Dallas Mavericks rookie Dennis Smith Jr. will face more than just a transition between the college game and the NBA game in his first year in the league, but also the commitment to playing both ends of the floor under head coach Rick Carlisle.
The North Carolina State product comes highly-touted for his offensive prowess and has even been mentioned as a potential dark horse candidate to win the Most Valuable Player award this upcoming season.
Though Carlisle is very much aware of the workload he'll have to put on his prized rookie from the get-go.
“This is a fact: There’s no player that comes into this that can be totally prepared to play defense in the NBA with the pace, the strength difference, the speed difference and all those kinds of things,” Carlisle told Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com. “But I think Dennis understands that staying on the court to do that means you’ve got to be strong in both areas.”
“It’s important to attack the guy that’s going to be attacking you at the other end, but you’ve got to be able to guard him, too. And you’ve got to have a system in place where your teammates can help you do that, so that’s going to be one of the biggest parts of his learning curve.”
The man at the helm maintained his confidence in Smith's innate offensive abilities, but warned that defense at this level is a beast of its own.
“You know, I expect the offensive stuff to happen pretty naturally just based on what I’ve seen on film, but NBA defense is a different metabolic situation,” Carlisle explained. “There’s a lot to learn, and he understands that.”
“You know, people are going to be coming at him hard as a rookie and as a guy that’s coming in with some accolades, some hype and things like that, and I think he understands it. I think he’s looking forward to that.”
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