RE: Smoke from ESC, motor fault?
Get rid of the MicroDeans connector on the ESC and replace it with three female 3.5mm bullet connectors to match those on the motor. That MicroDeans wouldn't cope with the possible 20A-30A your motor might draw, and your ESC can deal with... so it needs to go.
Just unsolder the connectors you had on the dead ESC and use them to replace the MicroDeans.