Nick Smith expected to miss remainder of January, NBA insiders speculates college career is over

Not many true freshmen entered the season with more hype than Arkansas‘ Nick Smith Jr. Not only was he ranked an elite five-star talent on the On3 Consensus, but he is considered a serious NBA Draft lottery prospect. To make things even better — he’s from the state and decided to play for his hometown team.

Only problem is, Smith has played in just five games this season and spent most of the time injured. Right now, he is dealing with a knee injury and is away from the program. According to Eric Musselman, he is out in Los Angeles seeing a specialist and will continue to miss some time.

“Has seen a specialist,” Musselman said. “Remains in LA. I would assume that that will be the case for the next, not to speculate, but I mean that’s probably going to be the case throughout the rest of the month. And then where it is at that point, probably reevaluate it. But certainly not the expectation that he’ll play in the next few games.”

When asked to clarify if Smith was going to be out in Los Angeles for the rest of the month, the Arkansas head coach clarified.

“No, no. I’m saying that we can anticipate that he will not be playing.”

Smith played high school basketball at Sherwood (AR) North Little Arkansas, where he was a five-star prospect. He was the No. 3 overall recruit in the 2022 cycle, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

In five games with Arkansas this season, Smith has averaged nearly 24 minutes, going for 12.8 points, 1.8 assists, and 1.8 rebounds per game. Two 20-point games occurred as well against Oklahoma and UNC Greensboro, flashing some of the potential.

NBA GM believes Nick Smith Jr. is done at Arkansas

While Musselman says Smith is out for at least the month of January, one NBA general manager believes he will never play for Arkansas again. Between being a sure-fire lottery pick in this summer’s draft and being represented by Rich Paul, people in the league think it’s over.

“Look at his agent,” one NBA general manager told Matt Norlander of CBS Sports. “Odds are probably against him coming back, because that’s how Rich is. Klutch had Darius Bazley and held him out. They had Darius Garland and they shut it down.”

In the latest 2023 NBA Mock Draft, Smith is projected to go No. 4 overall and would be the top college name off the board. There might not be too much for the former five-star prospect to prove in an Arkansas uniform.