The 2023–24 NBA season saw a great deal of injury to the New York Knicks, particularly during the postseason. Possibly keeping that in mind, NBA insider Marc Stein revealed on Sunday that the Eastern Conference team has chosen to bring on Dallas Mavericks trainer Casey Smith. This is an intriguing addition to the squad.
“Casey Smith, a veteran athletic trainer for USA Basketball and the Dallas Mavericks, has joined the Knicks as their new vice president of sports medicine.”
Smith spent twenty years with the Mavs before to being hired by the Knicks. According to his LinkedIn profile, he held the positions of director of player health and performance for Dallas from 2019 to 2024 as well as head athletic trainer from 2004 to 2024. Smith received a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and exercise science from Arizona State University in 1992. In 1994, he attended West Virginia University to acquire a master’s degree in athletic training. He began his NBA career in 2003 as the head strength and conditioning coach for the Phoenix Suns, a position he held until 2004.
Smith’s background and track record in the NBA must have been a major factor in the Knicks’ decision to sign him. Apart from his tenure with the Mavericks, Smith served as a lead athletic trainer for Team USA from 2005 to 2012.
Before the 2023–24 NBA season, there was some controversy surrounding Smith and the Mavs due to reports that he would no longer be playing for Dallas on the road and would no longer be a member of the bench.
“Sources: Casey Smith, the Mavericks’ director of player health and performance, will play a different role this season. Tim MacMahon of ESPN stated in September 2023 that he will no longer be on the bench, as he has done for the past 20 years, and that he is not expected to travel with the team frequently.
There were a few what-ifs for the Knicks as they concluded their 2023–24 season, maybe none more significant than the injuries they sustained during the postseason. A number of its important players, including OG Anunoby, Bojan Bogdanovic, Josh Hart, Jalen Brunson, and Mitchell Robinson, were injured during New York’s two-round playoff run.
Despite playing hurt in the later stages of the Knicks’ second-round series against the Indiana Pacers, Hart and Brunson were there from the beginning to the end of the team’s playoff run. If the Knicks managed to defeat the Pacers, they most likely wouldn’t have Brunson in the following round. Not to add that Julius Randle missed the whole 2024 NBA Playoffs because of a season-ending surgery he had done in April to fix a right shoulder issue.
Though it’s unclear how much of an influence Smith will have on Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau’s decision-making on player minutes distribution, New York has to hope for at least some improvement in the players’ health and injury care.
With a 50-32 record at the end of the previous season, the Knicks achieved their greatest number of victories in a single campaign since winning 53 in 2012–13. In the opening round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs, they defeated Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers in six games, but they were defeated by the Pacers in a seven-game series.
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