According to the trainer of Stephen Curry, Dennis Smith Jr. of the Dallas Mavericks is a future All-Star and could be the next big thing.

As reported by Dalton Trigg of 247Sports, Brandon Payne — who has trained with two-time MVP and three-time world champion Curry since 2011 — believes Smith will be a future All-Star. Over the past few years, Curry has been his main focus. But Smith Jr. has caught his attention:

“When I’ve worked with Steph for so long, and Steph has been my primary focus, it would take a player that I truly believe in, like Dennis, to really get me to divide my attention a little bit,” he says. “And I truly believe that Dennis has the ability to be an All-Star basketball player in the NBA. I think that sometime in the relatively-soon future, that has the possibility of happening for him.”

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Payne pointed out several reasons why he believed Smith will be heralded as one of the league's superstars. Apart from his hyper-competitiveness — a trait he shares with Curry — Payne also noted Smith's willingness to learn more about the game. According to Payne, the 20-year-old is a quick learner:

“In learning the basics of what do, (Dennis) has done a great job,” Payne says. “He’s picked it up. I can call things out to him now and he can do it immediately. It’s hard to do, (because) we’ve only been doing this now for about a month and a half, and it’s been a little on and off just because of travel schedules. So, he has retained what he’s been taught, and that’s a really good sign.”

Smith averaged 15.2 points, 5.2 assists and 3.8 rebounds in 29.7 minutes per game as a rookie. He shot just 39.5 percent from the field and 31.3 percent on 3-pointers, but there is plenty of time for the 20-year-old to improve upon those numbers and reach the star potential Payne sees in him.