Why Jordan Smith, the No. 2 player in 2026, isn't the typical 5-star guard

New York Times

2 days ago

This is what is expected in grassroots basketball from a guard with a five-star rating: shots. Lots of them. Bordering on chucking. The inverse of this makes Jordan Smith Jr. stand out.
Smith, the second-ranked player in the 2026 class, does not care about numbers or shots.
'I really just want to win,' he said. 'I feel like if you win, you get anything you want … all the offers, all the gear, all the accolades.'
Advertisement
Smith, a 6-foot-2 guard from Washington, D.C., is the Class of 2026 player college coaches would most like to coach, a winner in our recent poll of 35 coaches at Peach Jam. Every coach has some version of the same answer.
'Winner.'
'Impacts winning at the highest level of anyone.'
'Toughest player I've ever seen play the game.'
This is why Smith's floor is so high as a college player. At worst, he is an elite role player who guards, rebounds, wins 50-50 balls and makes the simple play. He is a guy a coach can trust, which he proved at a high level this summer playing for the under-19 United States team that won gold at the World Cup. The 17-year-old was among four prep players to make the team, playing up in age division, and he was the only one of the four to start every game. He finished eighth on the team in scoring (8.4) but was near the top in the hustle categories — second in steals (2.0 per game) and third in blocked shots (0.7 per game).
On his Nike EYBL team, Team Takeover, he took on more of a scoring role, averaging 19.2 points per game, but his usage was lower than every other five-star on the Nike circuit but one.
'Man, there's something different about that guy,' Team Takeover teammate Carter Meadows said. 'He's special. If you ask any of our teammates, they'll all say the same thing: Jordan is the biggest competitor we know.'
The sport's heavy hitters are after him. Smith has offers from a long list of schools that includes Duke, Kentucky, Louisville and North Carolina. And the reason he's near the top of their wish list? A stat that is a point of pride for his father.
'Nobody,' Jordan Smith Sr. said, 'at the top of the class ever beat him.'
Smith's style of play is rooted in his upbringing. He grew up in the talent-rich DMV area, watching his dad play in pickup games and street ball tournaments. His dad didn't play beyond high school, but he played a similar brand of ball where he excelled on the defensive end and was a team-first guy. To his son, he always preached that defense wins.
Advertisement
Smith spent many weekends following his dad to the Joy Evans Therapeutic Recreation Center, where Smith Sr. works with special needs children and adults. It was there in pickup games at the gym open to the public that young Jordan started developing an edge to his game, playing against inner-city competition.
'They're not as good, but they're physical,' Smith Sr. said, 'like it's 'no blood, no foul' type of games.'
Smith started playing for the Team Takeover program in the second grade, and it became apparent that he was one of the best players in his age group when his father got a call from USA Basketball when Smith was in the eighth grade. His dad hung up on the first call. 'I thought it was a joke,' he said.
Smith, coming off a wrist injury in the summer of 2023, failed to make the U.S. under-16 team. He immediately called his trainer when he got home and got in the gym.
'It shaped me to be who I am now,' said Smith, who would win gold the next summer on the under-17 team and follow it up with another gold this summer at the U-19 level.
Motivated by getting cut initially, Smith worked on his weaknesses, mainly his jump shot. Smith has a lot of lift on his jumper and a high release, a technique that doesn't always translate to success beyond the arc. He struggled this summer from 3, shooting only 28.2 percent between the EYBL circuit and the World Cup, but his mid-range pull-up and turnaround have become reliable weapons.
Smith made 51.7 percent of his mid-range jumpers on the EYBL circuit, according to Synergy.
'I think he has NBA athleticism, as everybody knows,' his trainer, Ibn Muhammad, said. 'He defends at a very high level, as everyone knows. Everybody just wants to see if he can do this (motions shooting a ball) consistently.'
Smith is elite as a slasher as well, with the speed to get to the rim and the ability to finish with touch at full speed.
The focus this summer has been his playmaking, as he moved to point guard for Team Takeover after playing off the ball on the under-17 team last year next to North Carolina signee Derek Dixon. Smith is more of a combo guard — he played off the ball for Team USA — but proved he can play on the ball for Team Takeover with better than a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. His hope is to play point guard in college, but Smith is the type that will likely embrace whatever role he's given.
Advertisement
'He is the ultimate team player and leader,' said Meadows, his Team Takeover teammate. He's so encouraging. It feels a lot better playing with him, that's for sure. He does it the right way, too. He's not cocky, but he's confident.
'His intensity and the way he plays the game, when he goes all out, it makes everyone else move a little faster, play a little harder, just cause we're trying to keep up with him. He is 100 miles per hour for 32 minutes straight, no rest.'
Where Smith separates himself from his peers is his defensive tenacity and technical skills on that end. He rarely fouls (1.9 per game in EYBL play) because his fundamentals are near perfect, almost always closing out with the proper hand, keeping his chest in front of the ball, and usually only reaching for steals when he can do so without fouling.
'Some of it is innate talent and timing,' Team Takeover coach Jamill Jones said. 'He's strong. He's physical. He wants to touch you and he wants to make guys uncomfortable, right? We teach certain principles: high hand, high foot, don't run through the passing lanes. He buys into that. But I think the biggest thing is him embracing his identity. He doesn't run from who he is. A lot of guys in his position, all they wanna do is show I can make shots and I can score. No, I got the best matchup every night, and I'm okay with it.'
Smith projects as a defensive stopper at the college and NBA levels because he also has the tools. He makes up for his standing height with a long wingspan (6-9) and big, strong hands. During Peach Jam, he was the only player to finish in the top 10 in both steals (fifth at 2.4 per game) and blocks (seventh at 1.8).
'At 6-2, the impact he's having out there, you're not supposed to do that at that size,' Jones said. 'Basketball says you're not, and he's challenging all of those things.'
Last month at Peach Jam, Junior County, a 6-foot-4 four-star guard, drove past his man and Smith was at the right block waiting for him. Flat-footed, Smith jumped and blocked County's shot, grabbed the ball with three of the Utah Prospects ahead of him. Smith, ball in hand, raced past two of the three and had the third on his left hip running straight down the lane line. Dean Rueckert, a 6-foot-6 small forward, ran straight into Smith's left shoulder and hip, which would knock most players off their path. Smith continued straight down the line, finishing a wrong-footed running shot off the glass for an and-one.
Advertisement
One of Smith's coaches this summer at the U-19s, watching the game from the sideline, told a truth that seems like a fib: Smith has never lifted weights.
With Smith's body and athleticism, he looks like a player who could also dominate on a football field — he played running back, wide receiver and defensive end through the sixth grade. He looks like he's been chiseled by a strength coach, which is reason to bet on his upside once he's enrolled in college.
Everything has seemed to move quickly for Smith. He said it doesn't seem that long ago when he was watching some of the DMV's best players, like John Wall and Kevin Durant, play in the local Goodman League, or when he was at Peach Jam cheering on a Team Takeover group that was led by Hunter Dickinson and Jeremy Roach. Now Smith has played in both.
'They looked big, they looked stronger, they just looked better. I was like, I hope I get there one and then time flew and now I'm here,' Smith said. 'My mom says I'm taking her places that she never would have thought she would have been before.'
What's refreshing to everyone around Smith is he hasn't changed his game to fit any sort of prototype.
'Jordan's the most selfless kid you're gonna meet,' said Jones, a former college assistant who coached at Florida Gulf Coast, VCU, UCF and Wake Forest. 'To have that ranking next to his name, you would never know it. He bleeds whatever jersey he puts on. That's why I know wherever he goes to school, he's gonna give them an identity.'