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The Dallas Mavericks might just have scooped up the dark horse pick of this talent-filled NBA Draft, but it isn't the raw scoring instinct or the insane athleticism of No. 9 overall selection Dennis Smith Jr. that has the front office impressed, but rather simpler things like his character and demeanor, which he put on display during the pre-draft process.
A 6-foot-3 guard hailing out of North Carolina State, Smith found his footing rather quickly during the Las Vegas Summer League, leading the Mavs to a 5-1 run while averaging 17.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 2.2 steals per game during the stretch.
Smith was mired with questions about his inability to shoot the ball from deep and his immaturity, with many scouts claiming he was a coach's nightmare during his lone season at NCSU. Owner Mark Cuban would rather find out for himself.
Article Continues Below“You know, there’s a lot of stories that circulate throughout the summer or the spring as people get ready to draft and mock drafts, and there’s analysts, there’s scouts and there’s a million and one experts. But we have a great scouting department,” Cuban told Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com following the drafting of Smith back in June. “Dennis is someone we’ve had our eye on since we started scouting this class, and we’ve done a lot of work. We’ve talked to a lot of people. But of all the film and all the games we watched and all the people we talked to, the most impressive interview we had was when we talked directly to Dennis.”
Judging of character is a matter of perception in most cases, and it could very well be that this Mavericks organization is the right fit for him to bloom into the NBA player he can one day become — with some going as far as touting him as a dark horse pick for Rookie of the Year.
While Smith possesses a Steve Francis-like game with innate scoring instinct and explosive athletic ability, it'll be his character that is put to the test before anything else through the course of a long 82-game season.
“It’s amazing how you read things, and then when you actually sit down and talk to the person, or have our folks talk to him, the real person comes through,” said Cuban. “You know, as much as I can brag about his athletic abilities and his basketball abilities, it’s just who he is.”
“We have a team psychologist, Don Kalkstein, and he grills kids. You know, some of them crumble, but not Dennis. Dennis really stood up, and we found out who he really is. You know, that’s led to us being really, really excited. We were shocked when he fell to nine, and we think we got the steal of the draft.””
