DENVER—The Denver Nuggets re-signed restricted free agent guard J.R. Smith to a multiyear contract on Friday.
“We’re extremely delighted to have J.R. back,” said Mark Warkentien, the team’s vice president of basketball operations. “His blend of off-the-charts-athleticism and long-range shooting ability is rare, especially for someone his age. We believe his best basketball is still to come.”
Smith, 22, bounced back from personal and professional travails last season to average 12.3 points in the regular season and 18.3 in the playoffs, going from coach George Karl’s doghouse to one of the Nuggets’ mainstays.
He set a career bests in field goal percentage (.461) and 3-point percentage (.403) and led the NBA in 3-pointers made per 48 minutes (5.3). Twice he tied the team record for 3-pointers in a quarter with seven.
And he set a team record for points (43) off the bench against Chicago on Feb. 22.
He had a solid postseason, quite a turnaround from a year earlier, when he was effectively kicked off the team late in the Nuggets’ opening-round loss to San Antonio. Later that summer, he was involved in an auto accident in which one of his friends was killed.
This summer, he was added to the U.S. select team that scrimmaged against the Olympic team in Las Vegas before the Beijing Games.
The 6-foot-6, 220-pound swingman was acquired from the Bulls in 2006 in exchange for Howard Eisley and two second-round draft picks. He was drafted by the New Orleans Hornets out of high school in 2004, the 18th overall pick.
