Is Ish Smith Too Fast For Philadelphia's "Process?"

"If you can play and you can score it makes me look good," Ish Smith told me a few minutes after a Sixers' shootaround. It's not a controversial statement from a point guard, but it raises a tough question—how has Ish Smith looked so good this season playing for the Philadelphia 76ers, a team almost completely comprised of players who can neither play nor score?

Smith, good teammate that he is, was modestly reversing the truth. Since Smith was traded to Philadelphia, Nerlens Noel and the team's other previously inconsistent players have looked like competently effective scorers. Having a point guard quick enough to get into the paint and dish to a rolling teammate is a huge advantage for a developing big man.

"He's fast if he's anything," Philadelphia coach Brett Brown said when I asked him about Smith. He meant it as a compliment. Smith is overlooked in most conversations about the fastest players in the league, but no one gets to the rim quicker.

That high-velocity deftness—it's a combination of both speed and quickness—is something that Anthony Davis remembered fondly from earlier this season, before the Pelicans dealt Smith to the Sixers for two second-round picks. "Everything he did, he pushed the pace for us, uptempo style of play, created shots for everybody and was a pass-first point guard who wanted to get everybody involved," Davis told CSN Philly. We definitely miss him. It was definitely fun playing with him."

But New Orleans trading away one of Davis' few productive teammates isn't even the most blatant Smith-related oversight of the past year. This is his second stint in Philadelphia, and when his contract ended at the end of last season he expected to re-sign with the team. You read that correctly: Ish Smith might be the only player since the initiation of Sam Hinkie's infamous Process who has actually wanted to re-up with the Sixers.

What the Sixers did with this knowledge tells you everything you need to know about how the organization is currently operating. They chose not to re-sign Smith, who had averaged 12 points and six assists in the 14 games he played in Philadelphia last season. Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer even reported that Smith turned down a $2.9 million offer from Phoenix and a $1.5 million offer from Sacramento while waiting for Philadelphia to make an offer. When the Sixers never even extended a contract, Smith was forced to sign a camp deal with Washington for the league minimum. Choosing to spurn Smith before eventually deploying a six-point guard roster of Isaiah Canaan, Tony Wroten, Kendall Marshall, Pierre Jackson, Scottie Wilbekin, and TJ McConnell is quite possibly the most low-key example of tanking the league has ever seen.

When Smith was traded back to Philadelphia in December after 27 games in New Orleans—a stint that included a few big games, but just three starts—it was just another reroute for a 27-year old who has now played for 11 teams, not including camp deals that saw him cut before opening night. This time around, Smith is averaging 15 points and 7.5 assists for a Sixers team that he has basically saved from a historically bad season. Their 8-48 record seems embarrassing enough, but the Sixers were 1-30 before trading for Smith.

Smith is too humble to say all he needed was the opportunity to play heavy minutes. He claims all the players, staffs, and specific coaches that worked with him at those previous stops helped polish his game. "I'd be lying if I told you I didn't want to play early in my career," Smith laughed. "But when I look back on it I don't think I'd have been ready. Now you can see the development visibly, but I think during those times I was developing. You just couldn't see it. I'm really thankful for those journeys and those stops."

Now, Smith is in a unique position. On one hand, trying to captain a team that isn't interested in winning could be mentally draining. On the other, Smith is once again a free agent this summer, and never has he had more opportunity to showcase his talents and find a long-term home. "I think there's another step I can take," Smith told me.

Once a victim of the Process, Smith seems ready to use it to his advantage.

Brown attributes Smith's breakout success this season to opportunity and breaking out of the role he'd had on previous teams. Other coaches put him in for eight minutes and expected him to provide a spark, but Brown says he told Smith, "'you got 36 minutes, go run a team.' I think it's a mentality. Not everybody takes that 12 or 16 minutes and uses it the same as you would if you had 36." The same was true of Smith's production in New Orleans when he was given heavy minutes filling in for the injured Jrue Holiday and Tyreke Evans.

Whether Smith wants admit it or not, the rest of this season is a free agency showcase for him. Will a front office be willing to give him a multi-year deal, and will another coach be willing to provide him the opportunities that Brown is happy to give him? Smith has accounted for most of the Sixers' wins and at times he's managed to make the other players Philly throws out on the floor look like they belong in the NBA. Could there be a much greater test than that?

"He has to come back," Nerlens Noel told Philly.com. "He's an important piece to this and why we are playing so well these past couple of months."

Unfortunately for Noel, he might want to prepare himself for Smith's departure. There will be other offers out there, and Smith won't make the same mistake waiting around for Philadelphia after getting burned last season.

Then again, the Sixers might not be interested. It's entirely possible Ish Smith is too good for the Philadelphia 76ers.