Dallas Mavericks: 2017-18 player grades for Dennis Smith Jr.

Strengths

Dennis Smith Jr. was a hell of a floor general and it showed down the final stretch of the regular season. He didn’t play in the final game of the year, but if there were any doubts about his floor game, they should have been put to rest after the season he had.

Smith Jr. grew into his role as a volume shooter and given he’s the point guard, he has to find a balance between running the offense and finding his own shot. As a rookie, the biggest focus was finding his own shot. It improved over time as he shot 42.6 percent from the field while averaging 18.0 points and 5.8 assists per game in the month of March. While his numbers did improve, Dallas was 3-8 across the same span.

In Smith’s defense, he didn’t have much assistance from the organization with a solid big man, something they hope to solve in the 2018 NBA Draft. They took a gamble on Nerlens Noel and things just didn’t work out.

Smith is an explosive playmaker who can get to the rim whenever he wants. After all, he finished 13th in the NBA in scoring drives per game (12.7). He was 40.3 percent from the floor when driving to the basket in 2017-18. One thing he’s still learning to do is play without the basketball.