‘I’ve proven myself every single time’ Former Gonzaga guard Malachi Smith trying to latch on with NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers

LAS VEGAS – Six years ago, roughly 350 Division I schools neglected to offer Malachi Smith a scholarship when the guard was coming out of Illinois’ Belleville West High School. That list included two of the three colleges he’d eventually play for: Chattanooga and Gonzaga.

Smith wasn’t frustrated or irked when a much smaller pool of basketball teams bypassed the accomplished college guard during the NBA draft last month at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Motivated? Yes. Determined? Sure. But not discouraged.

When you consider his career to this point, it almost felt par for the course.

“I’ve been here before and it just makes me more hungry, bigger chip on my shoulder,” Smith said. “… I come out the end of it just fine every time.”

Smith, who scored 1,626 career points at Wright State, Chattanooga and Gonzaga, quickly turned the page to identify a team that would bring him on board as an undrafted free agent.

The Portland Trail Blazers hosted the Gonzaga guard for a predraft workout on June 18 and Mike Schmitz had evaluated Smith in 2021-22 at Chattanooga while Portland’s first-year assistant general manager was still working for ESPN as a lead draft analyst.

Other NBA teams were in contact with Smith and his agent, Michael Lelchitski of SIG, but Portland offered an Exhibit 10 contract and opportunity to participate in preseason training camp after traveling with the Blazers to NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.

“I had a lot of options that were offering me a chance to go to training camp and honestly, it was just based on who liked me the most, who seemed to have the most interest,” Smith said. “So, we’re trying to play the long game and at the end of the day, an opportunity to go to training camp, to earn a two-way is an opportunity.

“All I can do is control what I can control and I’ll go to training camp and try to do my best.”

Smith’s winding college basketball career spanned five season and still ended one year earlier than Zags fans hoped it would. The guard played in four of those seasons, redshirting between stops at Wright State and Chattanooga, and was still eligible to return to Gonzaga in 2023-24 through a waiver granting an additional year of competition to anyone who played during the COVID-impacted 2020-21 season.

Until June 1, the last day players could withdraw from the draft, there was optimism among GU’s fan base that Smith would select that route. He wasn’t tabbed as a top-100 prospect, keeping Smith well outside of most two-round mock drafts, and the West Coast Conference’s Sixth Man of the Year figured to inherit a larger role if he returned to Spokane, particularly after outplaying Gonzaga’s other guards during the NCAA Tournament.

Smith didn’t divulge much about his plans during the predraft process, but on June 1 he posted a photo of himself from the NCAA Tournament with the caption “thank you,” signaling he’d be moving on to the next phase of his career.

That was mostly a formality. After a summer league game against Charlotte, Smith told The Spokesman-Review he never seriously contemplated a return to school, which would’ve meant his sixth year on a college campus since arriving at Wright State as a freshman 2018-19.

“Nah, not really. I knew really the whole time that’s what I wanted to do,” Smith said. “I think everything runs its course. I had a great college career. I had a career a lot of people didn’t think I’d have coming off my freshman year and I accomplished a lot of things. Made March Madness, played in great venues, made a lot of memories, so I just feel like honestly college basketball had run its course.”

A new, less certain course lies ahead for Smith.

He’s aiming to earn a two-way NBA contract, but also has a fallback option with Portland’s new G League team, the Rip City Remix, which will play home games at the Chiles Center on the University of Portland’s campus starting next season.

“I signed an Exhibit 10, so as of right now I’m on the team for the G League,” Smith said. “But it’s a lot of stuff that can happen from now until then, so like I said, I’ve just got to control what I can control and everything else will take care of itself.”

Smith couldn’t control much at times during his lone year with the Zags.

After starting 60 games and averaging more than 35 minutes per game during his two seasons at Chattanooga, Smith came to a Gonzaga program requiring him to fill a different role. Minutes fluctuated and the reserve guard averaged 20.9 minutes, playing as many as 30 in Gonzaga’s win over Michigan State on the USS Abraham Lincoln and as few as eight in games against Xavier and Santa Clara.

Smith gleaned a lesson from that experience.

“Just staying ready,” he said. “At Gonzaga, some games I’d play a lot, some games I wouldn’t so I had to learn how to stay ready, how to take practices as serious, because I never know when my number might be called.”

That served him well at summer league, where minutes were even more scarce. Smith didn’t leave the bench during Portland’s first three games, played only seven minutes and didn’t score in game No. 4 against the Orlando Magic and played 13 minutes, making one free throw and committing four turnovers against the Miami Heat.

Fortunately, Smith’s audition tape won’t be limited to his time in Vegas. Before summer league started, he had a handful of opportunities to practice with the team and make initial impressions in Portland. Smith was proactive gathering information and advice from established players within the Blazers’ organization, such as reserve forward Nassir Little.

He knows that represents a small fraction of the work and commitment that’ll be required to fulfill a lifelong goal of playing in the NBA. For those that still think it’s far-fetched, Smith would warn his formula hasn’t faltered yet.

“Chip on my shoulder,” he said. “I’ve got to prove myself and I’ve done it every single time. So, I feel very comfortable knowing I have to prove myself every day and that every day is an opportunity. I’ve proven myself every single time, so this is nothing new to me.”