MM 2.11: Jalen Smith, Bruno Fernando moved at NBA trade deadline

On a day where plenty of organizations swapped around players and assets ahead of the 2022 NBA trade deadline, two former Maryland men’s basketball players found themselves on the move to a different team.

Jalen Smith and Bruno Fernando were both traded yesterday by the Phoenix Suns and Boston Celtics, respectively. Smith was traded with a future second-round pick to the Indiana Pacers for forward Torrey Craig. Then there’s Fernando, who was shipped from the Boston Celtics to the Houston Rockets in a trade that also involved guard Dennis Schroder. Both trade reports were from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Smith, who’s in the midst of his second NBA season and is a former first-round pick of the Suns, never really got it going statistically-wise in Phoenix due to an abundance of talented forwards ahead of him on the roster. The 6-foot-10 power forward saw an uptick in minutes this season, though, averaging 13.2 minutes per game. That’s just over a seven-minute increase of court time since his rookie season.

In 29 games in 2021-22, Smith is averaging six points and just shy under five rebounds per game. He's also shot the ball at a 46% clip from the floor this season.

Fernando has been with the Boston Celtics and averaged about three minutes per game in 20 games total. The big man is averaging one point per contest, over three points less than what Fernando averaged per game in his rookie season with the Atlanta Hawks.

The Rockets will be Fernando’s third NBA team since joining the league in the 2019-20 season.

In other news

Dylan Spilko wrote about Maryland men’s basketball’s loss to Iowa.

The Testudo Times Podcast released a new episode with Maryland men’s lacrosse beat reporter Emmett Siegel.

Ian Decker shared his three takeaways from No. 15 Maryland women’s basketball’s win over Wisconsin.

Maryland women’s basketball’s sophomore forward/guard Angel Reese was named a finalist for the Katrina McClain Award for the nation’s best power forward.

Maryland women’s lacrosse opens its season up on Saturday.

Maryland softball named four captains ahead of its 2022 season, which is set to begin on Friday.

Maryland men’s soccer revealed its 2022 signing class on Thursday.

Maryland football is sharing highlights of the program’s top plays from the 2021 season.