Zhaire Smith seems to be a mystery to everyone ... except the Sixers and himself | Mike Sielski

Forty pounds had fallen away from Zhaire Smith’s frame over eight months, over the period that he recovered from the allergic reaction that had threatened his life, and to get himself back to the point that he could contemplate suiting up for the 76ers someday, he had to build himself a new body. No more sweets. No more fast food. He chugged down protein shakes and ate nothing but pasta and chicken. He cranked out 350 push-ups a day. Ben Simmons has to learn how to shoot a basketball. Smith had to relearn how to play basketball.

“When I first came back, I tried to dunk,” he said. “That didn’t work out very well. Now, I’m all good.”

He has to be, for the Sixers’ sake. They’ve spent the early days of this free-agency period adding size and experience (Al Horford, Kyle O’Quinn, Norvel Pelle), and they’ve said goodbye to their two most productive and creative perimeter scorers, Jimmy Butler and JJ Redick. Even if they plan to pile more offensive responsibility on Tobias Harris’ plate — and for $180 million, he had better be ready to handle that responsibility — they will still need other wings who can both shoot and defend. Josh Richardson, acquired in the Butler sign-and-trade deal, could be one; his career three-point percentage is .368, just above the league average.

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Smith, who at 6-foot-4 is two inches shorter than Richardson, will have to be another, and for a still-maturing player who has appeared in just eight NBA regular-season and postseason games, there will be no breaking-in period here. He has to come in ready to contribute next season, and there’s a natural apprehension about that prospect for anyone who hasn’t had the chance to watch Smith day after day during his brief college and professional careers. He had been a late bloomer in high school. He spent just one year at Texas Tech before becoming the 16th pick in last year’s NBA draft. And now the kid who missed most of his rookie season, who could have died because he happened to chew a piece of sesame chicken, will be a vital member of a team with championship hopes and expectations?

Smith has that air of mystery to him, except no one who has been around him for any significant length of time seems to see him as anything but a sure thing. On draft night, minutes after the Sixers had acquired Smith in a trade with the Phoenix Suns, Brett Brown said he reminded him of Kawhi Leonard. And the fact that the Sixers didn’t make signing a veteran perimeter shooter one of their highest priorities this offseason serves as at least a tacit endorsement of who Smith might be — and already is.

“Zhaire’s exciting to me,” said Connor Johnson, who coached Smith last season with the Delaware Blue Coats, the Sixers’ affiliate in the G League. “He’s a guy who’s getting better every day. He’s getting so much stronger and being comfortable in his body and how he can use his athletic ability, especially on the defensive end. In my opinion, he’s got an unbelievable ability to stay in front of the ball, fight through screens, and be an on-ball, point-of-attack defender. That’s something he was really growing with toward the end of last year.”

“Zhaire’s a guy who transcends anybody else,” Texas Tech coach Chris Beard said in a recent interview. “It’s a huge compliment coming from Coach, and I understand it. I think he’s addressing his versatility and his overall game and his high ceiling and potential. But in my opinion, I don’t compare Zhaire to anybody. I think he’s special. I think he’s his own guy. He’s an elite defender at multiple positions. Offensively, he’s just getting started. You’re talking about a guy who didn’t really shoot threes in high school. Then he’s banging threes in the Elite Eight 11 months later.”

Beard was exaggerating there: At Texas Tech, Smith made 18 of the 40 three-pointers he attempted, including five of the nine he tried during the Red Raiders’ four NCAA tournament games. That’s not a large sample size. But then, if you want to stretch the comparison a bit further, Leonard was an atrocious three-point shooter in college. He made just 41 of the 164 — one out of four — he took over two years at San Diego State. Yet he has shot .383 during his seven-year NBA career, and Smith had a front-row seat for the second-most important shot that Leonard hit during the Raptors’ seven-game victory over the Sixers in the Eastern Conference semifinals: that late three-pointer he drilled, with Joel Embiid towering over him, that put Game 4 out of reach.

“I was really paying attention to him and learning his game, how slowly he played, really at his own pace,” Smith said in an interview Monday, after the first day of the Sixers’ summer-league minicamp. “I saw that, and it was exciting. But I can’t be no fan no more.”

He delivered that final line with an edge, with a confidence that suggested he doesn’t regard his age and inexperience as reasons to doubt his preparedness. “It’s always been like that, especially since college,” he said. “I didn’t want to be babied. I knew what to expect to win a championship. You already know what to do. They tell you what to do. You’ve just got to go do it, no matter how young you are.” Zhaire Smith turned 20 last month. The Sixers don’t have time to wait for him to get any older.