Dennis Smith Jr. is burning brightly in his rookie season
By David Ramil
Dennis Smith Jr. can’t seem to escape time. This isn’t a philosophical conundrum but rather a contextual one. There’s the past — a team defined by nearly two decades of playoff success and a roster weighed down considerably by the average age of those who comprise it. There’s also the future, of which Smith Jr. — at just 19 years old — is certainly representative. The present is in the mix, too, although that’s hard to see with both other aspects, past and future, colliding during the course of this season.
But Mavericks assistant coach Darrell Armstrong is concerned with light, not time, as he walks through an empty arena the night before a game. Armstrong is putting Smith through the paces. It’s unusually quiet, with only the sounds of rubber, whether squeaking on shoes or dribbled on hardwood, echoing from the rafters. The lights, though, are at their full wattage, producing a glare that Smith, for all his prodigious talent, must still get used to.
“We come into the gym the night before, do some work and take it all in,” says Armstrong. “The lights are brighter. Everything is bigger. It’s important for him to get a feel for it.”
Armstrong is explaining the challenges Smith will face during his rookie season and the glare of 30 different arenas, while most pressing at that moment, is just one of them.
“He has to understand his role on the team and, most importantly, figure out how to work alongside everyone else,” says Armstrong, using the well-worn label of “quarterback” to sum up Smith’s point guard duties. When you consider that Armstrong spent 14 caffeine-and-candy fueled years in the NBA playing the same position, what might seem cliché from someone else comes across as imparted wisdom.
The expectations are that the rookie will someday be the face of the franchise. But he’s also got veteran teammates that need to stay happy until that day comes. “He’s gotta get the “Big German” the ball,” says Armstrong of Smith playing with future hall-of-famer Dirk Nowitzki. “He’s gotta get Wes [Matthews] and Harrison [Barnes] the ball. Everyone needs to get their shots and [Smith] has to make sure they do.”
That balance is the theme of Dallas’ season, a precarious tightrope in microcosm. There’s a culture shift in effect, one that manifests itself at the individual and organizational levels and, slowly, trickles down to a proud fanbase. There is, perhaps for the first time, a visible finish line to Nowitzki’s career. This season could be the last of his storied career and while he’s far too self-effacing to demand a farewell season as homage, he’s also far too accomplished — and able — to simply limp out into the sunset. He’s embraced a positional change that many never expected, playing a bulk of his minutes as the team’s de facto center. And while there will be moments where Nowitzki defers to the rookie Smith (as he did in Dallas’ one win thus far of the season), the “Big German” still needs more than the occasional touch of the ball.
Presiding over that difficult balance is head coach Rick Carlisle, widely accepted as one of the league’s best coaches while also considered a thankless taskmaster of the point guard position. Carlisle is seen as the primary reason why players who had thrived at the “quarterback” position, either before or after joining the Mavericks, have struggled in that same capacity. It’s a long list that includes Deron Williams, Jose Calderon, Darren Collison, Jameer Nelson and, perhaps most notably, Rajon Rondo.
But there’s also the likelihood that Carlisle’s impact has been overstated. While he’s made no bones of demanding a great deal of the position, some of those players were simply incapable of playing at a high level; their respective tenures in Dallas only served as proof while adding to Carlisle’s established narrative.
In Smith, however, we’re seeing positive signs that the relationship between coach and player will be mutually beneficial during this era of transition.
Smith was named the starter from the day he was drafted, Carlisle never reneged on that proclamation. The coach flew to the guard’s hometown in July, spending time with Smith’s family just weeks after his strong showing in Summer League play. And Carlisle has publicly praised the rookie’s patience, calm and understanding, as he did following Dallas’ win over the Memphis Grizzlies, when Smith led the way with 19 points and five assists.
Performances like that fuels the most stubborn among the team’s fan base, the fraction of the MFFL (Mavs Fan For Life) crowd refusing to accept the postseason isn’t a realistic possibility. The consensus among the majority is that Dallas’ long-postponed rebuild is long-past due. A team that has perennially restocked with aging veterans is desperately in need of an infusion of talented youth. Barnes’ addition in 2016 was a start, even if it was regarded as somewhat underwhelming. Smith’s addition kicks it into full gear.
But Smith’s dazzling athleticism provides an interesting counterbalance; after relying on Nowitzki’s slow, deliberate style for almost 20 years, Smith is like a cup of wine for a parched fanbase. Every tantalizing dunk — or even attempted dunk — whets the appetite for another deep, if ultimately futile, postseason run.
If there’s a harmony to be found, either from the displace jumble of time and the corresponding, misplaced loyalty it promotes, the first chords were struck last season when Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban admitted to doing “everything possible” to improve the team’s chances in the NBA draft. Set aside whether players actually tanked or not and consider that the effort, while falling short, most likely represents good fortune for Dallas. As the Mavericks jockeyed for improved position to acquire more-heralded players like Lonzo Ball or Markelle Fultz, Smith Jr. is the best possible consolation prize, a player who could legitimately become the best player in this class.
He finds himself in the perfect position to take over a team that has recently enjoyed championship success and has the same front office structure still in place to repeat that process, with Smith potentially at the helm. Smith’s slide to ninth in the draft was the spark that could reignite the Mavericks franchise.
Smith has the mindset to be great, devouring film, learning from each opportunity, and attacking the next game with the same relentless intensity with which he leaps toward the rim. A spark he may be but, in time, it has all the makings of a prescribed fire, guided by Carlisle’s watchful eye, to ensure its rage is controlled yet bringing new life to a forest that simply cannot grow any more.
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If “rage” and “controlled” seem antithetical, then the team’s paradoxical connection with time is further strengthened. Armstrong revels at Smith’s wealth of physical gifts, the tools that will shape the team’s future. “He has it all, physically, without a doubt,” says Armstrong as he sips from a cup of coffee that seems to always be at his side, before acknowledging that more work is needed before the fire can burn brightest.
When asked what Smith’s ceiling might be, Armstrong chuckles and points at the rafters, hung with echoes and wide-open expectations. “As high as he wants.”