Reports Claim J.R. Smith To Stay With The Knicks

For better or for Worse, and a case can made for both, it appears the Knicks will retain the services of 6th man of the year J.R. Smith. The main source for this news appears to be Smith's agent himself.

Leon Rose who represents Smith claims the Knicks will bring back the scoring enigma on a 4 year contract worth around 24 million dollars.

The Knicks also used the 4th of July holiday to lock up Pablo Prigioni on  a 3 year deal. The Knicks now are trying to lock up Chris Copeland as he continues to draw major interest from about a handful of teams, including the Lakers and Pacers.

Back to Smith. he enraged many in the Knick family with his playoff antics, from the elbow to the face of Jason Terry of the Celtics that inspired Boston and helped get them back in the playoff series last season, to his late night/early morning carousing during the post season after earlier in the season vowing he was moving past the party lifestyle.

Smith himself tweeted out the following " I am very happy to remain part of this great team. Thank you for the trust and support of all. KNICKS!!!!!!!!!!."

Whether the Knicks can trust Smith is to be seen. He seemed to have cleaned up his act last season but fell back to being the immature Smith of his Denver days.

However no one can claim that Smith isn't a needed commodity with the league moving smaller and faster. Smith can certainly fill the stat sheet. A number of teams had major interest in him, including Milwaukee and Phoenix.

Smith averaged 18.1 points per game and just over 5 rebounds per game and in fairness to him did accept his 6th man role with zeal.