The 2018 NBA Manifesto
Dennis Smith Jr
PG - 6’3, 195lbs - 20 years old - 1 year of experience
Smith represents the first legitimate star prospect to come through Dallas for quite some time. All the struggles in recent seasons have not yielded high picks, until Smith. This thus conveys quite a level of expectation onto him to be the answer to the team’s recent moribund state. And this is not a level of expectation he played up to as a rookie.
The metrics across the page speak to the troubles that Smith had. As a scorer, he took a lot of jumpers, and missed a lot of jumpers; he did not fare much better on his non-dunk finishes at the rim, either, where he quite often got his shot attempts blocked. Notwithstanding his status as a point guard, Smith is largely a scorer by trade, and yet his shot making from every area needs to improve.
As a playmaker, Smith was given a lot of opportunities in pick-and-roll sets, but did not always make that good of decisions. He mostly wanted to prove himself as a scorer, with the aforementioned results, and he did show incisive passing vision at times, but the shoot/pass decision was not always right, and the defence was worse. Often in the wrong place, Smith compounded this by not always being ready to defend. To judge Smith on this past year’s performance alone is to see a pretty poor year.
That said, this is about the future, not the past. His athleticism is top level, his ability to create space with a tight handle similarly enviable, and the shot making will come. The defence and half-court nuance might come and need work, yet, but if nothing else this season, Dallas landed a prospect and gave him some on-the-job training. Now, he needs a good summer of drills to build on it.
Player Plan: Three years of rookie scale salary remaining. Keep and develop.
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PG - 6’3, 195lbs - 20 years old - 1 year of experience
Smith represents the first legitimate star prospect to come through Dallas for quite some time. All the struggles in recent seasons have not yielded high picks, until Smith. This thus conveys quite a level of expectation onto him to be the answer to the team’s recent moribund state. And this is not a level of expectation he played up to as a rookie.
The metrics across the page speak to the troubles that Smith had. As a scorer, he took a lot of jumpers, and missed a lot of jumpers; he did not fare much better on his non-dunk finishes at the rim, either, where he quite often got his shot attempts blocked. Notwithstanding his status as a point guard, Smith is largely a scorer by trade, and yet his shot making from every area needs to improve.
As a playmaker, Smith was given a lot of opportunities in pick-and-roll sets, but did not always make that good of decisions. He mostly wanted to prove himself as a scorer, with the aforementioned results, and he did show incisive passing vision at times, but the shoot/pass decision was not always right, and the defence was worse. Often in the wrong place, Smith compounded this by not always being ready to defend. To judge Smith on this past year’s performance alone is to see a pretty poor year.
That said, this is about the future, not the past. His athleticism is top level, his ability to create space with a tight handle similarly enviable, and the shot making will come. The defence and half-court nuance might come and need work, yet, but if nothing else this season, Dallas landed a prospect and gave him some on-the-job training. Now, he needs a good summer of drills to build on it.
Player Plan: Three years of rookie scale salary remaining. Keep and develop.
