer as acting Philadelphia 76ers general manager – made the controversial decision to trade hometown hero Mikal Bridges to the Phoenix Suns for Zhaire Smith and the Miami Heat‘s 2021 unprotected 1st round pick, it felt like a bad move.

Sure, Smith had upside, with Brown going so far as to compare him to former pupil Kawhi Leonard during the pre-draft process, and filled an obvious need for a team who couldn’t guard an opposing guard all season but still, would it work?

Measuring in at a generous three inches shorter than Bridges, Smith projected as an off-ball NBA guard who could only really cover opposing points. While this limitation wasn’t the, well, biggest deal (ha) for a Sixers team that started a darn near 7-foot tall point guard, it did limit Smith’s ceiling as a pro, even if his superior athleticism and otherworldly hops allowed Texas Tech to run the then-freshman at power forward as a high-flying rim protector.

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Fast forward one summer, skimming over one of the strangest rookie seasons in recent memory, and the 76ers have finally found that combo guard capable of shutting down opposing guards with ease. However, said rookie scale contract player is not Zhaire Smith.

No, instead, the Sixers opted to use their 2019 first-round pick, well technically Boston‘s 2019 first-round pick, to draft Matisse Thybulle 20th overall, and after a few months of action, the 22-year-old already looks like a major steal.

A lot of ways, Thybulle is the anti-Smith, in that the grizzled college upperclassman makes up for average athleticism with a ballhawks mentality and superior defensive form – and that tantalizing combination of skills has the rookie in line for a serious role with the team moving forward.

With the 2019-20 NBA season right around the corner, it’s not hard to imagine Thybulle and fellow acquisition Josh Richardson shutting down backcourts as the team’s premier one-two defensive duo in close games – with years of excitement on the horizon since both players are under contract through the spring of 2022.

Smith, on the other hand, was largely relegated to garbage minutes during the preseason despite being healthy.

While one has to credit the still-only-20-year-old for coming back with a beefed-up frame, it’s not a good sign when a former top-16 draft selection is logging minutes behind the likes of 2018 second-round pick Shake Milton, and Furkan Korkmaz, a player who barely earned a second NBA contract.

Who knows, maybe the Sixers are intentionally taking things slow with Smith to avoid overworking him, but Thybulle was thrust right into the preseason fire and has already emerged as the team’s potential sixth man this fall – a player who should average roughly 24 minutes a game as a rookie.

There’s a very real possibility that Smith may not record 24 minutes total over the first month of the season, barring injury of course.

But how could this be? How could a player dubbed Kawhi Little suddenly find himself on the cusp of earning DNP’s? Was Brown wrong to select him 16th overall, let alone trade Bridges for the pleasure?

That’s kind of a complicated question.

While it would be nice to have Bridges, a 6-foot-7 combo-wing with freakishly long arms, as a backup small forward over Smith in a vacuum, that wouldn’t be the case. No, without Smith, and more importantly the Heat’s draft pick, Philly wouldn’t have Tobias Harris or Mike Scott on the roster right now. If you really want to take that rabbit’s hole down a few more levels, one could extrapolate out just how far the 2018-19 Sixers make it in the postseason, whether the team would have extended Jimmy Butler without Harris, where Al Horford would be playing right now, and if Thybulle even lands in Philly, but it’s safe to say that is a question for another day.

What we can say, however, with authority is that Smith seems like the antithesis of what Elton Brand is looking for right now; in that, he is neither tall nor positions flexible.

Sure, it’s unfortunate that Philly passed on a number of quality players and even traded one away for someone who now looks like a misfit, but only time will tell what happens to Smith. With his third-year-option already picked up, Brown may feel incentivized to get the former Texas Tech guard into games to see what he has before the trade deadline, as Smith’s age, upside, and cap hit make him an ideal fit to flip at the trade deadline.

Next. Matisse Thybulle is the preseason rookie steal king. dark

Or who knows, maybe Zhaire Smith puts it all together and becomes the player Brett Brown envisioned when he drafted him 16th overall? With no definitive back a point guard on the roster right now, maybe the 20-year-old can pick up a decent handle and fill that role for the Philadelphia 76ers moving forward? It wouldn’t be the first time he’s been asked to switch positions as a pro.